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This is the same scheme that Comodo attempted to employ for its inadequate anti-virus products by trying to use its user community to report on malware. They don’t have the funds to setup a research lab, like Symantec, McAfee, or other AV vendors, so they tried to use users to improve their detection rate. It didn’t work and eventually Comodo discontinued providing CAV separately and instead bundled it into their Internet Suite which compensates by employing their HIPS (Defense+) function to cover what their AV component is lacking.
It doesn’t appear Avast is itself involved in rating the sites. SiteAdvisor, for example, has McAfee rate the sites with additional input from users (which take a lot of votes to sway McAfee’s rating). A general user community swaying the decision of professional raters is a lot different results than just a general user community doing the voting.
You said there was some weighting. Where is this documented? Users of WebRep don’t have accounts against which their votes can be tracked and the reputation of that voter can be associated with their votes. Where’s the weighting coming from?