Patent ID: 8290809

Claim:
A computer-implemented method, comprising: maintaining a relationship tree representing relationships among a plurality of users of an online trading community, the relationship tree including sponsorship relationships between said plurality of users including a particular user and one or more users that were referred by the particular user to said online trading community, wherein said one or more users referred by the particular user are children of said particular user and siblings to each other, and wherein said one or more users referred by the particular user have lineal descendants that include additional users that were referred by the one or more users referred by the particular user; storing said sponsorship relationships between said plurality of users in a data structure, wherein the data structure for the particular user contains a pointer to at least one of said plurality of users; associating, by a first processor, one or more characteristic values with said plurality of users including said particular user, said one or more users referred by the particular user, and said lineal descendants, the one or more characteristic values representing an individual feedback rating associated with each of said plurality of users and being established based on votes from other users of the plurality of users of the online trading community; deriving, by a second processor, a community rating uniquely corresponding to said particular user by aggregating said individual feedback rating associated with the particular user, said individual feedback ratings associated with one or more users referred by the particular user to the online trading community, and said individual feedback ratings associated with said lineal descendants, wherein deriving is performed utilizing the pointer in said data structure; and storing the community rating uniquely corresponding to the particular user in a storage device.