Richest QueueJoin once · $5
A permanent number, a character in the line and a public profile. Add your logo and website, then keep it current. Nobody notices a profile that stopped in June.
HOW IT WORKS.
We were late to the last few big things, so we built a place to watch the next one form. Richest Queue is a line of projects that think they might be it. Richest in what? Credits buy a day as a VIP at the front of the queue or a featured spot on the screens, the first things visitors see, and RQ measures what they do next and reports it back to you. $5 once gets a permanent numbered ticket and a record RQ keeps adding to. RQ Rank is worked out from that record: response on RQ, public evidence and how the project changes against its own history. It cannot be bought. A fifth of every payment goes into the Pot, which RQ pays out in money to projects it selects.
Credits · optional
Earn them by finishing your entry and supporting other projects, or buy a pack. They buy a VIP day or Featured placement.
RQ Rank
RQ Rank is calculated from measured response and public evidence. Spending credits adds no points.
RQ #1 is the top of the earned board. A day at the rope is bought and over in twenty-four hours. They are unrelated.
Your permanent place
One $5 payment gives your project a permanent RQ number and a public profile. Your number records when you joined; it never changes with your ranking.
Keep the project current, share its profile and follow genuine response in My Account.
Join · $5Credits details
Credits are the one currency for everything beyond the ticket. Packs of 20, 100, 400 and 1,200 credits cost $5, $25, $100 and $300. Credits never expire, and they never move RQ Rank.
Earning. Every ticket includes 4 credits. Finishing the entry earns up to 10 more, weighted to what improves scoring. Day to day, supporting other projects earns a little at a time.
| Action | Credits | Cap |
|---|---|---|
| Public URL verified reachable | 2 | once |
| Public repo or docs link, provenance-checked | 2 | once |
| Logo, description, category, country, second category, recovery email | 1 each | once |
| Upvote another project | 1 | 4 a day |
| Post an update | 3 | 1 a week |
| Monthly check-in | 2 | 1 a month |
| Bring a plus-one who buys a ticket | 20 | none |
Small earnings stop at 8 credits a day. Self-votes, same-network votes and bursts do not count.
VIP. Five VIPs a day stand at the front of the queue, in front of everyone. One sealed bid per project per day, in credits, no minimum. Bidding is open for the next drop only, so a bid holds your credits for a day rather than a fortnight. If fewer projects bid than there are stands for sale, everyone who bid stands. At 08:00 UTC the highest bids win and stand for twenty-four hours, then walk back to their places. Winners pay what they bid; lose and your credits come back; ties go to the earlier bid. What anyone bid is never shown, before or after the drop. On any single day RQ may keep one of the five stands back and give it out itself: the rest are won by bid as usual, how many are for sale is published when bidding for that day opens, and a stand RQ gave out says so on the rope. Days as a VIP are recorded on the project page.
What it buys. A good project seen by more people will beat a good project nobody sees. A day at the front puts your project in front of people who have not come across it before. RQ Rank is earned from what your project does in the world, and nothing you spend here changes that. Money buys exposure. Exposure buys a chance. Only the project converts it.
Featured. In the queue you wait to be noticed. Featured puts your project on the screens around the front of the queue, in front of everyone who opens RQ, for as long as you book: eight hours, a day, three days, seven or fourteen. Four screens are for sale, all inside the first view on every phone and desktop. The price rises as a time fills and drifts down while it stays empty; it is quoted when you book and honoured. Every booking gets the same report: seen, opened and clicked through, next to your normal week. The rate card has live prices.
Where. Balance, earning, packs, bids and bookings all live in My Account: credits on Your project, and a view each for VIP and Featured. Bid to be a VIP at the next drop; book Featured up to four weeks ahead.
Become a VIP or get featured in My Account ↗How RQ Rank is measured
Product Signal reflects applicable public evidence about a project. Momentum describes changes in its measured response; confidence reflects how much reliable evidence is available. Together with persistence, these determine earned standing. A short spike can draw interest without immediately taking the top rank. Qualified category standings use the same model.
Every project is scored under RQ's own assessment model: independent reviews of the same public evidence against the same rubric, scoring Proof, Clarity, Utility, Differentiation and Potential. We average them and say where they disagree. The reasoning is published on the project page. Money is never an input.
The board recalculates every ten minutes. The mark beside a rank compares with 24 hours ago; NEW means no published rank a week ago.
New projects gather evidence before a rank is published. Missing evidence stays unavailable; it is never replaced by a made-up score.
Explore RQ Rank ↗Waiting Room ↗ · Post an update ↗
Measurement and methodology
Views, Project opens and Website visits record first-party response. Where relevant, public sources such as GitHub, search, YouTube and app stores add evidence over time. A project does not need every source.
Momentum measures relative change. Sustained evidence carries more weight than a brief spike. Confidence describes evidence depth, not project quality or popularity; time alone does not build it.
The Pot: a hand up for projects that cannot pay for one
Not everything worth a look can pay for one. 20% of every successful payment goes into The Pot: $1 of each $5 ticket, a fifth of every credit pack.
What it does. The Pot pays money to a project it picks, by hand, to the bank account or wallet that project supplies, recorded as an auditable funding transaction. Never more than a quarter of the Pot at once. It buys nothing: not Featured time, and never a bid at the rope, because a sealed auction cannot take money from the house and a promised refund would be bid up in advance.
Who gets it. RQ picks from the evidence: a strong assessment, genuine growth in the outside world, and no budget to buy attention. Any owner can also ask from My Account; requests are screened privately and never shown.
What it is not. Not a lottery, not a prize and not an entitlement. Pot funding adds no rank points.
What comes next. The Pot is a fifth of RQ's revenue, ring-fenced for the community. Screen time is how it gives back today. RQ is looking at other ways, and will say so here when there is something to say.
Questions
Is the rope a rank? No. A day at the rope is bought with credits and over in twenty-four hours. RQ Rank is earned and never moves for it.
What if I lose the bid? Every credit comes back. Losing bids are never shown.
Can I bid more than once for the same day? One bid per project per day. You can change it or withdraw it until the drop at 08:00 UTC.
How do I bid? Open My Account, then Credits. Under Today's VIPs pick a day, enter the credits and place the bid. A standing bid repeats it every day until a date you choose.
How do I book a screen? Open My Account, then Credits. Under The screens pick a surface, a start slot and a length; the quote shows before you book, and the price you see is the price you pay.
Why do screen prices move? Each booking already in a slot lifts the next by a fifth of base, and an unsold slot inside the next week drifts down a tenth a day to half base. The price you are quoted is the price you pay.
Do credits expire? No. Earned or bought, they wait on your balance.
Can I cash credits out? No. Credits are not money and do not transfer between accounts.
Does the Pot favour anyone? RQ picks from the evidence, after the fact, and pays that project money. It buys no attention and never bids at the rope. It is discretionary and never a promise.
What do I get for a booking? The same report every surface gets: impressions, opens and outbound visits during the run.
Beyond the Queue
RQ Radar highlights editorial discoveries outside the membership. A mention is not an admission, paid position or earned RQ Rank.