Gossper is unlike a typical forum in a number of ways. For starters, it allows any registered user (registration is free) to create sub-forums on any topic in any placeholder. The creator is automatically assigned as the first moderator of this new forum.

Unlike other forums, Gossper supports individual discussion membership. This allows you to start three kinds of discussion threads: private, public, and public secret. A private discussion will only be visible to its members and only they can post to it. A public discussion is visible to everyone on the net and all registered users can contribute to it. A public secret discussion conceals its members' identities when viewed by a non-member. Use this feature to gather honest feedback, to publish the findings of your group without infringing on its privacy, or to express your true opinion about anyone or anything.

Here in Gossper, the creator of a discussion enjoys special powers: he or she can invite new members, kick out existing ones, and approve users who wish to become members of a public secret discussion. If you "forget" to invite anyone to a private thread, that would be a soliloquy. If you don't invite anyone to a "public secret," that would be an anonymous public confession or rant. If you do decide to let others in on the fun, simply list their emails or usernames if they're already site members. Gossper will automatically send out invites. Current members will see an unobtrusive invitation in their discussion manager tab. Non-registered users will get an email.

The powerful and user-friendly discussion manager is another unique feature of this site. Any thread you are a member of, or have subscribed to or flagged as a favorite, will automatically appear in your homepage's forum tab. You can use your thread manager to monitor the status of your membership requests, see the latest posts, change subscriptions and favorites. If you and another user are members of the same thread, you will be able to visit the homepage of that user and see all the discussions that the two of you share.

When starting a discussion thread, a user will be prompted to attach two (optional) URL's. One of them will turn the discussion title into a link. The other option is much more interesting: it will create a webpage snapshot of the target in its current state and embed it into the discussion. This feature can be put to a good use in various social commentaries and virtual classroom environments. Generally speaking, it can be used to carry over any conversation that started elsewhere. Chances are that the snapshot will persist long after the content of the actual page has changed.

To make the act of posting fun, Gossper employs a modified version of the free graphical text editor TinyMCE. It allows you to share links, images, and soon videos, easily. Veterans of the forum circuit will still be able to use boardcode to enhance their presentation.

Superficially, Gossper is similar to most forums. If you have prior experience with forum sites, you can skip to the next section.

A forum site enables multiple users to communicate in threads while preserving an online record of the conversation. Normally, a thread is accessible by anyone on the web, which makes forums ideal for reaching out to a like-minded Internet community.

Threads are composed of individual posts. The subject of the first post is also the apparent subject of the thread. You can reply to any existing post or use the quote button to include some or all of the post you are responding to. You can also edit your own posts at a later time.

Forums are usually subject specific, and the same applies to individual threads. If you wish to start a thread, make sure you are posting in the most relevant category and that your subject line signals the actual contents of your post. You can ask a question if you're in trouble or discuss any topic of interest if you are not. You can publish and exchange files and images.

There are two ways to keep track of the threads in which you are interested. One is to mark them as favorite and the other is to subscribe to them. A favorite thread usually appears in your forum profile page for easy access. Subscription means that the forum site will notify you by email every time a new post appears.

A typical forum site has multiple sub-forums, each with a specific focus. These sub-forums are organized in a tree structure: think of each forum as a folder and of threads as individual files.

Moderators are special users assigned to help insure that a forum is properly organized and that its population is well-behaved. They usually have the ability to move threads from one forum to another, showcase them or lock them as they see fit.