Asynchronous Threaded Discussion Forums

It's About Time: Synchronous and Asynchronous Communication

The Web lets you communicate either synchronously (at the same time) or asynchronously (not at the same time).

A telephone call is synchronous; the parties are talking to each other at the same time. Leaving a voice-mail message is asynchronous; each party can send or receive the message at any time.

Synchronous vs Asynchronous
Exercise: Correctly label the following kinds of communication.
(Hint - use [spacebar] to close the feedback popups.)

Which is better?

Deciding whether synchronous and asynchronous is better for any given message depends on your need. Synchronous communication is immediate. Asynchronous communication is often more convenient.

Exercise: Choose the method that is best suited to the communication need.

	Synchronous	Asynchronous
You have a medical emergency.
You need help installing software.
You want to tell friends in another state some happy news.
You want to respond to a classmate's research report.

Who can read your message?
When you send an asynchronous message, who can read it? That depends where and how you send the message. Personal messages such as letters, email, or voicemail are usually considered private. No one else is supposed to be able to read them. (Note that employers typically have the right to read any email sent to or from the office.) Because email is easily intercepted, though, many individuals use encryption to help keep their messages private.

[ Wittenburg CastleChurch Door ] Other kinds of messages are quite public. For example, messages sent to Internet "Usenet" discussion groups can be read by anyone anywhere in the world.
Perhaps the most famous public message was posted in 1517, when a priest named Martin Luther posted a list of 95 discussion topics on the door of the castle chapel in Wittenburg, Germany.
The debate that followed led to the Protestant Reformation.

Of course, most discussion groups don't change the world. And except for Usenet, most are only open to people who subscribe to them. For example, most online college courses contain a discussion forum where students post their research papers and discuss the class assignments. The messages in those forums can only be read by the instructor and the other students in the class.

Exercise - Public or private?

You often have a choice about how to respond to a message. For example, most discussion board systems let you easily send an email to the author of a message, rather than replying to the board. The same applies to many listserves as well.

For each situation, select the best way to respond.

You disagree with the theoretical basis of a classmate's post.

Email the author
Email the list
Post to the discussion board

You believe a person's discussion board posting to be culturally insensitive.

Email the author
Email the list
Post to the discussion board

You notice a spelling or grammatical error in a discussion board posting.

Email the author
Email the list
Post to the discussion board

Forums, discussions, threads, messages, and replies
Let's look at an example. Imagine a band called Kickback. They've released two albums, "Gone Fishin'" and "Daydream," and toured the US and Canada. Like many modern bands, their fans communicate on a bulletin board (see below).

There are several discussion threads going at any time, with people replying to each other’s messages. For example, Jim and Jerry like the new "Gone Fishin'" album, while Bruce has a very different opinion. Jim and Jerry's conversation (shown in yellow) is called a thread. Bruce and Barbara have a thread going, shown here in orange. Notice that their conversation is beginning to drift away from the original topic - that happens a lot, so watch out for it.

Both threads are part of a discussion about one particular album. Together, the discussions make up a forum about all the band's albums. The whole collection of forums, discussions, threads, messages, and replies is the band's discussion board.

Fair warning - different discussion-board systems often use different terms, so don't get hung up on the words. Just remember that they all have the same kind of structure, and you should be able to figure out almost any system.


Forum: Albums
	Discussion: Gone Fishin'
		Topic: Great album! I love Gone Fishin' - it reminds me of childhood summer days on the riverbank... Jim	Topic: RE: Great album! Me too - the acoustic arrangements of those old rock classics really take me back... Jerry

		Topic: Gone Fishin stinks! I think Gone Fishin' stinks! For crying out loud - "Smoke on the Water" with banjos ??? Bruce	Topic: RE: Gone Fishin stinks! Oh, grow up, Bruce. Where's your sense of humor? Betty	Topic: Sense of humor (was RE: Gone Fishin stinks!) I have a sense of humor, thank you very much. I also have a sense of propriety. And some songs were never meant to be arranged for banjo! Bruce

	Discussion: Daydream
		Topic: Daydream Daydream is a very cool album Bruce	Topic: Daydream IMO Daydream is boring and uninspired - just a bunch of twiddling around Jim

Forum: Tours
	Discussion: US Tour

	Discussion: Canadian Tour

Threads, Messages, etc.
This image is what a typical discussion looks like in CourseInfo. Note how the levels of indents show the relationships between the messages.

[ [ Kickback album discussion] ]

Exercise

Exercise: Referring to the band's discussion board above, answer the following questions:

The exchange between Bruce and Betty is best described as a:

Forum
Message
Reply
Thread

Messages about the band's concerts would be found in a:

Forum
Message
Reply
Thread

	Synchronous	Asynchronous
Face-to-face conversation
Bulletin board
Email
Voice message
Pager
Cell phone
Letter
Internet "chat"