User forum technology builds communities, increases interactivity and grows traffic.

User forum technology provides the readership of a publication with a place where they can express their own opinions and interact with other users. Forums have become increasingly important within online publishing because they help publishers build up loyal communities of readers and help them discover more about the markets they are serving. Many publications that were initially concerned about their potential legal position in regards to libelous posts made by readers have now had their fears allayed, or are manually moderating content, and the technology is very widely deployed.

Integrated User Forums

The basic user forum technology that System 7 provides is derived from an ongoing open source project that was initiated by the Microsoft .NET team (see http://www.asp.net/Forums/). At the time of writing this is the only System 7 technology that involves third party development, but it has been selected because it provides publishers with the very best functionality, performance and scalability in the industry.

System 7 publishers can integrate this technology directly into the framework of their publications. This is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, while users are inside forums, they still have direct access to the publication's channel bar, menu and other facilities and advertising content remains visible. However, it is also important for another reason.

Forums within System 7 publications are spidered by search engines just like editorial and other content. This means that each post users make becomes a potential "doorway" to a publication on search engines such as Google and AltaVista. By integrating user forums directly into the main framework of publications, System 7 ensures that when new users are referred to posts by search engines it is very easy for them to transition into the rest of the publication and drive traffic statistics higher.

Micro-forums Attached to Content

Maximizing interactivity is key to the success of online publications. Interactivity makes publications more compelling, and increases the number of page views driving advertising revenues higher. Publishers using System 7 can increase the interactivity of their publication by configuring types of content, such as "news articles", that should have their own individual micro-forums automatically attached.

System 7 micro-forums are minature user forums that are attached to individual items of content, which provides the context for an initial thread of discussion. For example, if a publication has micro-forums turned on, a "Talk Back" button might be displayed at the top of news articles. If this is pressed, this navigates the user to the micro-forum at the bottom of the article, where users can express their opinions on the subject tackled or reported. Moderation and other administration facilities are available, just as with normal user forums.