Patent ID: 8639704

Claim:
A method for determining ratings of users of an online system, wherein the online system enables each user to directly assign rating scores to other users of the online system and further enables each user to assign rating scores to content items created by other users, the method comprising: retrieving a first score indicative of rating scores directly assigned to a user of the online system by other users of the online system; retrieving a second score indicative of rating scores assigned to content items by other users of the online system, wherein the content items are created by the user; and determining a rating of the user based on the first and second scores, wherein each content item created by the user represents one of an online content published by the user in the online system and an activity initiated by the user within the online system, and wherein the second score is a combination of all rating scores of online content published by the user and all rating scores of activities initiated by the user.