Managing an ephemeral post in a social networking system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016134582-A1
Application number	US-201615001089-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 19, 2016
Priority date	Mar 15, 2013
Publication date	May 12, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method of posting ephemeral posts is disclosed. The method starts with receiving, from a user of a social network, a request to post an ephemeral post, the request including an ephemeral variable associated with a threshold event. The ephemeral post is posted on behalf of the user. Then an occurrence of the threshold event is monitored. When the threshold event has not occurred, the post is allowed to be accessible to at least one viewer other than the user. When the threshold event has occurred, the post is blocked from being accessible by the at least one view other than the user.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
receiving, from a first user of a social network, a request to publish an ephemeral post; publishing the ephemeral post to the social network on behalf of the first user; detecting the occurrence of a first threshold event; and converting the ephemeral post to a non-ephemeral post in response to the occurrence of the first threshold event.

2 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the first threshold event is a number of one or more user interactions with the ephemeral post since the publishing.

3 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
allowing the ephemeral post to be accessible to one or more viewers other than the first user when a second threshold event has not occurred; and blocking the ephemeral post from being accessible by the one or more viewers other than the first user when the second threshold event has occurred.

4 . The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , wherein the blocking the ephemeral post is not permanent, the method further comprising:
receiving a request to revive the ephemeral post after the ephemeral post has been blocked.

5 . The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , wherein the first user is able to access the post after the blocking of the ephemeral post.

6 . The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , wherein the second threshold event is an expiration of a time period for viewing set by an ephemeral variable.

7 . The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the user sets the ephemeral variable.

8 . The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the ephemeral variable is to be associated with a future ephemeral post, the method further comprising:
adjusting the ephemeral variable based upon a time period between creation of the published ephemeral post and an occurrence of the second threshold event.

9 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the ephemeral post includes at least one of a visual and an audio indication of its ephemeral nature to distinguish it from other post types of the social network.

10 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the request to publish an ephemeral post includes a user modifying an existing non-ephemeral post into the ephemeral post.

11 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored therein, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method, the method comprising:
receiving, from a first user of a social network, a request to publish an ephemeral post; publishing the ephemeral post to the social network on behalf of the first user; detecting the occurrence of a first threshold event; and converting the ephemeral post to a non-ephemeral post in response to the occurrence of the first threshold event.

12 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the first threshold event is a number of one or more user interactions with the ephemeral post since the publishing.

13 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , further comprising:
allowing the ephemeral post to be accessible to one or more viewers other than the first user when a second threshold event has not occurred; and blocking the ephemeral post from being accessible by the one or more viewers other than the first user when the second threshold event has occurred and the first threshold event has not occurred.

14 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein the blocking the ephemeral post is not permanent, the method further comprising:
receiving a request to revive the ephemeral post after the ephemeral post has been blocked.

15 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein the first user is able to access the post after the blocking of the ephemeral post.

16 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein the second threshold event is an expiration of a time period for viewing set by an ephemeral variable.

17 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the ephemeral variable is to be associated with a future ephemeral post, the method further comprising:
adjusting the ephemeral variable based upon a time period between creation of the published ephemeral post and an occurrence of the second threshold event.

18 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the ephemeral post includes at least one of a visual and an audio indication of its ephemeral nature to distinguish it from other post types of the social network.

19 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the request to publish an ephemeral post includes a user modifying an existing non-ephemeral post into the ephemeral post.

20 . An apparatus comprising:
a processing device; and a memory coupled to the processing device, the memory storing instructions which, when executed by the processing device, cause the apparatus to:
receive, from a first user of a social network, a request to publish an ephemeral post;
publish the ephemeral post to the social network on behalf of the first user;
detect the occurrence of a first threshold event; and
convert the ephemeral post to a non-ephemeral post in response to the occurrence of the first threshold event.

Assignees

• Facebook Inc

Inventors

• Rubinstein Yigal Dan
• Koolwal Aditya
• Deeter Ken Taro
• Markov Sergey
• Frankowski Karl

Classifications

• G06Q10/40 Primary

  Business processes related to social networking or social networking services · CPC title

• G06F3/04847

  Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials · CPC title

• H04W4/21

  for social networking applications · CPC title

• H04L63/108

  when the policy decisions are valid for a limited amount of time · CPC title

• H04L65/403

  Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences (data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15) · CPC title