Patent ID: 8924496

Claim:
A computer-system-implemented method for determining a total cumulative impact of a user action made while accessing an online social network, the method comprising: aggregating, via a logging infrastructure, information specifying the user action into a set of one or more data structures, wherein each data structure includes at least one linkage, wherein a linkage links a first user action with a second user action in order to indicate that the first user action caused the second user action, thereby enabling the computer system to follow one or more sequences of causally linked user actions that have occurred; determining, by computer, a direct impact of the user action; determining an indirect impact of the user action by: using the one or more sequences to gather a set of future user actions that may occur, wherein each future user action would occur in response to the user action; for each future user action, calculating a probability of the future user action occurring; and calculating the indirect impact by using the calculated probabilities to model the set of future user actions; and wherein the social graph includes relationships between users in the online social network.