The Fray (Internet forum)
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The Fray is the collective name for online magazine Slate.com's user forums. Established in 1996, 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 is associated.
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.
Some forums associated with discontinued or retooled Slate features continue to thrive despite the decrease in traffic. Among these "orphan" frays is 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 writers to hone their skills.
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[edit] Significance
The Fray opened for business in early 1996 and surpassed 15 million posts on 2005-06-30. Although reader forums are now commonplace.
The Fray may also have contributed to Slate's survival during the dot-com meltdown, primarily by keeping circulation high enough to encourage Slate founding editor Michael Kinsley and his patron, Bill Gates, to persist in the experiment until the magazine began turning a profit.
[edit] Notable participants
Instapundit proprietor Glenn Reynolds is probably the most recognizable Fray alumnus, having achieved fame as a conservative blogger. BTC News proprietor Weldon Berger was the second blogger to enjoy a White House press room presence[1] (behind MediaBistro's Garrett Graff[2]), while another Fray regular, BTC News White House correspondent Eric Brewer, became the only blogger to ask questions of White House press secretary Scott McClellan.
[edit] Navigation
In 2007, the Fray underwent a significant overhaul, improving its navigation and threading.
