Message boards can generate high visits and page views from a core group of site visitors, but they also generate quite a few headaches.

Also known as forums, message boards come in two flavors: moderated and unmoderated. Moderated boards usually have a moderator who guides the direction of the discussion and sometimes even reviews the posting before it can go live. Unmoderated boards allow anyone to post anything.

People often get tired of setting up yet another account for another site with another pair of logins and passwords They also are leary of privacy and security issues, nor do they like someone reviewing or possibly editing their comments before they go live.

For those reasons, moderated boards have high quality posts, but they attract relatively few users and postings. They also are strong on credibility.

The total freedom of unmoderated boards attracts a much higher number of users, postings and page views. But everything from spam to swearing, insults, threats and libelous comments can appear there. The common practice for webmasters with unmoderated boards is to remove inappropriate postings if brought to their attention, but by that time they have caused some damage with loyal and well-behaved users. They may also trigger lawsuits.

In addition, advertisers have no interest in being associated with boards that could damage their reputation, and the boards themselves typically reach a small number of highly active users who love a good fight.

There has been a noteworthy decline in unmoderated message boards among Web sites, especially large commercial Web sites, over the last several years because of the trouble they bring.

Any webmaster considering message boards should focus on moderated boards and leave the risky, unmoderated ones to small sites that thrive on controversy.