Maintaining a minimum level of real time media recommendations in the absence of online friends

A central server comprising:

• a communication interface communicatively coupling the central server to a plurality of peer devices via a network;
• and
• a control system associated with the communication interface and comprising:
• a proxy function adapted to:
• receive media recommendations from ones of a group of peer devices that are active and online as media presentations identified by the media recommendations are played by the ones of the group of peer devices, the group of peer devices comprising at least one of the plurality of peer devices associated with a first one of the plurality of peer devices;
• and
• provide the media recommendations to the first one of the plurality of peer devices;
• and
• an augmentation function adapted to:
• monitor a media recommendation level for the first one of the plurality of peer devices wherein in order to monitor the media recommendation level, the augmentation function is further adapted to monitor a number of media recommendations provided to the first one of the plurality of peer devices over a defined period of time;
• determine whether the media recommendation level for the first one of the plurality of peer devices is less than a minimum recommendation level;
• and
• augment the media recommendations provided to the first one of the plurality of peer devices if the media recommendation level is less than the minimum recommendation level.