Thank you for your support and your comment. There will always be ways to exploit the system, but I think the three items I discussed (expiration of rates, filtering with a blacklist, and requiring of a comment) will reduce both the likelihood and the the impact of a lot of these types of attacks. It would definitely require some flexibility.
I think the User Authority (@steem-ua) uses an algorithm which takes into account some of the things you mention, which is also a great avenue to include. Perhaps the end state would be a compilation of all three scores. There is also a 4th score with @steemchiller's voting CSI score.
One thing to consider is that user feedback offers some qualitative analysis which can't really be represented in the numbers. A person reading the rates left for a specific account can gain a better understanding of that account's presence. Thanks again!
You're welcome man and I agree too that a combination of different things we mentioned would be a better way of doing it. Something that asseses multiple variables always helps to build a better picture 🙂
User feedback and social proof are vital for businesses and have quite a strong influence when you use sites like Amazon for example. When you see more reviews and star ratings it might sway your decision to go for them vs another seller.
Food for thought