Patent ID: 8135848

Claim:
A method of spreading a message in an online system of one or more server computers comprising: users registering with the online system and such users henceforth referred as members; allowing only said members to send and receive messages in the online system; receiving a message and an associated comment from a member of the online system; the member henceforth referred as the author; receiving a request from the author to show the message and the author's comment to one or more other members of the online system; assigning a unique identifier to the message; maintaining a single copy of the message in the online system; showing the message and the author's comment to members identified in the request; and allowing all members of said online system to view the message including members not identified in the request; recording and showing cumulative metrics on actions taken by each member related to said message including the number of times the message was shown; and restricting members not indentified in the request from viewing the author's comment.