THE FAIRNESS PLEDGE
CLAPSTORM exists because launch platforms kept selling the things that should never be for sale: placement, speed, and links. This page is our promise in writing — what stays free forever, what money can never buy here, and how we keep ourselves honest.
Free forever
- Launching is free. No submission fee, no waiting queue, no paid fast-track. Submit and you’re in the current round instantly.
- The backlink is free. Every launch gets a permanent product page with a dofollow link to your site — whatever its placing, forever. It is never a paid feature, never conditional on winning, and never taken away.
What money can never buy
- Claps. They can’t be bought, sold, or transferred — the only way to get claps is to show up.
- Ranking and placement. No promoted slots, no featured tiers, no sponsored positions on the board, no ads in the feed. The board is ordered by claps alone.
- Wins. Round winners, Hall of Fame spots, and winner stories are decided by claps when the round closes — there is no paid route to any of them.
- Moderation. It only subtracts: spam and fraud are removed, taking their fake claps with them. Nothing and nobody is ever nudged up.
What we may sell — and how it stays off the board
CLAPSTORM may offer optional paid services for makers, such as submitting your product to third-party directories or producing a post-launch report. The rule they all live under is simple: nothing you can buy appears on the board or affects it. Paid services are only ever visible on the buyer’s own product page or delivered off-site, they are always clearly labeled, and they never change claps, ranking, placement, rounds, or winners. If a paid idea can’t satisfy that rule, we don’t ship it.
How you can check
- The methodology is public. How CLAPSTORM works documents where every clap and ranking comes from.
- Every clap is on the record. Claps are written to an append-only ledger, and the board is derived from it — the numbers you see are the ledger, not an editorial choice.
- Changes happen here first. If any part of this pledge ever changed, this page would say so, dated, before anything else did.
Questions or something that looks off? Tell us — or judge for yourself on this week’s board.
FAQ
Can anyone pay to rank higher on CLAPSTORM?
No. Claps can’t be bought, sold, or transferred; there are no promoted slots, featured tiers, or paid boosts; and moderation only ever subtracts fake activity. The board you see is exactly what the community backed.
Is launching really free?
Yes — free forever. There’s no submission fee, no queue to skip, and no paid fast-track, and every launch gets a permanent product page with a dofollow link to your site, whatever its placing.
Does CLAPSTORM sell anything at all?
CLAPSTORM may offer optional paid services for makers — things like directory submission or a post-launch report. None of them appear on the board or affect it: no service changes claps, ranking, placement, rounds, or winners, and the free launch and free dofollow link never become paid.
How would I know if this ever changed?
This page is the commitment. If any part of the pledge ever changed, it would be announced here first, with the date — not slipped into a pricing page.