DOI: 10.5294/pacla.2013.16.3.2 Citizen journalists can participate in political user-generated news websites in different ways, including providing content, discussing with other users, and rating the content posted on the site. Also, users of these types of sites form impressions of other users based on the information provided by different sources. The information supplied by rating systems, for example, constitutes a source of information that cues certain characteristics about others. However, user-generated news websites’ rating systems usually evaluate users’ participation without distinguishing between types of participa- tion. Taking into account the origin of the information carried by the cues and the communal dimension evaluated in the process of impression formation, this study examines how a set of different rating system design options might influence users’ impressions of the credibility of discussants, discussion informativeness, and willingness to contribute to discussions on political user-generated news websites. The results of this study partial ly support the idea that communal third-party information has more importance when impressions are formed in these online settings, although further research is needed to establish the connection between rating sys- tems and the communal characteristics of users. DOI: 10.5294/pacla.2013.16.3.2