Policy-enabled aggregation of IM user communities

A method of automatically aggregating an online community, comprising:

• a service provider retrieving a defined aggregation policy defined by a first user for the online community;
• the service provider applying the retrieved aggregation to a second user;
• the service provider determining whether the second user fits the retrieved aggregation policy;
• the service provider automatically adding the second user to the created online community when the second user fits the retrieved aggregation policy;
• the service provider retrieving an anti-aggregation policy defined by the first user, wherein the definitions of both the aggregation policy and the anti-aggregation policy independently assemble sets of users;
• the service provider determining whether the second user fits the retrieved anti-aggregation policy;
• the service provider automatically removing the second user from the created online community when the second user fits the retrieved anti-aggregation policy;
• and
• the service provider initiating a delete request to each user whose anti-aggregation policy matches a newly modified profile of the first user.

A method of automatically aggregating an online community, comprising:

• a service provider retrieving a defined aggregation policy defined by a first user for the online community;
• the service provider applying the retrieved aggregation policy to a second user;
• the service provider determining whether the second user fits the retrieved aggregation policy;
• the service provider automatically adding the second user to the created online community when the second user fits the retrieved aggregation policy;
• the service retrieving an anti-aggregation police defined by the first user, wherein the definitions of both the aggregation policy and the anti-aggregation policy independently assemble sets of users;
• the service provider determining whether the second user fits the retrieved anti-aggregation policy;
• the service provider automatically removing the second user from the created online community when the second user fits the retrieved anti-aggregation policy;
• and
• the service provider initiating a delete request to each user whose aggregation policy no longer matches a newly modified profile of the first user.