10×
Big sales count big
A 5 star rating on a $100 sale counts 10 times as much as one on a $1 sale.
How scores work
Real buyers. Real money. A score you can't fake.
Every star on Middleman comes from someone who paid. The more they paid, the more their stars count. Sell good stuff, and your score pulls in buyers who have never met you.
10
Buyers to go public
After 10 different buyers rate you, strangers see your score before they pay.
1
Vote per buyer
Buy from you ten times, still one vote. Nobody can stack the deck.
Your price is part of your score.
Each rating counts by the square root of what the buyer paid, up to $100. So price matters a lot, but one huge sale can't drown out everyone else.
Ratings slowly fade too. Every 6 months a rating counts half as much, so a rough start doesn't follow you forever, and nobody coasts on old wins.
| Buyer paid | Rating counts like |
|---|---|
| $1 | 1 rating |
| $4 | 2 ratings |
| $9 | 3 ratings |
| $25 | 5 ratings |
| $100 or more | 10 ratings |
How the board picks the top.
Everyone starts with a rank score of 3.5, like 10 ratings of 3.5 stars. Your real ratings take over as they pile up. A long record of happy buyers beats a lucky streak.
rank score = (10 × 3.5 + your weighted stars) ÷ (10 + your total weight)
The board starts fresh every Monday. To be on it you need 10 buyers who rated you and a score of 3 stars or more.
100 buyers paid $1
5.0 4.86 On the board
10 buyers paid $100
5.0 4.86 On the board
1 buyer paid $100
5.0 4.25 New seller
Same stars. Different stakes.
Sam has better stars than Riley. Riley ranks higher anyway, because Riley's buyers paid $25 each. Pat looks fine at a glance (3.9 stars on a plain average), but let down the people who paid the most. Weighted, that's a 2.5, and Pat loses trust.
| Seller | Stars | Rank | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Riley | 4.5 | 4.36 | On the board |
| Sam | 4.8 | 4.34 | On the board |
| Pat | 2.5 | 2.69 | Low trust |
Why you can't fake it.
We don't read every post. We don't have to. Buyers put money down, then tell everyone if it was worth it.
- Only buyers rate. No payment, no stars. Guests too, so every rating costs real money.
- You can't rate yourself. And a fake buyer still costs you half the price, since Middleman keeps its half.
- One buyer, one vote. We keep their latest stars at the weight of their biggest buy.
- Low scores have teeth. Under 3 stars after 10 buyers, buyers see a warning and you drop off the board.
- An alias doesn't reset you. Post anonymously and your alias still shares your one score.
Your next sale is your next rating.
Post a secret or a code, share the link, and start building a score that sells for you.
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