Patent Document ID: 7962555
Application ID: 11537074

Base Claim:
1. A computer-implemented method of discussion thread management performed by a computer system having at least one processor, comprising: enabling users to define user-defined tags and to associate said user defined tags with posts in a discussion thread; automatically generating system-generated tags, wherein said system-generated tags are determined by analyzing the contents of all posts in a sub-thread of said discussion thread, wherein said sub-thread is made up of a selected post in said discussion thread that is a root post of said sub-thread, posts that are replies to said root post of said sub-thread, and all posts contained in any other sub-threads having root posts located under said root post of said sub-thread; associating said system-generated tags with said selected post; enabling a moderator user to promote a number of said system-generated tags to moderator-promoted tags; and determining, responsive to said user-defined tags, said system-generated tags, and said moderator-promoted tags, whether said sub-thread is off-topic with respect to said discussion thread.

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Claim 6:
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein said determining whether said sub-thread is off-topic comprises: determining tag rankings of said user-defined tags, said system-generated tags, and said moderator-promoted tags; determining a conjunctiveness score of said selected post with respect to its parent topic post in said discussion thread responsive to tags associated with said selected post, said parent topic post and said tag rankings; and determining that said sub-thread is off-topic in the event that said conjunctiveness score is below a predetermined threshold.