DebutList

Community guidelines

Short, because the rules that matter are few. Everything here exists to keep the record readable and worth trusting. Where a rule needs a contractual form it has one in the terms of service.

Submitting a product

  • Submit something that exists and that a stranger can use or buy today. “Coming soon” is a valid state — mark it as one.
  • One page per product. Rebrands update the existing record; they do not start a fresh one.
  • You may submit a product you did not build, but you cannot claim its page unless you can prove control of the domain.
  • The one-line description must describe the product, not the market. No “the #1 AI-powered platform for”.
  • Screenshots must be of the real product.

Updates

  • 500 characters, one 15-minute edit window, then the entry is frozen.
  • Post when something happened. Posting weekly to stay visible does not work — frequency is not a ranking signal.
  • Marketing copy with no substance is removed, not down-ranked.
  • Numbers in an update must match the verified series if there is one.

Votes

  • Ask people to look at your launch. That is normal and expected.
  • Do not pay for votes, trade votes, or run vote rings. Detection is boring and effective, and the penalty is delisting.
  • Vote velocity concentrated on one referrer is discounted automatically — a vote-buying campaign mostly wastes your money.

Reviews

  • Review products you have actually used. Verified reviews require a confirmed purchase.
  • You cannot review a product you work on, invested in, or compete with directly.
  • Founders may reply publicly, once per review. Founders cannot delete a review, and paying us will not remove one.
  • Reviews about support experiences are welcome; reviews about a person are not.

Deals

  • Every code needs a real expiry date. Publication is derived from that date automatically.
  • Codes must work for anyone who arrives from DebutList, for the full advertised period.
  • A reported broken code is unpublished the same day.
  • Repeatedly listing dead codes removes deal access for that account.

Lifecycle and closure records

  • Only the founder marks a product dormant, for sale, acquired or closed.
  • Write as much or as little of the post-mortem as you want. The structured cause-of-death field is required; the prose is not.
  • Closure records are permanent. They can be edited by the founder, and never deleted by anyone.
  • If a label on your product is wrong, claim the page and appeal — appeals are read by a person within two working days.

Removal and appeals

We remove

  • Scams and malware
  • Content that impersonates another company
  • Resold or white-labelled products presented as original
  • Anything unlawful in Canada

We do not remove

  • A bad review
  • A negative comparison
  • An accurate closure record
  • A competitor's listing

Regardless of who asks or what they offer to pay.

Every removal is explained by email and can be appealed once to a human. To appeal, first claim the page so the decision is attached to an account that controls the product, then write to appeals@debutlist.com. Appeals are answered within two working days.