Ranking Rules

Effective date: August 30, 2026

These rules explain exactly how the TopSlash leaderboard is ordered and how paid rank works. They are part of the Terms of Service. The server enforces every rule below; this page describes what the server does.

One sentence first: paid rank is advertising, not a quality recommendation. Founders pay for their position. Payment, not quality, sets the order. See the Paid Placement Disclosure.

1. What a founder pays for

A founder may pay to raise the current total of a listing. The board is ordered by that total. Paying for rank buys a position on a public leaderboard. It does not buy clicks, visitors, reviews, engagement, a score, or any result. All amounts are in U.S. dollars and whole cents.

Paid rank is optional. A listing can be published with no payment at all. A listing can have a deal without rank, and rank without a deal.

2. The ladder: what it costs to claim #1

• The seed. At launch, the #1 position is held by Laeli at a total of $1. Laeli is operated by the founder of TopSlash. Its listing carries the disclosure "Operated by the marketplace founder · Launch seed listing." The $1 is a seed credit, not a Stripe payment. It appears in the Complete Bid History as a seed row, and it is excluded from the "Confirmed platform ranking revenue" counter.
• First public claim: $2. While the $1 seed is the leader, the first founder to reach a total of $2 takes #1.
• Next: $5. After a $2 total leads, the next total needed to take #1 is $5.
• Then: the leader's total plus $5. From that point on, the minimum total needed to claim #1 is always the current leader's total plus $5.
• Any higher amount is allowed. A founder may select any new total at or above the displayed minimum.

Example: Laeli leads at $1. Founder B pays $2 and leads. The next minimum is $5. Founder C pays $5 and leads. The next minimum is $10. Founder C adds $15 to reach $20 and still leads. The next minimum is $25. If the leader ever reaches $200, the next minimum is $205.

The exact number is always shown on the site as "Minimum required to claim #1: $Y". It is computed by the server at the moment you look. Because other founders can pay at any time, it can change before you finish paying (see Section 5).

3. Cumulative totals and paying the difference

• Each listing has one current total: the sum of all its confirmed placement payments, minus any reversals, plus the seed credit if it has one.
• Returning founders pay only the difference. When you raise your total, you select a new total and are charged the difference between your existing total and that new total. Amount charged now = selected new total − existing total. Example: your total is $3,750 and the listing above you is at $3,760. To pass it you select $3,765 and pay $15.
• Minimum per payment. Every placement payment must be at least $5, with one exception: the first public claim of #1 for a $2 total while only the $1 seed is ahead. You do not have to aim for #1; you can add any amount of $5 or more to your total, for example to enter the board or to pass the listing above you.
• Maximum per payment. A single payment is capped at $50,000. Contact us if you need more.
• Before you pay, the site shows "Estimated position if no one else pays first." It is an estimate.

4. Board order

• The Current board orders published listings by current total, highest first.
• Ties. If two listings have the same total, the listing that reached that total first stays higher. A payment that brings you to exactly the same total as another listing places you below that listing, because it reached the total earlier.
• Being displaced moves you down. It never removes you. When someone passes you, your listing moves down one or more positions. Your total is unchanged, and your listing stays on the board.
• Unranked listings. Published listings with a total of $0 appear below the ranked block, newest first, labeled "Unranked". They have no position number.

5. Checkout does not reserve rank

• Starting a checkout reserves nothing. Only a verified, completed Stripe payment changes a total or a position.
• Rank is assigned only after Stripe confirms the payment. Duplicate or replayed payment events cannot add credit twice. A failed, expired, or abandoned checkout changes nothing.
• If the board changes during your checkout, your payment is still valid. The amount you paid is added to your total, and your listing receives whatever position that total produces at the moment of confirmation. The success page shows the real resulting position, which may be lower than the estimate you saw. The confirmation email says the same. Positions keep changing as others pay.
• The time a payment counts is the time Stripe confirmed it, in Pacific time. That time decides which "Today" and "This Week" period the payment belongs to.

6. Period boards and their boundaries

The Current board uses lifetime totals. The period boards use only the payments confirmed inside the period. A listing with a $3,750 lifetime total that adds $15 today shows $15 on Today and $3,765 on Current.

• Today runs from 12:00:00 a.m. to 11:59:59 p.m. in the America/Los_Angeles time zone (Pacific time). It resets at midnight Pacific.
• This Week runs from Monday 12:00:00 a.m. to Sunday 11:59:59 p.m. Pacific time.
• Daylight saving time. Period boundaries follow Pacific local time. On the day clocks fall back, "Today" lasts 25 hours. On the day clocks spring forward, it lasts 23 hours.
• Within a period, listings are ordered by the amount paid inside the period, highest first. Ties keep the listing whose first payment in the period came earlier above.
• Reversals and period boards. If a payment is later refunded, the reversal is subtracted from the Current and All Time totals, but it is not subtracted from the Today or This Week board on which the payment originally appeared. The Complete Bid History shows the reversal.

7. The other views

• All Time. The lifetime total of each published listing. All Time currently equals the Current board; it will differ only if a time-weighted ranking is ever introduced. If that ever happens, these rules will be updated first.
• Top 10. The first ten rows of the Current board.
• Under $10. Published listings with a total above $0 and below $10.00, in Current order. You can rank here from $5.
• Categories. The Current order filtered by category, with that category's unranked listings below.
• Latest Activity. Recent confirmed payments and the rank movements they caused, plus recent verified purchases shown as "Verified purchase · product name" with no buyer identity. Claims (checkout holds) are not shown individually, only as a counter.
• Complete Bid History. Every confirmed placement payment and every reversal, newest first, with the time in Pacific, the listing, the amount, the total after, the position after, and a "Reversal" badge on reversals. It also shows the $1 seed row. The history is public and permanent. Rows are never deleted, including for listings that were later unpublished.

8. The labels and what they mean

• Paid Rank and Paid Position: the badge on every ranked row. It means the position was paid for.
• Bid for #1: the button that starts a payment to claim the first position. It is not an auction of goods; you are buying advertising placement.
• Current total: a listing's cumulative confirmed placement total.
• Minimum required to claim #1: the smallest new total that would put your listing at #1 right now.

We never use words such as "recommended", "best", "top pick", "featured", or "sponsored" for paid positions. A paid position is never presented as a quality signal. There are no reviews or scores at launch; new listings show "New — verification passed. Not enough evidence for a Slash Score."

9. Unpublishing and republishing

• A listing that is unpublished, by us or by its founder, leaves every board. Listings below it move up.
• Its total and its full history are kept. The Complete Bid History keeps showing its rows with the listing name.
• If the listing is republished, it returns to the position its unchanged total produces at that time.
• Moderation never changes a total. Only a confirmed reversal (see the Refund & Finality Rules) changes a total.

10. Finality

Placement payments are final, except in the narrow cases in the Refund & Finality Rules. Being outbid, changing your mind, or getting fewer visitors than you hoped are not grounds for a refund.

11. Changes to these rules

We may change these rules, including the ladder amounts, with at least 14 days' notice by email to founders with a published listing and by posting the new version here with a new effective date. A change never rewrites totals or history already recorded.

12. Contact

Questions about the board: [email protected]. Counter definitions: About: counter definitions.