Blogs

[hytechpro]

Hey, wanted to know the difference between blogs and forums. They appear to me as preety much same.

Thanks.

[seobook]

blogs typically emphasise the voice of one main writer or a small group of writers

forums are more free for all

generally forums make far more content, but typically of a lower content quality

[rogerd]

Seobook posted a nice summary. I think blogs and forums each have their own purpose.

If you want to emphasize the opinions or other writings of one author (or a small number of authors), a blog gives prominence to that person or persons. Others can post comments on a blog entry, but these comments are often on another page. Generally, only the author(s) can initiate a new topic.

Forums are much more democratic, in that everyone's posts appear to be equally important. Anyone with posting rights can start a new topic. As Seobook notes, sometimes the free-wheeling nature of forums results in lower quality content - forums are more likely to tend toward chit-chat or bickering. At the same time, they can produce a great interplay of ideas when smart people interact with each other in a thread. Look at some of the better threads here, for example - they end up being more valuable than any one participant's contributions.

For building a community, I think forums are the way to go. Blogs are more likely to develop "regular readers" than involved community members. Forums are, however, much higher maintenance than blogs. In their early days, they take a lot of work to get conversation started and sustained; when they get popular, they take lots of moderation to maintain a trouble-free community.