The Fray (Internet forum)

The Fray is the collective name for online magazine pioneer Slate.com's user forums. Established in 1998, The Fray consists of roughly 150 distinct forums, most of which are associated with regular or occasional Slate features. In theory each forum serves as an arena for discussion of current stories from the feature desk ("department," in Slate parlance) with which it's associated.

Related Topics:
Slate.com's - Forums

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Fray may have been the first reader forum to provide content for its parent publication; posts from the forums are sometimes appended to their parent stories, and posters have on at least one occasion been tapped to participate in the semi-regular "Breakfast Table" feature. Forum moderation is handled by the Fray Editor, who writes a regular front page feature, "Fraywatch," which brings the best of recent Fray activity to the fore. The position has been held by British journalist Moira Redmond and film historian and critic J.D. Connor; Kevin Arnovitz holds the job at the time of this writing.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Some forums associated with discontinued or retooled Slate features exist in a sort of ghost world, separated from their raison d'etre but often continuing to thrive despite and in some instances because of the decrease in traffic. Among these "orphan" frays is the one which inspired this particular exercise in collective narcissism: The Best of the Fray. Affectionally known as "BoTF," the forum was once associated with what became the "Fraywatch" feature, and serves as a vehicle for good writers and thinkers to hone their skills at the expense of bad ones, and as a focal point for the public introspection and psychodrama that informs the Fray and other online forums.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~