This question is more logic than programming at the moment.. once I understand what algorithm(s) I need to use I'll be looking into how to implement it.
I've got a list of items in a database that need to be voted up or down by users to determine if they are correct or not. The aim is to provide a % for each item to show how reliable the item information is.
There's a few criteria to take into account..
Does anyone have any recommendations on the best algorithm(s) for doing this, or any tips on how to implement this in a programming language (such as PHP)?
Read this first: http://www.evanmiller.org/how-not-to-sort-by-average-rating.html
It's an introduction to a mathematical concept known as Wilson score confidence intervals for Bernoulli parameters.
That article is a great primer on how to use your user's votes to calculate a score that is actually useful and mathematically sound. Do this, and you're already ahead of Amazon.com
Then, I think you probably need to tweak that formula a bit. In that formula it uses p for the fraction of positive votes. You might need to update the formula for p, to reflect the karma of the user that cast that vote.
Finally, to take the age into account, you multiply the outcome of the formula with an age multiplier. For example, if you want the outcome to become less relevant by 1% for each day it ages, multiply it by 0.99^age_in_days.
In a nutshell, that is the path I would follow. Hope this helps.