Patent Document ID: 8249915
Application ID: 11197255

Base Claim:
1. A computer-implemented method carried out by a computer processing system for user evaluation of at least one product that has a plurality of features whereby users operate user devices that are operably coupled to the computer processing system over network communication therebetween, the method comprising: interacting with a plurality of users via the network communication between the user devices and the computer processing system to assign user-supplied ratings to features of a particular product, wherein the features of the at least one product are logically organized into a hierarchical structure of feature levels, and wherein each user supplied rating corresponds to a respective feature level and represents a user derived assessment of at least one feature of the corresponding feature level of the at least one product; processing the user-supplied ratings at the computer processing system to associate moderation scores with the user-supplied ratings; interacting with a given user via network communication between a given user device and the computer processing system to specify a threshold moderation score that defines a first range of acceptable moderation scores; at the computer processing system, computing a composite rating for a given feature level of the at least one product based upon a set of the user-supplied ratings corresponding to the given feature level of the at least one product, wherein each user-supplied rating within the set is associated with a moderation score that falls within the first range of acceptable moderation scores, thereby omitting from the composite rating contributions of user-supplied ratings for the at least one product whose associated moderation scores fall outside the first range of acceptable moderation scores; and at the computer processing system, outputting the composite rating for supply to the given user via network communication between the computer processing system and the given user device; wherein the processing of the computer processing system selectively enables particular users to evaluate the user-supplied ratings and associated moderation scores with the user-supplied ratings whereby the particular users are selectively enabled based upon moderation points earned by the particular users, and wherein the moderation points are limited in number and distributed to a respective user by an automatic process that accounts for positive evaluation of the respective user's own user-supplied ratings.

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Claim 13:
13. A computer-implemented method according to claim 1 , wherein: the automatic process executed by the computer processing system distributes moderation points to the respective user based upon usage data that is indicative of the temporal regularity of access and level of detail of access by the respective user.