Patent Document ID: 8812593
Application ID: 13860356

Base Claim:
1. A computer-implemented method for managing users of a community-based content aggregation environment, the method comprising: creating, by a processor device executing code stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, a user profile for a user providing a registration request; assigning a first user level to the user, the first user level corresponding to access to a first set of community tools; detecting user activity, wherein user activity comprises receiving an element from the user comprising content related to a community topic or receiving element attributes from the user comprising a comment, a rating, or a label identifying a sub-topic of the community topic; providing the element or the element attributes to a moderator, wherein the moderator is at least one user that is charged with approving elements or element attributes; receiving an instruction from the moderator to approve the element or the element attributes; determining points to award to the user based on the approval of the element or the element attributes by the moderator; storing the points in the user profile; determining that points in the user profile exceed a pre-set threshold; and modifying the first user level to a second user level based on determining that points in the user profile exceed the pre-set threshold, the second user level allowing the user to access the first set of community tools and a second set of community tools.

---

Claim 2:
2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the second user level is assigned to the moderator.