How featured slots work (and what they never do)
Featured placement is time-boxed, plainly labeled, and never touches search ranking or editorial copy. Here is the exact mechanics.
Directories die when readers stop trusting the order of the page. So the sponsorship model here is deliberately narrow, and worth documenting in public.
What a featured slot is
A featured slot pins a listing into the Featured section — on the
homepage and at the head of its category — for a fixed period. The card is
marked FEATURED in the corner brass; on the listing page the same label
sits above the title. When the period ends, the slot expires automatically:
the flag carries an expiry date, and expired slots simply stop rendering.
Nobody has to remember to take an ad down.
What it never does
- It never changes search results. Search is ranked by relevance (bm25), full stop.
- It never changes browse order. Sort by newest, by outbound clicks, or A–Z — featured listings obey the same sort as everyone else outside the featured shelf.
- It never buys editorial copy. The description is written the same way as any other record, and a featured listing can still be unpublished if the project stops meeting the bar.
- It is never undisclosed. The label is the same size and weight
everywhere it appears, and affiliate outbound links carry
rel="sponsored".
Why time-boxed
Permanent placement rots the same way abandoned listings rot. A slot that expires forces a periodic question — is this still worth featuring? — and keeps the shelf small enough that being on it means something.
Booking details live on the advertise page. If the terms above are not acceptable, we would rather keep the shelf empty.