AVATAR - This is a profile picture
Forums - The categories stuff is stored in
Threads/Discussions - A single thread or discussion topic consisting of multiple posts/messages
Posts/Messages - The items that make up a thread.
Example:
Avatar - My picture on my post, is set to the WLSurgery icon.
This Forum is the "Technical Support", it contains Threads of different topics like this one to help members with issues or tell members of features they may not be aware of.
This thread, on how a forum works, consists of many posts. This is the first post of this thread.
The an example of the front page(contains more content than the screenshot): https://wlsurgery.com

Contains all the forums, which are organized into Categories. For example the Diaries Category contains all the different Forums relating to Diaries.
An example of Threads in the diaries section(https://www.wlsurgery.com/forums/wls-diaries.166/):

Each one of these Threads is an individuals diary. Members may have more than one diary, like a general day to day diary and a food diary.
Here is an example of 2 posts from this diary(https://www.wlsurgery.com/threads/my-operation-day-today.160909/#post-2886815).

These posts make up the content of a thread.
So to compare it to Facebook.
You normally just post a status update on Facebook, think of this as the first post of a thread. Your Friends on Facebook then reply to you, think of these reply's as posts on your thread you just created.
The only extra requirement of a Forum is for you to first categorize your first post. Is this a Diary? Does it belong within the tech support forum? Is it just general chit chat(https://www.wlsurgery.com/forums/chit-chat.221/) and so on and so forth.
The reason for Forums, is to make it easier for everybody to find information. Can you imagine if we didn't have Forums? People looking for RNY(https://www.wlsurgery.com/forums/wls-gastric-bypass-rny.231/) would be searching for threads mashed with Gastric Sleeve (https://www.wlsurgery.com/forums/wls-gastric-sleeve.238/), which would be mashed with off topic chit chat, it would be so disorganized.
Forums - The categories stuff is stored in
Threads/Discussions - A single thread or discussion topic consisting of multiple posts/messages
Posts/Messages - The items that make up a thread.
Example:
Avatar - My picture on my post, is set to the WLSurgery icon.
This Forum is the "Technical Support", it contains Threads of different topics like this one to help members with issues or tell members of features they may not be aware of.
This thread, on how a forum works, consists of many posts. This is the first post of this thread.
The an example of the front page(contains more content than the screenshot): https://wlsurgery.com

Contains all the forums, which are organized into Categories. For example the Diaries Category contains all the different Forums relating to Diaries.
An example of Threads in the diaries section(https://www.wlsurgery.com/forums/wls-diaries.166/):

Each one of these Threads is an individuals diary. Members may have more than one diary, like a general day to day diary and a food diary.
Here is an example of 2 posts from this diary(https://www.wlsurgery.com/threads/my-operation-day-today.160909/#post-2886815).

These posts make up the content of a thread.
So to compare it to Facebook.
You normally just post a status update on Facebook, think of this as the first post of a thread. Your Friends on Facebook then reply to you, think of these reply's as posts on your thread you just created.
The only extra requirement of a Forum is for you to first categorize your first post. Is this a Diary? Does it belong within the tech support forum? Is it just general chit chat(https://www.wlsurgery.com/forums/chit-chat.221/) and so on and so forth.
The reason for Forums, is to make it easier for everybody to find information. Can you imagine if we didn't have Forums? People looking for RNY(https://www.wlsurgery.com/forums/wls-gastric-bypass-rny.231/) would be searching for threads mashed with Gastric Sleeve (https://www.wlsurgery.com/forums/wls-gastric-sleeve.238/), which would be mashed with off topic chit chat, it would be so disorganized.