The rules, and they do not move mid-season.
The pot is a prize, paid for by sponsors. It is not a collection and it is not charity. Founders enter for nothing, and the result is decided by counted votes rather than by chance.
Entering is free
Founders pay nothing to enter, nothing to rank, and nothing to be seen. There is no listing fee, no boost, no premium slot, and no way to convert money into points. This is not an introductory offer; it is the rule the whole prize rests on. Apply at /enter. One GitHub account at least 6 months old can publish one founder automatically; otherwise the application stays private for manual review.
The winner is decided by votes
Not by a draw, not by a panel, and not by us. The founder with the most points when the season closes wins. Nothing is left to chance at any point.
How points are scored
3 points for a vote from somebody who has never voted here before, in any season. 1 point for a vote from somebody who has. One vote per person per season.
Who can vote
Anyone with a GitHub or X account at least 6 months old. One vote per account per season, and an account that has already voted cannot vote again by arriving through a different founder's link. A founder may vote, including for themselves, on the same terms as anybody else and for the same weight.
Voting is open from the first founder
Votes are accepted and shown as soon as there is somebody to vote for, and they are kept. What waits for a full field of 20 founders is the seven-day countdown and the prize: before that there is no deadline, no winner and no payout, however long recruiting takes. When the 20th founder joins, the clock starts once and every vote already cast stands exactly as it was, neither reset nor counted twice.
One person, one account
One person may not vote through multiple or fake accounts, and may not organise others to do it. Coordinated fake accounts, bought accounts, paid votes and automated voting all count as manipulation. Where we find it, the votes involved can be voided and the founder who benefited can be disqualified from the prize. We do not claim to detect every case automatically. What we do guarantee is that every removal is recorded with its reason, the entry stays visible on the board marked as removed, and the votes stay in the record marked as void, so any result can be checked afterwards.
Winner takes all
The whole pot goes to one founder. It is not split, and there are no runner-up prizes. A pot divided five ways motivates nobody, which would defeat the point of having one.
Quiet weeks roll forward
A race that does not reach its floor pays nobody. The entire pot rolls into the next race, so a quiet one makes the next bigger rather than smaller.
Ties
Level points never overtake. If two founders finish on the same score, whoever entered the season first stays ahead. Arriving later and drawing level is not passing anyone.
Cheating means removal
Buying votes, making accounts to vote with, paying people to vote, or automating any part of it means the entry is removed from the season and its votes stop counting. A removed entry cannot win the prize whatever its score was. The entry stays visible, marked as removed, because a founder who quietly disappears looks like a bug and a founder who was removed should be a matter of record.
Seven days, once it starts
A race does not start on a date. It starts when 20 approved founders are in it, and then it runs for seven full days from that moment. Before that it is recruiting: voting is open and counting, but there is no countdown and nobody can win however long it waits. When a race ends, everything resets for the next one: the standings, the pot, and every voter's one vote. Season boundaries are recorded in Europe/Berlin time.
How the prize is paid
By hand, after the season closes, against that season’s own public record. Nothing in this system moves money on its own, and the season page says whether a prize has actually been paid or is still pending. After the prize is paid we ask the winner for a short, shareable note or clip about what it paid for. It is a request, not a condition: the money is transferred first and is never held back for it.
Where the pot comes from
50% of everything a sponsor pays for a place on the board goes into that week’s pot, plus whatever we have seeded ourselves and anything rolled over from a previous season. Sponsors cannot win it. Founders never pay into it.
What we keep about a voter
Three things, and only for people who actually vote: which provider vouched for them, a stable account id there, and the date that account was created. The handle is stored so the board can show who voted. No email address is requested, no access token is kept, and nothing is written down about somebody the age gate turns away beyond a daily count of how many were turned away.
Ask and it will be deleted, which removes the votes it cast along with it.
This season’s numbers
- Seeded by us
- 250 €
- Pays out above
- 250 €
Impressum
- Responsible
- Anton Berndt
- Address
- Weisestr. 37, 12049 Berlin
- Contact
- anton.mateo.berndt98@gmail.com
- Register
- Nicht vorhanden
- VAT ID
- DE344465391