Reading the whowins Activity Feed

Boards show the state of things; the activity feed shows things changing. Every seat that changes hands appears as a line, every clock that starts or settles appears, and holders in a challenge can post lines of their own. This post explains each kind of entry and the one thing the feed is good for as a founder: judging which boards are moving before you take a seat.

Seat changes

The most common entry. When a payment clears and a seat changes hands, the feed shows the product that took the seat and the board it is on. It does not show who paid or how much; the amounts live on the row itself, and the count of hand changes is shown only for challenges. The leaders page shows the two amounts on the row itself, and that is the whole public record of a seat.

A board whose seats appear in the feed several times a day is contested. A board that rarely appears is quiet. Neither is a judgement about the products on it.

Clocks starting and settling

On a board with its first ten seats taken, a seat can carry a clock. The feed shows when a clock starts on a seat and when it settles at zero. While it runs, the seat is pinned to the top of its board and a card appears on the challenge page, which also keeps the history of settled challenges with their closing amounts.

For a founder, a clock in the feed is the loudest signal a board gives: someone has decided a seat there is worth a two-day lock. The rules of the clock are in the challenge clock explained.

Lines posted by holders

A holder whose seat is in a challenge can post lines to the feed, and each one carries the IN A CHALLENGE badge. These are the only entries written by people rather than by the mechanic. They are visible to everyone looking at the feed and they are part of the visibility a challenge brings; they do not change what it costs to take the seat.

Outside a challenge, holders do not post. The feed is a record of seat changes and clocks, not a message board.

What the feed does not do

The feed records; it does not decide. Nothing in it changes a price, moves a seat or affects a clock. A seat moves for one reason only: a payment larger than the last one. Reading the feed as a founder is about information, and the information is which boards are active.

Using the feed before you take a seat

Three minutes on the feed answers questions the boards alone do not:

• Which boards have changed hands today, and how often
• Whether a clock is running anywhere in your category
• Whether the rows you want have moved recently or sat still

A row that has sat still with a last payment near the flat amount is a quiet seat you can hold for a long time. A row that appears in the feed daily is one you will be taken from unless your number is higher than the other founders’. Our post on when to take a seat and when to wait turns that reading into a decision.

Using the feed after you take a seat

Once you hold a seat, the feed tells you when it changes hands, which is the moment to decide whether to take it back. It also tells you when a clock starts on your board, which changes the rivalry on every row near it. Checking the feed once a day is enough; the seat does not need watching, because nothing moves it except a payment.

A day on a contested board, as the feed shows it

Morning: a seat in the third row changes hands. Midday: the same seat changes hands again, back to the earlier product. Afternoon: a clock starts on the top row, and the holder posts a line. Evening: the third row moves once more and the clock on the top row is still running. The next day the clock settles and the feed shows the seat locked for two days.

Read as a founder, that day says three things: the third row is where two products are trading a seat between them, the top row is about to be unavailable for two days, and the second row has not moved at all. The quiet second row may be the best seat on the board for someone arriving today.

The feed and the two numbers

The feed and the boards tell one story together. The boards show the current price and the last payment on every seat; the feed shows which seats moved. A founder who reads both before paying knows what a seat costs, what it was last worth to someone and how often it is fought over. That is everything the mechanic makes public, and it is enough.

The rules page says in a few lines what the feed can only illustrate: a seat belongs to whoever paid more than the last payment on it.