Internet Forum - Forum Structure - Post

A post is a user-submitted message enclosed into a block containing the user's details and the date and time it was submitted. Members are usually allowed to edit or delete their own posts. Posts are contained in threads, where they appear as boxes one after another. The first post starts the thread; this may be called the TS (thread starter) or OP (original post). Posts that follow in the thread are meant to continue discussion about that post, or respond to other replies; it is not uncommon for discussions to be derailed.

On Western forums, the classic way to show a member's own details (such as name and avatar) has been on the left side of the post, in a narrow column of fixed width, with the post controls located on the right, at the bottom of the main body, above the signature block. In more recent forum software implementations, the Asian style of displaying the members' details above the post has been copied.

Posts have an internal limit usually measured in characters. Often one is required to have a message of minimum length of 10 characters. There is always an upper limit but it is rarely reached – most boards have it at either 10,000, 20,000, 30,000, or 50,000 characters.

Most forums keep track of a user's postcount. The postcount is a measurement of how many posts a certain user has made. Users with higher postcounts are often considered more reputable than users with lower postcounts. Some forums have disabled postcounts in the hopes that doing so will reduce the emphasis on quantity over quality of information.

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Famous quotes containing the word post:

    Fear death?—to feel the fog in my throat,
    The mist in my face,
    When the snows begin, and the blasts denote
    I am nearing the place,
    The power of the night, the press of the storm,
    The post of the foe;
    Where he stands, the Arch Fear in a visible form,
    Yet the strong man must go:
    Robert Browning (1812–1889)

    I can forgive even that wrong of wrongs,
    Those undreamt accidents that have made me
    Seeing that Fame has perished this long while,
    Being but a part of ancient ceremony
    Notorious, till all my priceless things
    Are but a post the passing dogs defile.
    William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    A demanding stranger arrived one morning in a small town and asked a boy on the sidewalk of the main street, “Boy, where’s the post office?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Well, then, where might the drugstore be?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “How about a good cheap hotel?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Say, boy, you don’t know much, do you?”
    “No, sir, I sure don’t. But I ain’t lost.”
    William Harmon (b. 1938)