Up until a few months ago, I was not really familiar with the benefits of participating in forums that are starting to pop up on many company, community, and special interest websites. I belong to a few professional organizations that have an open forum for members on their website, but other than skimming over some eye catching topics, I never took the time to actually read and respond to other member's posts.
Recently I started to seek out websites that have forums relevant to my business or special interests. I began to read some threads, which are basically a topic starter, and the posts that follow, which are a response to that thread. Once you are registered in the forum, you can add your own threads and posts to any of the listed topics. While the majority of the information contained in a forum revolves around people's opinions, you can still learn quite a bit from actively participating in them. If you are looking for information on a particular topic, you can add your question as a thread and then see what kind of answers you receive back.
Some of the benefits I have personally derived from business oriented forums are links to websites and organizations that I never knew existed, advice on a particular issue, and feedback on my theories and opinions that I expressed in my own threads.
There are also many social forums out there on just about any subject imaginable. They provide a great place to exchange experiences with other people who share your same interests.
While every forum may be a little different in nature, they all work on the same basic premise, an exchange of information and ideas. As long as you remember that for the most part people are expressing opinions, not facts you should still be able to use them as a valid resource for obtaining information.
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