Method and system for controlling delivery of information in a forum
View Patent ↗The present invention discloses a method and a corresponding system for controlling delivery of information in a forum. In the method ( 300 a, 300 b ) of the invention a user provides ( 306 ) the text of a new message to be submitted to the forum. The user then selects ( 315 ) every confidential portion of the text, and inputs ( 318 ) corresponding replacement information. A confidential version of the message (consisting of the original text) is made available ( 345, 351 ) only to a specific subset of the participants in the forum; a public version of the message, obtained substituting ( 366 ) the replacement information for the corresponding confidential portions of the original text, is made available to all the other participants.
1. A client computer for controlling delivery of information in a forum having a plurality of participants, the client computer comprises:
means for connecting to a server computer hosting a plurality of forums each having a respective plurality of participants;
means for providing a plurality of different versions of a message to a particular forum of the plurality of forums each one of different versions of the message for a corresponding set of the participants according to a privilege level of the corresponding set,
means for submitting the different versions of the message to the forum for causing the server computer to make available each version of the message to the corresponding set of the participants according to the privilege level of the corresponding set, and
a table comprising a forum identification record for each of the plurality of forums, wherein each forum identification record has stored therein a corresponding forum identifier and a corresponding list of privileged participants of a particular forum, wherein the list in each forum identification record is customizable by a user of the client computer.
2. The client computer according to claim 1 , wherein the means for providing a plurality of different versions of a message comprises:
means for inputting a message body;
means for selecting a portion of the message body as being privileged; and
means for inputting a replacement text message for the selected portion of the message body to form a message portion replacement.
3. The client computer according to claim 2 , further comprising:
means for retrieving a particular list of privileged participants from an associated forum identification record for the forum; and
means for transmitting (i) the particular list, (ii) the message body, and (iii) the message portion replacement to the server computer hosting the forum.
4. A computer program directly stored into a working memory of a client computer for controlling delivery of information in a forum having a plurality of participants, the computer program comprises:
instructions for connecting the client computer to a server computer hosting a plurality of forums each having a respective plurality of participants;
instructions for providing a plurality of different versions of a message to a particular forum of the plurality of forums each one of the different versions of the message for a corresponding set of the participants according to a privilege level of corresponding set,
instructions for submitting the different versions of the message to the forum for causing the server computer to make available each version of the message to the corresponding set of the participants according to the privilege level of the corresponding set, and
instructions for generating a table comprising a forum identification record for each of the plurality of forums, wherein each forum identification record has stored therein a corresponding forum identifier and a corresponding list of privileged participants of a particular forum, wherein the list in each forum identification record is customizable by a user of the client computer.
5. The computer program according to claim 4 , wherein the instructions for providing a plurality of different versions of a message comprises:
instructions for inputting a message body;
instructions for selecting a portion of the message body as being privileged; and
instructions for inputting a replacement text message for the selected portion of the message body to form a message portion replacement.
6. The computer program according to claim 5 , further comprising:
instructions for retrieving a particular list of privileged participants from an associated forum identification record for the forum; and
instructions for transmitting (i) the particular list, (ii) the message body, and (iii) the message portion replacement to the server computer hosting the forum.