So I had my first day of college today and for my first piece of work I need to create a project on a subject that interests me. So I chose to discuss my knowledge on internet forums. Note, I have not finished, and I was only writing about the two main forums, in my eyes anyway. FK and HF. But out of respect I have deleted most of the information about HF, unless I'm aloud to put it in. Also note, this would look a lot better if the pastebin saved the userbars and award icons. I can always add them later anyway. So let me know what you think, criticism is obviously necessary and kind words are appreciated. Only if they're honest though.
http://www.forumkorner.com/index.php www.hackforums.net
I will use my own knowledge of using internet forums for my research as I go on internet forums daily, so I understand how they work. I will share other people’s opinions on them, including my own. The forums I will be analyzing are ‘ForumKorner’, ‘HackForums’ and forums in general.
The main purpose of forums was originally based on people communicating over the internet. That is still their main purpose, although, they have made a name for themselves through their ‘Marketplace’. This is a way for people to sell virtual items over the internet. For example, Instagram accounts, Xbox accounts, Snapchat accounts. Of course with dealing over the internet there are always risks, and people are often scammed out of their money.
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A list of some of the interesting discussion sections (ForumKorner):
• Philosophy and Debates
• Innuendo
• Life Support
• Anime
• Health & Fitness
• Gaming
• Graphics
• Computing
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Usergroups (ForumKorner)
A few examples of group userbars:
Groups are based on five things.
• Name
• Description
• User-bar
• User-title
• Members
The names of groups tend to be common words, or words with meaning. For example: ‘Love’, ‘Elite’, Glorious, Evolve, Misery, and Supreme.
The ways to join groups tend to be on recruitment threads of which you get a set of requirements of which you must meet in order to apply. Some groups are different however, and use a buy-in method. Of which you must pay a certain amount of money to get into the group. Some groups are set as invite only, meaning you cannot apply to join the group, or you will be put on blacklist, meaning you won’t be able to apply to join the group for a certain amount of time, based on how long the owner pleases.
http://www.forumkorner.com/forum-46.html http://www.forumkorner.com/thread-220244.html
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Upgrades (ForumKorner)
http://www.forumkorner.com/upgrade.php
Onyx : Cost a total of $18, no requirements what so ever. You gain a list of privileges, the main interests for the upgrade are the group userbar and the award you get for becoming an Onyx member.
- The award you obtain through joining. The userbar you obtain:
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Power : You must have the $10 donator award and the Onyx upgrade in order to obtain this, as well as paying a total of $20. You gain an even bigger list of privileges, including a custom award, and another userbar.
- The award you obtain through joining. The userbar you obtain:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Power+ : You must pay $25 and have a various amount of requirements to get into this group, including Power membership, Master Donator, 500+ reputation, 0% warning level, 1000+ posts, and 1 month online time. These requirements are not set in stone. Philly (the admin) often lets people in that don’t meet the requirements, as the members who get in are at his sole discretion, and his alone. You obtain an even bigger list of privileges, including the group award and userbar.
- The award you obtain through joining. The userbar you obtain:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Awards (ForumKorner)
A few example of Awards only used by the owner of the site:
There’s many different types of awards, here are some listed below:
- Obtained through owning your own usergroup.
- Unspecified how to obtain, it’s an award given to friends, known as a ‘Personal Award’.
- An award earned through posting a certain amount of times on another forum.
- This is earned through getting your thread stuck by the admin, not gained through a purchased sticky.
- An award obtained through sending $5 or 5 Koins to the owner, commonly known as a ‘buy-in’.
- Earned through making a tutorial thread, a basic guide that helps people out.
http://www.forumkorner.com/myawards.php
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Reputation System (ForumKorner)
Reputation is basically what people think of you. People with a high amount of reputation are considered trustworthy and loyal; where as a person with lots of negative reputation is seen as the opposite. Although, reputation can be misleading, some members tend to give members reputation for no reason or a small reason, which can be seen as rep4rep, which is frowned upon by many users. Asking for reputation is against the rules and can get you permanently banned from the forum.
The community often respects members that use correct punctuation and grammar, there’s a few members that always talk with integrity and knowledge, these members are the ones I tend to respect. Some people don’t mind however. And just like to meet new people, no matter what their English skills are like.
The list of how much reputation a user can give out, determined by their latest upgrade:
• Onyx: +/- 5 reputation points.
• Power: +/-10 reputation points.
• Power+: +/-15 reputation points.
• Investors: +/- 25 reputation points.
• Mod/Staff: +/-50 reputation points.
• Admin: +/- 1000 reputation points.
http://www.forumkorner.com/misc.php?action=help&hid=9
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marketplace
The marketplace is an absolutely massive part of both forums. ForumKorner is known for having the top ‘OG’ stuff. These things are known as ‘Original’ names. For example, ‘God’, ‘Death’ and ‘King’. You see many people with usernames like ‘King123’, because they cannot use the word ‘King’ as it’s already taken. On these websites such usernames are available. There are OG usernames posted many times a day, and stat accounts. These accounts are seen as rare and valuable, alike to the OG usernames. Examples of stat accounts: an Instagram with 100k legitimate followers, a snapchat with 25k story views, these kinds of things.
There can be middlemen used, which is when an individual will secure the payment for the account, and the account. Then once he secures both, he sends them to both people participating in the deal. Of course, there are always concerns when dealing in the marketplace, which is why you must always be very careful and very smart with whom you deal with. If you have been scammed or feel as if you were scammed by another member, you post it in the ‘scammers bay’ section, for the staff team to decide whether or not the scam report is legit. If it’s found legit, the person in questions will be banned, sometimes until he pays the user back, and sometimes for life.
You must be a member to view the scammer’s bay and the social mediums section on ForumKorner.
Internet Forums
http://www.forumkorner.com/index.php www.hackforums.net
I will use my own knowledge of using internet forums for my research as I go on internet forums daily, so I understand how they work. I will share other people’s opinions on them, including my own. The forums I will be analyzing are ‘ForumKorner’, ‘HackForums’ and forums in general.
The main purpose of forums was originally based on people communicating over the internet. That is still their main purpose, although, they have made a name for themselves through their ‘Marketplace’. This is a way for people to sell virtual items over the internet. For example, Instagram accounts, Xbox accounts, Snapchat accounts. Of course with dealing over the internet there are always risks, and people are often scammed out of their money.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A list of some of the interesting discussion sections (ForumKorner):
• Philosophy and Debates
• Innuendo
• Life Support
• Anime
• Health & Fitness
• Gaming
• Graphics
• Computing
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Usergroups (ForumKorner)
A few examples of group userbars:
Groups are based on five things.
• Name
• Description
• User-bar
• User-title
• Members
The names of groups tend to be common words, or words with meaning. For example: ‘Love’, ‘Elite’, Glorious, Evolve, Misery, and Supreme.
The ways to join groups tend to be on recruitment threads of which you get a set of requirements of which you must meet in order to apply. Some groups are different however, and use a buy-in method. Of which you must pay a certain amount of money to get into the group. Some groups are set as invite only, meaning you cannot apply to join the group, or you will be put on blacklist, meaning you won’t be able to apply to join the group for a certain amount of time, based on how long the owner pleases.
http://www.forumkorner.com/forum-46.html http://www.forumkorner.com/thread-220244.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Upgrades (ForumKorner)
http://www.forumkorner.com/upgrade.php
Onyx : Cost a total of $18, no requirements what so ever. You gain a list of privileges, the main interests for the upgrade are the group userbar and the award you get for becoming an Onyx member.
- The award you obtain through joining. The userbar you obtain:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Power : You must have the $10 donator award and the Onyx upgrade in order to obtain this, as well as paying a total of $20. You gain an even bigger list of privileges, including a custom award, and another userbar.
- The award you obtain through joining. The userbar you obtain:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Power+ : You must pay $25 and have a various amount of requirements to get into this group, including Power membership, Master Donator, 500+ reputation, 0% warning level, 1000+ posts, and 1 month online time. These requirements are not set in stone. Philly (the admin) often lets people in that don’t meet the requirements, as the members who get in are at his sole discretion, and his alone. You obtain an even bigger list of privileges, including the group award and userbar.
- The award you obtain through joining. The userbar you obtain:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Awards (ForumKorner)
A few example of Awards only used by the owner of the site:
There’s many different types of awards, here are some listed below:
- Obtained through owning your own usergroup.
- Unspecified how to obtain, it’s an award given to friends, known as a ‘Personal Award’.
- An award earned through posting a certain amount of times on another forum.
- This is earned through getting your thread stuck by the admin, not gained through a purchased sticky.
- An award obtained through sending $5 or 5 Koins to the owner, commonly known as a ‘buy-in’.
- Earned through making a tutorial thread, a basic guide that helps people out.
http://www.forumkorner.com/myawards.php
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reputation System (ForumKorner)
Reputation is basically what people think of you. People with a high amount of reputation are considered trustworthy and loyal; where as a person with lots of negative reputation is seen as the opposite. Although, reputation can be misleading, some members tend to give members reputation for no reason or a small reason, which can be seen as rep4rep, which is frowned upon by many users. Asking for reputation is against the rules and can get you permanently banned from the forum.
The community often respects members that use correct punctuation and grammar, there’s a few members that always talk with integrity and knowledge, these members are the ones I tend to respect. Some people don’t mind however. And just like to meet new people, no matter what their English skills are like.
The list of how much reputation a user can give out, determined by their latest upgrade:
• Onyx: +/- 5 reputation points.
• Power: +/-10 reputation points.
• Power+: +/-15 reputation points.
• Investors: +/- 25 reputation points.
• Mod/Staff: +/-50 reputation points.
• Admin: +/- 1000 reputation points.
http://www.forumkorner.com/misc.php?action=help&hid=9
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marketplace
The marketplace is an absolutely massive part of both forums. ForumKorner is known for having the top ‘OG’ stuff. These things are known as ‘Original’ names. For example, ‘God’, ‘Death’ and ‘King’. You see many people with usernames like ‘King123’, because they cannot use the word ‘King’ as it’s already taken. On these websites such usernames are available. There are OG usernames posted many times a day, and stat accounts. These accounts are seen as rare and valuable, alike to the OG usernames. Examples of stat accounts: an Instagram with 100k legitimate followers, a snapchat with 25k story views, these kinds of things.
There can be middlemen used, which is when an individual will secure the payment for the account, and the account. Then once he secures both, he sends them to both people participating in the deal. Of course, there are always concerns when dealing in the marketplace, which is why you must always be very careful and very smart with whom you deal with. If you have been scammed or feel as if you were scammed by another member, you post it in the ‘scammers bay’ section, for the staff team to decide whether or not the scam report is legit. If it’s found legit, the person in questions will be banned, sometimes until he pays the user back, and sometimes for life.
You must be a member to view the scammer’s bay and the social mediums section on ForumKorner.