The Pit - Design Philosophy

1. Daily rounds, not endless feeds

The Pit runs in daily cycles. Each day:

• a new arena opens
• a new set of lines competes
• a king is crowned
• the winning line is archived
• the Pit closes
• tomorrow's Pit loads with whatever users dropped today

There is no infinite feed and no scrolling back through old rounds.

2. One line as the core constraint

Each user can drop:

• 1 free line
• up to 2 paid extra shots
• max 3 lines per day

Each is one sentence. The ideal is a single clean line; 280 characters is just the ceiling that keeps it tight. There are:

• no threads
• no essays
• no editing after submit

This forces clarity, instinct, wit, confession, chaos, accidental wisdom. Constraint is the medium. The pressure is the point.

3. Human voting

There is no engagement-ranking feed:

• no "for you" algorithm
• no boosting
• no personalization
• no pay-to-win visibility

The only algorithmic piece is a fairness sampler:

• it balances exposure across lines
• it prevents any single line from dominating too early
• it does not optimize for retention or monetization

The winner is 100% decided by human votes.

4. The five vote cards

Each voter gets 5 cards: a bundle of lines to judge.

Under the hood:

• payment does not increase visibility
• distribution is balanced so every line gets a fair shot
• randomness is bounded and fairness-driven

Cards are anonymous: only the text is shown, and aliases stay hidden until a line is crowned.

Each voter gets a different random 5-card bundle. Your taste score comes from how your choices in that bundle match the crowd once the round resolves; you are measured on how well you judged what you saw, not on which cards you drew.

The Pit deals you a hand. You are judged on what you do with it.

5. Taste scores and weekly status

Voting is not just participation; it is where your taste is measured. For each bundle you judge:

• your crowns/bricks create a taste signal for the five jokes you saw
• after the round, we compare your calls on those same jokes to how the crowd voted on them
• lining up with the crowd (or spotting what they later like) helps your score
• missing the vibe on those cards hurts your score

Taste is aggregated over a 7-day rolling window:

• 60% this week
• 40% last week
• you must judge enough bundles on enough days to be eligible

This creates momentum: you can climb fast if you are sharp and active; veterans keep some inertia, but only if they show up. Ghost voters and inactive users do not clog the badges. Overall points for voters stay stable and are cumulative.

6. Status tiers (percentile-based, not inflated)

Your weekly taste score puts you into percentiles among all eligible voters, which map to tiers:

• At or above the 80th percentile: Pit Reader
• At or above the 93rd percentile: Pit Whisperer
• At or above the 97th percentile: Pit Oracle
• Below the 80th percentile: Pack

Voting power multipliers:

• Pit Reader: 1.5x
• Pit Whisperer: 2x
• Pit Oracle: 3x

All voting power is merit-based: badges are earned from weekly taste performance, not bought or boosted.

Badges stay scarce. Inflation is impossible. Effort and accuracy are rewarded. Tiers are recalculated weekly, but the 60/40 decay keeps things from feeling random.

7. Weekly snapshots create official standings

After the weekly crown on Sunday:

• a snapshot freezes that week's standings
• your badge for the week is fixed
• the live hall continues to update on the rolling 7-day window

Snapshots create a transparent record of how the week actually unfolded.

8. Ritual, not addiction loops

The Pit deliberately uses:

• a crown
• badges
• a leaderboard
• a live ticker for your own lines
• a daily ritual

But refuses to add:

• infinite scroll
• algorithmic dopamine traps
• engagement farms
• loot-box mechanics
• "stay forever" loops

It is a short, intense session: drop; judge; see; maybe tip; leave. You return because the ritual ends, not because the app will not let you go.

9. Structural moderation, not vibe policing

Moderation is built into the system:

• NSFW and slurs are blocked server-side
• lines that collect only bricks are auto-retired over time
• strikes and temporary suspensions keep repeat offenders out of the arena
• users can flag what slips through
• fairness sampling limits visibility abuse
• daily closure prevents drama from compounding endlessly

Chaos is allowed. Hate and harassment are not.

10. Closure is sacred

Each day and each week ends cleanly:

• the king is crowned
• tips are settled
• taste scores are updated
• badges are recalculated
• a fresh round opens

This is not a forever-stream. It is a ritual: finite, rhythmic, meaningful because it ends.