# How ranking works > Aback Launch ranks each week's launches by member upvotes only, ties going to the earlier submission; a week's result is frozen when it closes, and payment never buys votes, rank or a dofollow link. Canonical: https://abacklaunch.com/how-ranking-works Skip to content The rules that decide where a launch places, in plain words. Every number on this page is read from the code that enforces it. Effective Date: October 26, 2026 ## The short version A launch's place is decided by one thing: how many members upvoted it. If two launches have the same number of upvotes, the one submitted first places higher. Nothing else moves a launch up or down the board, and nothing is for sale. ## The weekly race - Launches go live every Friday at 00:00 UTC. There are 10 free spots each Friday, plus paid spots. - Each launch collects upvotes until the ISO week closes at Monday 00:00 UTC. - While the week is open, the board moves as votes arrive. - When the week closes, its result is frozen: it is counted from the votes cast inside that week, so votes a launch gets later never change a closed week. - The top three of each closed week are recorded as that week's winners, on the winners page and the week's archive. A relaunch starts a new race from zero upvotes on its new day. The earlier launch keeps its place in the archive of the week it ran in. ## Who can vote - Signed-in members, one upvote per launch. A member can take a vote back, but cannot vote twice. - Founders cannot vote on their own launch. - Only live launches take votes: a launch booked for a later day takes none until its day starts. - Commenting and writing reviews need an account at least 24 hours old. ## Votes from new accounts Friends and followers who sign up on launch day to support a founder should count. Farms of throwaway accounts should not. So a vote from an account younger than 24 hours counts at once, but is marked provisional, and two rules keep it honest: - At most 2 provisional votes from one network count for one launch. A household or an office is a few people; a batch of new accounts from one host is not. - Before any podium is scored, every provisional vote is settled. A vote is dropped when it is part of a burst: at least 3 votes on one launch within 10 minutes, each from an account made at most 60 minutes before it voted that did nothing else. Every other provisional vote is confirmed. ## What money can buy - Fast Track: the earliest open launch day, and approval as soon as you pay instead of waiting for free review. - Featured: a launch day of your choice, a spot on the homepage, full analytics, and a mention on our social channels and newsletter. - Relaunch: a new launch day for a listing you already have. - Ads: placements sold by the week. Every ad is labelled Sponsored and its link carries rel="sponsored". Prices are on the [pricing page](https://abacklaunch.com/pricing). ## What money cannot buy - Upvotes, or a higher place on the board. Paid launches race on the same votes as free ones. - A place among the winners. - A dofollow link. The link from a listing becomes dofollow only when our badge is verified on the founder's site, on every plan, and a weekly check keeps it honest. - Approval of a listing that breaks the guidelines. ## Moderation - Every free listing is reviewed by a person against [what we accept](https://abacklaunch.com/guidelines), and every edit is checked after it is saved. - Moderators can remove a listing that breaks the rules, and set any listing's link to nofollow for quality reasons. - A free listing whose badge has been missing for 14 days is removed. - The badge rule in full is on [how the badge works](https://abacklaunch.com/badge/how-it-works). Questions about a result: [contact us](https://abacklaunch.com/contact). ## Launch your startup on Aback Launch Get a launch page that search engines and AI assistants can read, a place in the weekly launch list, and a review by a real person. Free to join. [Submit Your Startup](https://abacklaunch.com/submit) [Browse Products](https://abacklaunch.com/products)