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Timeline for Are Stack Exchange sites forums?

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Jan 29, 2021 at 14:00 comment added drkvogel It seems to me that the motivation behind the "SE is not a forum" thinking is to remind people that SE is not like other fora - well, I think we get that; and that is driven by concern that if people somehow think that SE is like other fora, they will somehow misuse it and break the discussion model. But how could that happen? The software enforces it! (And the moderators, and the community). So that I think that SE is, broadly, a forum, by most accepted definitions of what "a forum" is, and that fears that using that noun to describe will somehow break its essence are unfounded.
Jan 29, 2021 at 13:55 comment added drkvogel It may not be the same as other fora, but it is "a place where ideas and views can be exchanged" and "a place where issues (questions) are discussed", even if the thread model is different. Given that there is currently no noun for exactly what SE and that "forum" seems to be the closest existing noun to describe it, I don't think you can expect people not to describe it as a forum - and "forum" even seems to be a good match given your definitions!
Jan 29, 2021 at 13:46 comment added drkvogel If it's not a forum, then what is it?
Oct 27, 2019 at 21:06 comment added curiousguy I'm pretty sure the comment section under an answer is a forum. Not a general purpose anything goes one, but that's like 99% of forums on the Web. They all have rules.
Jan 25, 2019 at 5:46 comment added Ed Grimm I would not say that I prefer the stack exchange Q&A format over discussion forums, but they each have their place, and this is not the place for forum discussions. By keeping the concepts separate, one can know where to go when wants to discuss, and know where to go when one wants a quick answer.
Mar 1, 2018 at 19:19 history edited user102937 CC BY-SA 3.0
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Oct 8, 2016 at 5:25 comment added Domino There should be a slideshow of this very post that you have to sit through before completing the subscription process to this site. I feel like in the last six months, all I've done here is flagging duplicates and dispatching bad questions.
May 16, 2015 at 23:16 history edited Robert CartainoStaffMod CC BY-SA 3.0
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Oct 1, 2014 at 3:46 history edited bfavaretto CC BY-SA 3.0
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Aug 7, 2014 at 15:05 history edited Robert CartainoStaffMod CC BY-SA 3.0
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Aug 7, 2014 at 6:59 history edited This_is_NOT_a_forum CC BY-SA 3.0
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Apr 5, 2014 at 12:34 comment added JMCF125 @LightnessRacesinOrbit, but instead of answering or discussing a lot about what has been discussed, you can mark and close questions as duplicates. Forums don't usually have that available to non-moderators, if at all.
Apr 23, 2013 at 16:46 comment added Lightness Races in Orbit What inevitably happens is that long-time users get tired of the new users asking the same old questions. For the record, that happens here too.
Jun 7, 2012 at 15:37 history wiki removed Adam LearStaffMod
May 20, 2011 at 20:42 history edited Robert CartainoStaffMod CC BY-SA 3.0
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May 20, 2011 at 20:36 history answered Robert CartainoStaffMod CC BY-SA 3.0