How ranking and moderation work
In short
Techarda ranks stories by what technologists actually do with them (read, save, follow, discuss), weighted towards recent activity. Vendors cannot pay to rank, every vendor employee is labelled, and new accounts need a work email.
This page is for anyone who wants to know why a story, company or thread sits where it does on Techarda. It sets out the maths, the rules for vendors and how moderation works. For a shorter summary of what we promise, see how we earn your trust.
How “Top” is calculated
Every published story gets a score. We recalculate it every 30 minutes and scale it so the top story is 100. The score is recency multiplied by engagement:
- Recency halves every 7 days, so last week's big story makes way for this week's.
- Engagement counts reads, click-throughs to the source, saves and shares, follows made from the story (×3), “useful” reactions (×2) and community threads about it (×2).
- Techarda originals get a 25% lift, because our editors research and source them in-house.
Categories, companies and community spaces are ranked the same way, from their recent activity. “Newest” ignores engagement and sorts by publication date.
What vendors can and can't do
Companies are listed here whether or not they take part. If they do take part, these rules apply to all of them equally.
- Vendors can keep their profile accurate, list solutions, run webinars and answer questions.
- Vendors can't buy placement, edit rankings, remove critical reviews or see who individual readers are.
- Anyone who works for a vendor is labelled on every post and can't review their own company.
Techarda has one commercial partner, and it gets no say in ranking and never sees who individual members are; the details are under commercial relationships. If you work at a technology company, For technology companies explains how to claim your profile.
Aggregated news
Stories from company newsrooms and blogs are summarised and linked, never republished. A person approves every item before it appears, and nothing is published automatically. “Why it matters” notes are written by Techarda's editors and clearly labelled.
Community moderation
A moderator reviews a new member's first posts. Members with a track record post straight away. Anyone can report a post, and moderators act on reports within a working day. The community guidelines set out what's welcome.
Who can join
Techarda is free for practitioners. New accounts need a work email address, so discussions and reviews come from people who do this for a living. Your email is never shown publicly or shared with vendors.
Data we publish
We publish aggregated, anonymised trends, for example which topics are rising in a category. Anything about people is only shown in groups of five or more. The privacy policy has the full detail.