Patent ID: 7519708

Claim:
A system for managing accounts within a network community, comprising: an account server to manage a plurality of direct accounts for a plurality of resident users of the network community and at least one guest account for at least one guest of a respective resident user; a client of a respective resident user of the network community configured to send to a non-resident user of the network community an invitation to become the guest of the respective resident user, wherein the account server is configured to create a guest account for the non-resident user after the sending of the invitation and the guest account is activated in response to acceptance of the invitation by the non-resident user thereby making the non-resident user a member to the network community and wherein a respective guest account contains a data field to specify an end-date for canceling the respective guest account, the account server configured to: after occurrence of the end-date, offer a respective guest associated with the respective guest account an opportunity to convert the respective guest account into a new direct account.