A textboard is a simple kind of internet forum

Internet forum

An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...

 that does not require registration. While popular in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, they remain relatively unknown outside of it, in contrast to imageboard

Imageboard

An imageboard or image board is a type of Internet forum that revolves around the posting of images. The first imageboards were created in Japan, and many English-language imageboards today are centered around Japanese culture...

s (such as 4chan

4chan

4chan is an English-language imageboard website. Launched on October 1, 2003, its boards were originally used for the posting of pictures and discussion of manga and anime...

).

Features

One of the key differences between textboards and traditional forums is that textboards allow users to post without registration, and often encourage anonymous discussion. The founder of 2channel

2channel

is a Japanese textboard. In 2007 there were 2.5 million posts made every day. Launched in 1999, it has gained significant influence in Japanese society, comparable to that of traditional mass media such as television, radio, and magazines. As of 2008, the site generates revenue upwards of ¥100...

, Hiroyuki Nishimura

Hiroyuki Nishimura

is the founder and a former administrator of the most accessed Japanese message board site 2channel. He currently holds a position of Director at Niwango Inc., known for its service Nico Nico Douga.In Japan, he is usually known by his given name, Hiroyuki....

, says the philosophy behind anonymous posting is that "anonymous posting is good because it means that „all information is treated equally; only an accurate argument will work”." Many textboards support a form of pseudo-registration by allowing users to use tripcode

Tripcode

A tripcode is a means of telecommunication authentication that does not require registration. Tripcodes are most often used in 2channel-style message boards or Futaba Channel-style imageboards...

s, although users tend to post anonymously.

Textboards also tend to be much simpler than traditional forums. While forums software such as phpBB

PhpBB

phpBB is a popular Internet forum package written in the PHP scripting language. The name "phpBB" is an abbreviation of PHP Bulletin Board...

 or vBulletin

VBulletin

vBulletin is a proprietary Internet forum software produced by Jelsoft Enterprises and vBulletin Solutions, both subsidiaries of Internet Brands. It is written in PHP and uses a MySQL database server.-History:...

 support image or other media embedding, private messaging, polls, and various other features, textboards only allow the posting of text.

Notable textboards

• Ayashii World - Introduced anonymous posting
• 2channel
  2channel
  is a Japanese textboard. In 2007 there were 2.5 million posts made every day. Launched in 1999, it has gained significant influence in Japanese society, comparable to that of traditional mass media such as television, radio, and magazines. As of 2008, the site generates revenue upwards of ¥100...
  
   - Largest forum in Japan, receiving millions of posts a day
• Futaba Channel
  Futaba Channel
  , or Futaba for short, is an internet forum in Japan. It is a popular Japanese imageboard dealing in otaku and underground culture.-Origin:Futaba Channel was set up on August 30, 2001, as a refuge for 2channel users when 2channel was in danger of shutting down...
  
   - Created imageboards, inspired by textboards