Patent ID: 8868651

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: monitoring, by a computer device, a web community for an event, the event related to activity of at least one user among a plurality of users of the web community and comprised of a change in a user profile of one of a plurality of users that comprises a change in status comprising a hierarchical level within a web community corresponding to downline group associations; applying, by the computer device, a rule in response to detecting the event, said application of the rule being dependent upon a type of the detected event, said rule comprising membership criteria for a web community group and each downline group associated with the web community group, said rule applicable to a user profile for each of the plurality of users of each web community group within the web community, each user profile comprising information associated with the corresponding user; associating, by the computer device, each user with each of the web community groups upon each user's user profile satisfying the membership criteria for each of the web community groups; and storing, by the computer device, the associations in at least one data store; and sending, by the computer device, a notification to each user comprising an association with the web community, the notification indicating membership in the web community group.