How ranking works

Every week's debuts are ranked by the community, using rules we publish here. Paid plans buy placement (an instant debut on approval, featured spots, a chosen week, no badge requirement). They never buy applause, multipliers or a head start.

The weekly score

• Each clap given during the debut week adds its weight (normally 1) to the product's score.
• Each person other than the maker who leaves a substantive comment (40+ characters) during the week adds 0.5. Conversation counts, but it can't outweigh real applause.
• Ties go to the product with more applause during its debut week, then to the one approved first.
• Free debuts start on Monday. Paid debuts go live as soon as they're approved and join the week in progress, so they get fewer days of applause, never extra ones.
• The week closes on Sunday at 23:59 UTC. The top three become Debut of the Week and keep a followed link permanently.

After the debut week

• Products can be applauded for as long as they're listed, so you can still applaud something that debuted weeks ago.
• Applause after the debut week counts toward the product's all-time applause only. It never changes a week's ranking or its winners.
• Applause given during the debut week is final once the week closes, so a closed week's board stays as it was.

Keeping it fair

• You need an account to applaud, and you get one clap per product. Changed your mind? Click again to take it back, until the debut week closes.
• Accounts younger than 72 hours applaud at 25% weight, so mass-created accounts don't move the board.
• Repeated applause from the same network on the same product counts at 10% weight. We store salted hashes, never raw IP addresses.
• Accounts are limited to 60 claps an hour.
• We review applause patterns every week. Applause we judge to be manipulated is excluded from scores, and products involved can be disqualified.

What's shown

The number on each clap button is the product's all-time applause, a plain count. The ranking uses the weighted debut-week score above, which is why a product with less applause on its button can rank higher. Once the counts differ, boards also show the debut-week applause next to each product.