Statistical credibility metric for online question answerers

A method of rating a particular user, the method comprising:

• maintaining, at an online service, a rating for each of first users of the online service, wherein the first users include a particular user;
• receiving, by the online service from a first group of the first users over a network, first submissions directed to first queries, wherein the first group includes all of the first users except the particular user;
• obtaining, by one or more computing devices, first statistics related to ratings of the first submissions, wherein the ratings are estimates of quality of the first submissions;
• receiving, by the online service from the particular user over the network, one or more second submissions directed to one or more second queries;
• obtaining, by one or more computing devices, second statistics related to one or more ratings of the one or more second submissions;
• estimating a rating for the particular user based on both the first statistics and the second statistics, wherein, in estimating the rating, as a quantity of submissions submitted by the particular user increases, an influence that the second statistics have on the rating of the particular user increases and an influence that the first statistics has on the rating of the particular user decreases;
• receiving, by the online service from a query user, a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request from a browser, for a webpage that includes answers to a query;
• obtaining third submissions related to the query provided by the particular user and/or one or more of the first users;
• dynamically generating the webpage to include:
• (i) identification information of the particular user and the one or more of the first users, (ii) the rating for the particular user and at least one rating corresponding to the first group of the first users, and (iii) the third submissions to facilitate the query user to select a submission responsive to the query from the third submissions based on the ratings;
• providing the generated webpage to the query user in response to the HTTP request, the generated webpage being displayed to the query user via the browser;
• and
• updating the rating of the particular user on the webpage in response to the particular user's answer to the question being selected by the query user.

A system comprising one or more processors and storage media storing instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause:

• maintaining, at an online service, a rating for each of first users of the online service, wherein the first users include a particular user;
• receiving, by the online service from a first group of the first users over a network, first answers directed to first questions, wherein the first group includes all of the first users except the particular user;
• obtaining first statistics related to ratings of the first answers;
• receiving, by the online service from the particular user over the network, one or more second answers directed to one or more second questions;
• obtaining second statistics related to one or more ratings of the one or more second answers;
• estimating a rating for the particular user based on both the first statistics and the second statistics, and a number of the one or more second questions;
• receiving, by the online service from a query user, a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request from a browser, for a webpage that includes answers to a question;
• obtaining third answers related to the question provided by the particular user and one or more of the first users;
• dynamically generating the webpage to include:
• (i) identification information of the particular user and the one or more of the first users, (ii) the rating for the particular user and at least one rating corresponding to the first group of the first users, and (iii) the third answers to facilitate the query user to select an answer to the question from the third answers based on the ratings;
• providing the generated webpage to the query user in response to the HTTP request, the generated webpage being displayed to the query user via the browser;
• and
• updating the rating of the particular user on the webpage in response to the particular user's answer to the question being selected by the query user.

A system comprising one or more processors and storage media storing instructions for rating a particular user, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause:

• maintaining, at an online service, a rating for each of first users of the online service, wherein the first users include a particular user;
• receiving, by the online service from a first group of the first users over a network, first submissions directed to first queries, wherein the first group includes all of the first users except the particular user;
• obtaining, by one or more computing devices, first statistics related to ratings of the first submissions, wherein the ratings are estimates of quality of the first submissions;
• receiving, by the online service from the particular user over the network, one or more second submissions directed to one or more second queries;
• obtaining, by one or more computing devices, second statistics related to one or more ratings of the one or more second submissions;
• estimating a rating for the particular user based on both the first statistics and the second statistics, wherein, in estimating the rating, as a quantity of submissions submitted by the particular user increases, an influence that the second statistics have on the rating of the particular user increases and an influence that the first statistics has on the rating of the particular user decreases;
• receiving, by the online service from a query user, a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) from a browser, request for a webpage that includes answers to a query;
• obtaining third submissions related to the query provided by the particular user and/or one or more of the first users;
• dynamically generating the webpage to include:
• (i) identification information of the particular user and the one or more of the first users, (ii) the rating for the particular user and at least one rating corresponding to the first group of the first users, and (iii) the third submissions to facilitate the query user to select a submission responsive to the query from the third submissions based on the ratings;
• providing the generated webpage to the query user in response to the HTTP request, the generated webpage being displayed to the query user via the browser;
• and
• updating the rating of the particular user on the webpage in response to the particular user's answer to the question being selected by the query user.