Method and apparatus for collecting and storing information about individuals in a social network. A member account is created by verifying a user's identity and collecting user identity data from the user. The user sends an invitation to one or more members or non-members. The one or more members or non-members can accept or decline the user's invitation. If the one or more non-members accept or decline, they must create a member account. The one or more members post paid comments or free comments about the user and one or more user weight values are calculated based on one or more of the following: a number of members in a user's group and their one or more user weight values, a total value of posted paid comments about the user and volume of posted comments about the user. The user can post a reply to the posted comment by the one or more members.