One of the more intriguing features of this course website is its discussion forum. There you will find a number of "discussion threads" in which different people write about upon issues that arise during the course. A thread may begin with a question about what something in a course document means or about how to do something in the course. Or it may begin as a comment by someone about an interesting related fact or software package. Other people may then reply, continuing on until the natural course of the discussion eventually winds to a halt.

Now, it's hardly unusual for a website to feature a forum (also known as bulletin boards or discussion groups). What is unusual about this one is that the Forum is integrated with the course documents.