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Score Lifecycle

Your Trust Score isn't static - it's a living metric that evolves as new ratings come in, old ones decay, and the community around you grows. Here's how the lifecycle works from first rating to long-term score.

From Zero to Scored​

When you first join HYFY, your Trust Score displays as 0 - clearly communicating "no data yet" rather than a misleading midpoint.

Once your first rating arrives, the scoring engine kicks in. Early on, Bayesian smoothing keeps your score conservative - it won't jump to a perfect 5.0 from a single glowing review. As more ratings accumulate, the prior's influence fades and your score increasingly reflects real community perception.

Rating Versioning​

Ratings on HYFY are versioned, not overwritten. When someone rates you on a specific trait:

  1. First rating - A new rating record is created (version 1)
  2. Updated rating - If the rater changes their mind within the active window, the existing record is updated in place
  3. New version - After the cooldown period passes, a fresh rating version can be submitted

This means HYFY maintains a complete version history of how someone's opinion of you has evolved. Each version contributes to the scoring pipeline with appropriate temporal weighting.

Update Windows​

After submitting a rating, the rater has a limited window to revise it:

  • People ratings - A shorter window for quick corrections
  • Brand ratings - A longer window, allowing time to revisit a business and refine the review

During this window:

  • The rating can be modified (once per day)
  • It can be withdrawn and later reactivated
  • Once the window closes, the rating is locked

Cooldown Periods​

After a rating locks, a mandatory cooldown period must pass before the same rater can submit a new rating version for the same person/brand on the same trait.

This prevents:

  • Review cycling - repeatedly creating and deleting ratings to manipulate scores
  • Impulse changes - forcing raters to wait before forming a new opinion
  • Coordinated timing attacks - making it hard to synchronize bursts of ratings

Score History​

HYFY tracks your Trust Score over time. Every meaningful change to your display score is recorded with a timestamp. This enables:

  • Personal trend tracking - see how your score has evolved
  • Anomaly detection - sudden drops or spikes are visible and auditable
  • Community health monitoring - aggregate trends across the platform

Only changes that exceed a minimum threshold are recorded, avoiding noise from micro-fluctuations in the scoring engine.

Soft Delete & Reactivation​

Ratings can be withdrawn (soft-deleted) without being permanently erased:

  • A withdrawn rating stops influencing the score immediately
  • If the rater changes their mind within the update window, the rating can be reactivated in place
  • After the window closes, a withdrawn rating stays inactive but its history is preserved

This gives raters flexibility while maintaining a complete audit trail.

How Everything Connects​

Every rating - whether new, updated, or reactivated - flows through the full scoring pipeline. The results are reflected in your visible Trust Score and logged in your score history, creating a trustworthy, transparent record of your reputation on HYFY.