9. A computer program product for use in conjunction with a computer system, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium and a computer program mechanism embedded therein, the computer program mechanism comprising: instructions for repeatedly performing a set operations, until a convergence condition is satisfied, the set of operations comprising: solving an iteration of a reputation function for a set of reputation values with respect to a set of linked nodes, the nodes including first nodes representing reviewers and second nodes representing reviews, wherein at each iteration, the reputation values of the reviewers are updated in accordance with reputation values of one or more of the reviews and the reputation values of the reviews are updated in accordance with reputation values of one or more of the reviewers; determining whether a stability condition is satisfied, wherein the stability condition is satisfied when an absolute difference between a current value of the set of reputation values and a previous value of the set of reputation values is less than a predetermined convergence value; modifying the reputation function so as to remove from the reputation function portions of the reputation function corresponding to nodes with negative reputation when the stability condition is satisfied; and generating reputation values for at least the reviewers and reviews corresponding to nodes that have not been removed from the reputation function.
9. A computer program product for use in conjunction with a computer system, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium and a computer program mechanism embedded therein, the computer program mechanism comprising: instructions for repeatedly performing a set operations, until a convergence condition is satisfied, the set of operations comprising: solving an iteration of a reputation function for a set of reputation values with respect to a set of linked nodes, the nodes including first nodes representing reviewers and second nodes representing reviews, wherein at each iteration, the reputation values of the reviewers are updated in accordance with reputation values of one or more of the reviews and the reputation values of the reviews are updated in accordance with reputation values of one or more of the reviewers; determining whether a stability condition is satisfied, wherein the stability condition is satisfied when an absolute difference between a current value of the set of reputation values and a previous value of the set of reputation values is less than a predetermined convergence value; modifying the reputation function so as to remove from the reputation function portions of the reputation function corresponding to nodes with negative reputation when the stability condition is satisfied; and generating reputation values for at least the reviewers and reviews corresponding to nodes that have not been removed from the reputation function. 10. The computer program product of claim 9 , further including instructions for, prior to solving a first iteration of the reputation function: excluding from the reputation function nodes having no outlinks; and excluding from the reputation function nodes having no positively valued outlinks.