This paper treats the interfaces of on-line forums. The effectiveness of this kind of interfaces depends on their ability to represent and define the communicative situation where people converse and interact. The paper start from some key questions (i.e. hypermediacy and transparency in media communication) and the definition of communicative characteristic of this kind of interfaces. Three of the most important Italian web portals will then be analysed: "Kataweb", "Corriere della Sera" and "Virgilio".