Patent ID: 8412679

Claim:
A method for identifying obsolete discussion threads in a forum, comprising: extracting a plurality of keywords from a discussion thread, wherein the discussion thread comprises a plurality of postings posted by a plurality of users; assigning a keyword score to each of the plurality of keywords from the discussion thread; identifying a change event issued by a government entity, wherein the change event is a change to a legal requirement that affects a topic of the forum; extracting a keyword from a website presenting the change to the legal requirement, wherein the website is separate from the forum; comparing the keyword from the website with the plurality of keywords from the discussion thread to identify a matching keyword in the plurality of keywords; reducing, by a constant amount, the keyword score of the matching keyword to a reduced score based on the matching keyword matching the keyword from the website; aggregating the keyword score assigned to each of the plurality of keywords to obtain a total score for the discussion thread, wherein aggregating comprises using the reduced score for the matching keyword; and displaying a warning on a user interface comprising the discussion thread when the total score is below a first pre-specified threshold.