Equal target exposure
Published eligible projects share the same comparison-allocation rules inside their Board. Active reservations count toward exposure. Payment never improves ranking or exposure; no comparison count is guaranteed.
BOARD STATUSCOMPARISONS OPEN
THE FAIRNESS CONTRACTA FAIR SHOT
A FAIR SHOT
NEEDS FAIR RULES.
These rules apply to every entry and judge across all three Boards. No secret boost can override them.
Strict stage separation
Ideas face ideas, builds face builds and live projects face live projects. Cross-stage matchups are never eligible.
Server-selected pairs
The server excludes owned, managed, previously judged and referral-linked entries before choosing a balanced pair inside one Board.
No follower advantage
Founder referral traffic is recorded as Community Support and excluded from neutral ranking decisions.
No pay-to-win
Payments never affect rank, exposure, qualification, Spotlight, Hall of Fame or rating.
Comparable pairs
When a niche has at least 6 eligible projects in a Board, its comparisons stay within that niche. Smaller niches use mixed comparisons within the same Board.
Balanced orientation
Left and right presentation is randomized and balanced. Repeated pairs are limited by the active Board configuration.
Reliable qualification
Qualification reflects valid comparison evidence accumulated in that stage. Versions share the project rating; Idea, Building and Live stay separate. Provisional projects remain below qualified projects. A project qualifies after at least 10 valid comparisons from 5 different judges in its Board.
Uncertainty-aware ranking
All time uses persistent weighted Glicko-2 rating minus twice its uncertainty. Other periods rank the net rating points gained and lost within the chosen dates. Stronger opponents matter more. Equal ranking scores use a stable project identifier. Overall combines 50% Presentation and 50% Solution.
Two choices per comparison
Choose one project for Presentation and one for Solution. You can choose the same project twice or split your choices. Skips do not count toward rankings or qualification.
Abuse protection
Verified accounts, daily limits, referral exclusions, rate limits and quarantine protect the record. Public rankings use only comparisons that remain valid.
Permanent publication
Eligible Founding projects receive free permanent publication, once per verified account. Paid publishing is planned at €5.99 once per project and is not open yet. Published projects stay eligible for comparisons and rankings. Public boards offer the last 7 days, 30 days, all time and custom UTC dates for free.
Rank reflects choices inside each LaunchThrone Board, not objective project quality.