53. A method for tracking message activity levels in a plurality of electronic discussion forums, comprising: storing a series of topics in a database, wherein each of the electronic discussion forums is associated with a topic from the series of topics; collecting messages from the plurality of electronic discussion forums; computing with a processor numerical relevance scores of the messages, wherein at least one of the numerical relevance scores is computed based on the associated topic for a source forum of a collected message, and wherein each of the numerical relevance scores rates the relevance of the corresponding collected message to the topic on a numerical scale and wherein each of the numerical relevance scores is determined based on a set of rules, the rules having a plurality of conditions defining information relevant to the associated topic and having an associated weighting to indicate the strength a particular condition should have in determining the relevance of the messages with respect to the associated topic; extracting a pseudonym author of at least one collected message to track a plurality of pseudonyms; computing a numerical influence score for the extracted pseudonym author; storing a report in a tangible memory regarding, at least in part, the topic, wherein a report output is based upon, at least in part, at least one of the numerical relevance scores and at least one of the numerical influence scores; and computing a numerical buzz score for a topic or group of topics from the series of topics, wherein the numerical buzz score is a measure of a level of activity within one or more of the electronic discussion forums and the report output is further based upon, at least in part, the numerical buzz score.
53. A method for tracking message activity levels in a plurality of electronic discussion forums, comprising: storing a series of topics in a database, wherein each of the electronic discussion forums is associated with a topic from the series of topics; collecting messages from the plurality of electronic discussion forums; computing with a processor numerical relevance scores of the messages, wherein at least one of the numerical relevance scores is computed based on the associated topic for a source forum of a collected message, and wherein each of the numerical relevance scores rates the relevance of the corresponding collected message to the topic on a numerical scale and wherein each of the numerical relevance scores is determined based on a set of rules, the rules having a plurality of conditions defining information relevant to the associated topic and having an associated weighting to indicate the strength a particular condition should have in determining the relevance of the messages with respect to the associated topic; extracting a pseudonym author of at least one collected message to track a plurality of pseudonyms; computing a numerical influence score for the extracted pseudonym author; storing a report in a tangible memory regarding, at least in part, the topic, wherein a report output is based upon, at least in part, at least one of the numerical relevance scores and at least one of the numerical influence scores; and computing a numerical buzz score for a topic or group of topics from the series of topics, wherein the numerical buzz score is a measure of a level of activity within one or more of the electronic discussion forums and the report output is further based upon, at least in part, the numerical buzz score. 55. The method of claim 53 , wherein the at least one relevance score comprises multiple relevance scores corresponding to multiple associated topics, and wherein the highest one of the multiple relevance scores is maintained and the other of the multiple relevance scores are discarded or ignored.