Competition rules

A judged skill contest, never a prize draw. Entry comes from ordinary product use, so it isn't a sweepstakes. Instead of a random drawing, every entrant is ranked by criteria published before the contest runs and scored by code, not opinion.

The four signals that score

Only platform-verified activity earns points — nothing typed in by the person it would benefit.

1. 1. “I have this problem too” checks

   Saying you have the same problem as a quest. Doesn't score if filed by the quest's own author, its claimed builder, or if shadow-filtered as suspected brigading. Also requires at least 2 canonically-distinct confirmers on the quest before any of them score — one account can't manufacture rank alone.

2. 2. Quests that reached VALIDATED

   Scores for the author once actually stamped VALIDATED (an admin skipping straight to SHIPPED doesn't count). Founder-seeded quests never score.

3. 3. Qualified referrals

   Scores for the inviter once QUALIFIED and not rejected — a real action by the person referred, not a signup alone.

4. 4. Admin-approved Showcase entries

   Scores for the submitter once admin-approved. Seed rows and rows with no submitter score nothing.

Never scored

• Self-reported first-user counts
• Self-reported revenue milestones
• PMF survey tallies
• Completeness percentages / stage advancement
• Ask/view counts (askCount)

A prize on a self-reported number pays people to inflate the exact data WantBorn exists to make trustworthy.

Caps and ties

Each competition may cap how many events of one signal count toward a score, so no single high-volume signal swamps the rest. The raw count is always shown next to the capped one (e.g. “38 checks · 25 counted (cap)”). A run may also have no cap.

Standings rank by score, highest first. Ties break by whoever reached a qualifying signal earliest. Full ties share a rank.

How a competition runs

1. Draft. Criteria, period, and weights can be edited.
2. Open. Weights freeze. Scoring runs live for the period.
3. Judging. Standings are recomputed once and frozen. A judge may pick a winner only from the verified top 5, with a written rationale — never reaching past them to someone lower-ranked.
4. Closed. Result is final.

A competition can be cancelled before it closes; cancelled runs are kept, never deleted.

Point values, caps, dates and judging criteria for each competition are on its own page — see the index for what's running.