A forum can be considered the equivalent of a self contained Bulliten board system. Its got all the facilities of most of the BBS's I've been on. Its divided up in to three distinct areas...
The message board is where you would leave or read one or more message(s). You can address messages to a specific person (which allows CompuServe to notify that person that a message awaits them as soon as that person enters the forum) or just to everyone. The message board in a forum is further divided up into Sections.
A section is just a vague topic category to help you figure out where to find a message, or where to post one. Right now forums can have up to 23 sections defined in their forum.
The message board is usually the most active part of a forum. Your message is visible to everyone who wants to read it and can be replied to if they so desire. I think its the most used part of most forums because its a way of having a group conversation about something without having to worry about schedules. I post a message and go on about my business. Someone else interested in the same topic may read my message whenever its convenient for them. If they are interested, they might post a reply to me and go on about their business. When I come back I'll see that their is a message waiting for me and be able to go read it.
All of which leads me to some message board terms people ask about
This one confuses a lot of folks. I get maybe two or three people asking where their message disappeared to becasue they can't see it anymore.
The other reason that peoples messages disappear. (and in this case they really so, instead of being temporarily hidden by your HMN).
A Forum on CompuServe has a defined number of "slots" that they are allocated for messages. As soon as that maximum number of slots is reached, the message board starts to scroll. That means that the oldest message on the board is erased to make room for the newest. (if the oldest message is (a) addressed to a specific person, and (b) not read by that person yet, its sent to their mailbox rather than just being erased)
The amount of time it takes a single message to go from being the newest message on the board to scrolling off as the oldest message it called the Scroll Rate.
The Library Area is where you would upload or download a file.
Like the message area, the library area is sub-divided into vague topic areas. Unlike the message area, these are just called libraries (which leads to surprisingly little confusion becaue people are almost never talking about the library area in total and almost always talking about a specific library in a forum).
The most confused terms in libraries...
This is always moving a file from your machine to another machine. It doesn't matter if the other machine is bigger or smaller than your machine and it doesn't matter where (geographically) that other machine is. Uploading is always sending a file away from your computer.
As you might guess, this always means moving a file from a remote machine to your machine.
I've never heard the historical reason that a file is moving up in the world if its going away from you, and coming down in the world if its coming to you, but I do have an opinion.
While neither is especially difficult, getting a file that you know is perfectly find sent to another machine, no matter what your software can often be more difficult than download a file.
I think uploading is up because its a uphill battle ;-)
For many people, this is the most exciting area of a forum. Its immediate, its fun, its spontanious, and its informative.
Like the other two areas, the Conference area is sub-divided into vague topics, in this case called Rooms. A Conference room is an area you can go and talk with other people that happen to be in that room.
Its immediate because whatever you type is transmitted to everyone else in the room as soon as you hit the enter key. (Just think how it would be if they saw every character as you typed! Typo city.).
This can also be intimidating for some people because they don't type all that fast or well. Tip: type short lines and use ellipses (...) to tell folks you're still typing.
It may still take you 30 seconds to get a whole coherent thought out, but at least you've kept your audiance interested by letting them see the thought as it forms rather than just having 30 seconds of dead air.
The frustrating part of Conference Rooms for many people is finding someone to talk to. Since CompuServe is billed on an per-hour of use basis, talking in a conference room is the most expensive way to communicate on CompuServe. Your best bet if you want to find people to talk to is to check a forum's conference schedule. That way you should have people to talk to, and the time should be much better spent.