Badges on whowins: What Each One Means

Everything on a whowins board is decided by one thing, the last payment on a seat. Badges do not change that. They record things that happened to a seat or a listing, so a visitor scanning a board can see a little history without the board showing any of the numbers behind it. This post lists each badge, where it appears and what it does not do.

IN A CHALLENGE

A seat on a board with its first ten seats taken can carry a clock. While the clock runs, the listing in that seat shows the IN A CHALLENGE badge on its row and on every line the holder posts in the activity feed. The seat is pinned to the top of its board and a card for it appears on the home page and on the challenge page.

The badge marks a live clock. It does not change what it costs to take the seat, which is still more than the last payment, and it goes away when the clock settles. The clock itself is explained in the challenge clock explained.

WON A CHALLENGE

When a clock reaches zero, whoever is in the seat keeps it for two days and the listing earns the WON A CHALLENGE badge, showing the date and the closing amount. This badge belongs to the listing, not to the seat. It stays after the lock ends and after the seat changes hands, so a product that held a seat to zero carries the record wherever its listing appears.

For a visitor, the badge says that at some point a founder thought this product was worth defending in a contested row. For a founder, it is the one lasting thing a challenge gives beyond the two quiet days.

Position badges on the product page

Each product has its own page on whowins, and that page shows a badge for where the product sits right now: number one in its category, or top ten. These badges follow the seat. Take the top row and the page says so; lose it and the badge changes with it. They describe the present, which is why they are on the product page rather than on the board, where the row itself already shows the position.

Where badges appear

• On the listing’s row on its board and on the leaders page
• On the card for a seat in a challenge, on the home page and the challenge page
• On lines the holder posts in the activity feed, while in a challenge
• On the product page, for the position badges and WON A CHALLENGE

Badges are small, and a row with two of them still reads as a row: logo, name, line, link, two amounts.

Badges and the product page

A product page brings the badges together: the position badges for where the product sits now, the WON A CHALLENGE record if it has one, and the seat’s two amounts. Visitors who click through from a board see the same information as the board plus that small history. Nothing on the page is a score or an opinion.

What badges are not

• Not a score, a rating or anyone’s opinion of the product
• Not purchasable on their own; each records an event on a seat
• Not a change to the price of any seat
• Not a review result, since there is no review

The design is consistent with the rest of whowins. The board shows two numbers per seat, the badges show a little history, and nothing on either is decided by anything other than payments. The rules page says the same in fewer words.

How badges appear in the challenge history

The challenge page keeps a history of settled challenges, and each entry shows the seat, the board, how many times the seat changed hands during the clock and what it closed at. The WON A CHALLENGE badge on a listing is the pointer back to one of those entries. A visitor who wants to know what the badge stands for can find the closing amount and the date there without the listing itself showing any formula.

For founders comparing boards, the history is the honest record of what contested seats have cost on each one. A board with several settled challenges at rising closing amounts is a board where the top rows are expensive to hold; a board with none is quiet or still filling its first ten seats.

Reading badges as a founder

A board whose top rows carry WON A CHALLENGE badges is a board where founders have defended seats to zero; expect rivalry there. A board with no badges at all is either quiet or still below its first ten seats, in which case it carries no clocks yet. Both readings feed the decision in when to take a seat and when to wait.