I agree recommendations are a way to take trust into account, but it is a different way with its own drawbacks. You wouldn't need higher critical mass if you ha

I agree recommendations are a way to take trust into account, but it is a different way with its own drawbacks. You wouldn't need higher critical mass if you have just implemented a pagerank equivalent as opposed to recommendations. You can make a page without recommendations the default, at least until you acquire critical mass. You can just have a "personalized" slider defaulting to no personalization.