Finding Online Forums
Online forums are fairly easy to find these days. Just type in a keyword (like “cartoons”) and the word “forum” into a Google search. However, there are some websites that are particularly good at helping you find a variety of forums on your topic.
Google Groups contains the archives of the venerable Usenet, the oldest and most extensive system of online forums. Google is now giving users the option of creating their own discussion boards as well.
The Open Directory project is a human-edited directory of the Web, constructed and maintained by volunteer editors. Type “forums” into the search box, adding a keyword if you like.
Chiff.com is another Web directory, with a focus on the business community. This link takes you to their page of forum links.
ForumZilla is a new service devoted to finding forums. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to list very many of them yet...
Yahoo Groups is chock full of forums, but most require that you register before you can even read postings. Many are limited to members of the group.
Link to PDF file of online forum evaluation form.