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                     The Forum OSID defines threaded diiscussion groups 
                    managing a set of posts and replies.   
                     Posts  
                    
                     A  Post  is an  OsidObject  
                    that defines some text, a timestamp, and a poster.   
                     Replies  
                    
                     A  Reply  is similar to a  Post 
                     but is in response to either a  Post  
                    or another  Reply.  A  Reply  is 
                    a  Containable  making directly accessible 
                    any nested  Replies  outside of the session. 
                      
                     Posters  
                    
                     An  Agent  posts to a  Forum 
                     or an  Agent  replies to a  
                    Post.  The relationship between the  Agent 
                     and its associated  Resource  is 
                    orchestrated within the Forum OSID.  Posts  
                    and  Replies  reveal both the posting  
                    Agent  and the associated poster  Resource. 
                       
                     Forum Catalogs  
                    
                     Forums represent collections of  Posts.  
                    Forums may be created through federation or by selecting 
                     Posts  based on their attributes to create a 
                    virtual catalog of Posts.  Replies  are 
                    always associated with their  Posts  and may 
                    not be cataloged independently.   
                     Sub Packages  
                    
                     The Forum OSID contains a Forum Batch OSID for 
                    managing  Posts  and  Replies  
                    in bulk.  
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