How server ranking works
The leaderboard is a weighted score, not a vote count. Every signal and its current weight is listed below - these are the live values the scoring job is using right now.
The signals
Votes (30 days)
Log scaled, so the difference between 100 and 1,000 votes matters more than between 9,000 and 10,000. Older votes fall out of the window.
Vote velocity (24 hours)
What is happening right now. Servers younger than 30 days get this signal amplified so new listings are discoverable.
Measured players
Concurrent players read from the server itself. Servers we cannot measure score zero here rather than an invented number.
Uptime
The share of monitoring probes that succeeded over the retention window. Reliability counts.
Server age
A small, capped bonus. It rewards servers that stick around without letting them coast forever.
Reviews
Average rating, damped until a listing has 10 reviews so a single five-star review cannot carry a server.
Paid placement, stated plainly
Promotion adds a flat bonus on top of the earned score. The current values are Featured +6, Premium +12 and Sponsored +18 points. Every promoted listing carries a badge, and no listing is ever demoted for not paying.
For scale: each earned signal contributes at most 10 points before its weight is applied, so promotion is a real advantage but not a bypass.
Keeping votes honest
- - One vote per server per identity every 12 hours, enforced against the database rather than a cookie.
- - Daily caps per network (12) and per device (12).
- - Burst detection when many identities vote from one network.
- - Rate limiting in front of the vote endpoint, and an audit trail when staff remove fraudulent votes.
- - Addresses are stored as salted hashes. We never keep raw IPs.
Questions
Why is a server with fewer votes ranked higher?
Votes are log scaled and measured over 30 days, so a long-dormant server with a huge historical total does not outrank an active one. Measured players, uptime and reviews also contribute.
Can I buy the top spot?
No. Promotion adds a fixed, published boost to the score. It is meaningful but bounded, and the rest of the score still has to be earned.
How are player counts measured?
By probing the server directly. Where the protocol reports player counts we store them; otherwise we only record whether the port answered. Owner-supplied player numbers are never displayed.
How often does the leaderboard update?
Scores are recalculated on a schedule and immediately after events that change them, such as approving a listing or removing a fraudulent vote.