Patent Document ID: 9058387
Application ID: 11113808

Base Claim:
1. A computer-implemented method of a forum for an adversarial discussion, the method comprising: accepting a first statement from a topic author, wherein the first statement is labeled as an assumption statement on a first computer, creating a topic layout based on file first statement on the first computer, the topic layout representing the basis for an adversarial discussion; allowing the topic author to add one or more secondary statements on the first computer, wherein a secondary statement can support the first statement, and if the first statement is an assumption statement, then relabeling the first statement from an assumption statement to a conclusion statement; enabling a plurality of users using a plurality of computer users to independently critique the first statement or the one or more secondary statements and enabling the topic author to rebut said critiques wherein revisioning is required upon a limited structure thereby preventing digression wherein every critique is made against only a single said statement of the original topic; allowing the topic author to create said topic layout on the first computer wherein the topic layout displays in a visual tree structure the explicit relationships among the one or more secondary statements and the first statement, thereby enabling adversarial online discussions without a moderator and facilitating the plurality of users and the topic author to succinctly define th0ir own positions, and wherein the first computer and the plurality of computers communicate over a network; and displaying one or more statements of disagreement by the plurality of users and excluding from view a plurality of extraneous earlier revisions of statements by the plurality of users made in identifying the one or more statements of disagreement, thereby allowing said plurality of computer users to make a contribution to the discussion that can not be hidden by repetitive rebuttals, therefore decreasing a noise-to-content ratio while automatically restricting the display depth of all content to a maximum of 3 levels, topic statement, critique and rebuttal and since said statements of disagreement are made on the fixed said topic each user can fully contribute to the discussion without having their contribution hidden as happens in time based messaging systems.

---

Claim 7:
7. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein enabling a plurality of users to react to the first statement or to the one or more secondary statements further comprises enabling a specific group of users of the plurality of users to collectively react to the first statement or to the one or more secondary statements such that the specific group of users can provide a group reaction to a statement.