Is fora the plural of forum?

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

I’m curious. Without naming names, as that might get us into slippery territory with the forum policies about not using this forum to promote other forums, I wondered what other TYPES of forums some of you belong to?

I belong to:

This group of forums (fora?)

A Milwaukee Road forum

A local, Wisconsin railroad forum

A National sprintcar racing forum

A local, dirt track racing forum.

I no longer belong to our local TV and newspaper forums, as those have turned really ugly.

What other TYPES of forums do you belong to?

2

I belong to:

another couple of Railfan forii (hee hee hee),

a Home Machinist forum,

a couple of Garden RR forii

a Movie/TV database forum,

a Dodge Intrepid forum,

a food vendor forum,

I do not consider myself to have “joined” any TV/newspaper forii, but I have made postings and comments to news stories where I had to supply a user name and other “personal” (I prevaricated somewhat) info.

a national Poll company forum

A software development company forum.

3

1 local newspaper forum

1 national mostly business-oriented newspaper

1 forum of a nationwide radio network that’s publicly and membership financed

1 canoe/ kayak club forum

1 surveying forum

2 general engineering-related forums

1 ‘green building’ forum

1 mortgage and finance forum

1 Norfolk Southern oriented forum

1 general railroad-employee forum

1 Altoona - Johnstown/ Horse Shoe Curve forum

  • Paul North.
4

Not fora, fori!

5

What exactly is a home machinist? [%-)]

6

In the Latin I learned, “fori” would be a masculine plural, and the singular would have had to be “forus”.

Forum is neuter, hence “fora” is the correct plural form.

However, I’m going to say that “forum” has been Anglicized to such a degree that “forums” is perfectly acceptable.

And as for that, just count this one, Trainorders.com, and Facebook as the ones I actively participate in. You lucky people!

7

Uh… somebody that machines homes? [:o)]

I am NOT a “Machinist” in any way, shape or form, but I have a small metal working shop in my dungeon. I have a lathe, mill, drill press, power hacksaw and a set of hand-tools for working with metals.

I obtain perfectly good scraps of brass and aluminium from various sources, and using my best efforts with my machining tools, I am proud to say that I turn those bits and bobs of scrap brass and aluminium into totally useless scraps of brass and aluminium.

When I got into the hobby of ruining scrap hunks of metal, I had a fantasy that I would wittle a small Live Steam Locomotive from it all, but I have found that it is much faster, easier (not to mention, safer) and more eccologically sound as well as cheaper energy-wise, to just take the bits and bobs from my fresh stock-piles of metal and toss them directly into the swarf bin in one quick motion.

8

The PenTurners Paradise, a Canadian wood turning forum.

WoodWork Australia, a wood working forum where a lot of my overseas buddies show off their work.

IPA, International Pen Turners Association,

Dodge Challenger/LX forum.

Sky Watch.

NASA

NRA Rifleman.

Gulf Coast Wood Turners Association, (as a tech geek on wood lathes)

UTU.com

Reptiles.com

9

Other than the TRAINS and Classic Trains forums,

A CPR History forum, and

A CPR in southern British Columbia forum.

Bruce

10

Besides some of the other Trains.com (Model Railroader and Classic Trains) forums,

Another Railfan orientated forum.

One more orientated towards railroad employees, but with a fair number of railfans, too.

Two Rock Island groups, although one isn’t too active.

Railroad operations for model railroads.

Train Dispatching.

Iowa Interstate RR

Three local area railfan groups: Eastern Iowa, Central Iowa and Western Iowa/Eastern Nebraska.

Some of these I read more than post to. Some are via E-mail groups and my delete button gets a lot of use.[(-D]

Jeff

11

Hey Jeff, What train dispatchers forum? I’d like to check that out, whats the addy. PM me if you want. Thanks.

12

Well, I belong to the Feather River Museum forum but only check it out once or twice a month, it’s kind of a slow one.

I also am on a cable tv forum for work related stuff, the cable bar.

But the 2 forums I frequent the most are this one and socalrailfan forum.

13

Forums is good plain English. Fora looks like a typo of flora. Back in the day it was a different story. Here’s an excerpt from the translation of L’Histoire des Empereurs des Romains by Jean Baptiste Louis Crévier (1693-1765), printed in London in MDCCLXI.

http://books.google.com/books?id=4bBjAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA25#v=onepage&q&f=true

The Roman Fora were commonly about three times as long as they were broad. The whole compass of the Forum was surrounded with arched porticos, only some passages being left for places of entrance. Their situation was, generally, so contrived that some of the most stately edifices such as temples, theatres, basilicae, &c. stood round, or near them.

They were of two sorts, Fora Civilia and Fora Venalia. The former were designed for the ornaments of the city, and for the use of public courts of justice; the others, like our markets, were intended for the convenience of the people.

Of the Fora Civilia there were five considerable in Rome, viz.

Augustus’s Forum, built by Augustus Caesar, and reckoned by Pliny among the wonders of the city. The most remarkable curiosity was the statues in the two porticos on each side of the main building. In one, were all the Latin kings, beginning with Aeneas; in the other, all the kings of Rome, beginning with Romulus; most of the eminent persons in the commonwealth, and Augustus himself among the rest; with an inscription upon the pedestal of every statue expressing the chief actions and exploits of the person it represented. This Forum was restored by the emperor Adrian.

Caesar’s, or the Julian Forum, built by Julius Caesar, with the spoils taken in the Gallic war. It’s area alone, Suetonius tells us, "cost a hundred thousand sesterces; and Dio affirms it to have much exceeded the Roman Forum.

Nerva’s Forum, b

14

Besides here, I’m somewhat active on the local Wisconsin forum you mentioned, murph, and also of course on Facebook. I also monitor the Iowa-related Yahoo groups (CRANDIC, INRR, Eastern Iowa, IAIS, UP, and BNSF), but very seldom will post anything to them.

15

Another railroad forum.

Several fire-related fora.

Facebook.

a Local “web board.” That one can get pretty intense at times - it’s pretty free-flowing.

With three email accounts, too, I stay busy enough on-line.

16

[#offtopic] Reading what wanswheel / Mike posted about the Roman fora, I was impressed by the their industriousness, civic investments - albeit a lot of it ‘captured’, it seems - as well as the scholarship in that explanantion, and Mike’s research in posting it.

But jeez, the thought that kept running through my head was that old saying or inscription supposedly on an Egyptian pyramiD or something of the sort -

''This too shall pass. . . ‘’.

  • Paul North.
17

Let’s decline it. It’s neuter.

forum fori foro forum foro

fora fororum foris fora foris

Fora would be the plural, but for plural possessive, instead of “fororum” we would more comfortably say “of the fora.”

18

Is the entire catagory of belonging to forums called forumdum? One stewardess is called a stewardess, but two are called stewardi, and the entire lot of stewardi are refered to as stewardum. Forumdum seems the right word for the entire lot of forumi.

19

Most of the time you would need to add a “b” to the end of that… Forumdumb.