Forums vs. Blogs

I do not intend to compare forums against blogs and say which one is better over the other. Each of them serves specific needs of readers and hence both have regular followers which may differ depending on the kind of audience a certain forum or blog caters to. My real intention on this blog is to describe the two as channels for exchanging ideas and opinions on topics at hand.

If you are a member in a web forum you can start a topic on a category where such setting is allowed by the site administrator. You will be called a TS (thread starter) if you start a topic on the forum. You need not have any basic knowledge of the subject you opened. It could even be a question asking for a solution to the problem you are encountering.

Any forum member can post his reply, comment or suggestion on the subject. As thread starter of a question seeking solution to the problem, you must post that the problem is already solved when you already found one. That should signal the end of discussions about your topic. In all cases. your reactions to posts on the topic you started is likewise expected.

A blog works differently as compared to a forum. Only the blogger (in some cases, there are guest blog writers) who owns the site is allowed to start a topic on which he has knowledge of. You, as a reader, are allowed to inquire about, comment on and/or complement any information in the blog. You may also request for a topic to be discussed subject to the blogger’s acceptance and approval.

Your comments, suggestions and other replies to a forum topic are normally posted immediately although it is the right of the moderator to censor posts in accordance with the forum rules and regulations.

It is different on a blog. The blogger can have the setting where he must read your comment first before it is allowed to be posted. Here in my weblog, only your first comment or response undergoes my approval before it gets posted. Your succeeding posts will immediately show on the page but I still reserve the right to recall them when necessary.

One big difference between the two is this. Unless you are the forum owner, you will not earn a single centavo on the topics and ideas you post in it. In a weblog, you have the chance to earn dollars if you will do good as the blogger. Of course, you will also have to spend for the hosting if your blog is not hosted on a free site.