Patent ID: 8549651

Claim:
A method comprising: maintaining a trust level for each of a plurality of users of the social networking system associated with each user's social networking system user account, the plurality of users comprising a first user of the social networking system and a second user of the social networking system, the first user having a higher trust level than the second user, wherein each user's trust level represents a global trustworthiness of the user in the social networking system; receiving, at the social networking system, a request from a device of the first user of the social networking system for an interaction by the first user of the social networking system with the second user of the social networking system; determining if the interaction requested is of a first type; modifying the trust level of the second user by a first amount when the interaction requested is of the first type; determining if the interaction requested is of a second type; and modifying the trust level of the second user by a second amount that is different than the first amount when the interaction requested is of the second type.