Hi all, I want to take this opportunity to put together some of my experience or views here, about the Forums. More like, the importance of forums or why we require forums in a web site. After sharing my previous blog Why Should I Blog?, I was searching for the next topic, now came up with one. So here it is and let's begin.

The definition of Forum is very much easier and simpler here, we can say that a Forum is a message board or a discussion area, where people can post their questions and get answers or replies from others. But it's more than that; Forums are like a platform used to communicate between two or groups of people by which they can exchange their thoughts and knowledge. It is not just a technical or fun forum where we can share only technical stuff or jokes.

I have been here with the Mindcracker community for a long time now, I spend most of my time in the Forums section only. My forums activity comes around 80%. Here we have various categories where members can post a query or thread. Listed below are some of the examples, most of them are old forum threads, but still these threads are open and active so any member can post a reply. So, enjoy reading.

Career: http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/Forums/Thread/94044/career.aspx
Prizes: http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/Forums/Thread/96675/prizes-shipped.aspx

What Sports Team Do You Like: http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/Forums/Thread/97383/what-sports-team-do-you-like.aspx

Side Effects: http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/Forums/Thread/98109/side-effects-of-working-too-much-these-are-real-life-anec.aspx

Shortest Joke Ever: http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/Forums/Thread/101241/shortest-joke-ever.aspx

So we can post here anything good, that should not hurt our community and others. Remember, the Mindcracker community is a good team keeping an eye on each and every thread posted.

When I joined the forums, Sam, MC, Frogleg, Alan a.k.a, Vulpes and so on were the top active members here, responding to each and every thread. It was a great experience with them; still they are the top contributors. I got many opportunities and time to learn things from them, these guys have great experience. They came from C and C++ era. These members approach and give a reply or answer to a thread is entirely different from others.

Sam will ask for clarification of a thread and try to answer that thread after clarification. Some members won't like this approach but I will say this will help that person to rethink or put more effort into studying and identifying the problem he or she is facing. On the other hand Frogleg and Vulpes like to provide proper and full answers with sample code, that most of the members like. Frogleg is best in VB.net, some of his replies include the exact code or project that the post requires. This means that they just dive into those real-time scenarios and creating the entire code and help us. This is a very good advantage here for members to learn from these experienced people.

Forums are a good platform for newcomers or beginners and those endeavoring to learn things and seek help building their careers. I joined ASP.Net forums during my initial career and participated for nearly 5 years in those forums and now am an "All Star member" (ASP.Net recognition). But that doesn't matter because if you are treating that platform to learn and share then never go for points. It's more than gaining points, it's about sharing your knowledge and learning something new every day, because forums are places where we will get real-life time scenarios and the answers to those questions.

I am sure this was one of the reasons why Mahesh and the team coined a new name for Forum, in other words ANSWERS.

There are some guidelines before posting or replying to a thread that you must follow.

Must Read: http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/forums/MustRead.aspx

And also remember every time to submit a thread as "Answer" or "Mark as Answer", because this will help other members to find the answers easily.

Thank you all!