Ranking rules

Current parameters

Values read from the ranking configuration, as applied today.

Ranking criterion: Valid votes over the last 30 days
With equal votes: Earliest published listing first
Places per podium (maximum): 3

Public moderation decisions (cancelled votes, suspended listings, removed reviews) are recorded in the moderation log.

In short

For players, the numbered ranking is based only on the number of valid votes received over the last 30 days. The Podium and sponsored rows are advertising. They never carry a rank number or a medal and don't change the ranking.

For owners, the only way to rise is for your community to vote. Paying (a Podium place or Sponsored) changes neither your rank nor your votes. Reviews, measured activity and declared population are shown on listings but don't count in the ranking.

The ranking is computed separately for each game and recalculated every 10 minutes. Vote counters on listings and lists are refreshed at least once an hour. The “All games” tab brings the servers of every game together, in the same order, from most to fewest votes.

One criterion, votes over the last 30 days

Servers are ranked from the most to the fewest valid votes received over the last 30 days, on a rolling window. Each day, the votes of the 31st day drop out of the count. No other data is used.

Only valid votes count. The rule is one vote per account and per server within the delay shown on the listing (currently 2 hours), enforced by the database rather than the browser. Each vote token works only once, limits apply per IP address and a bot check runs when it is enabled. Votes cancelled after an anomaly review are removed from the counters. Vote days are counted in UTC.

Ties

With the same number of votes, the server published earliest comes first.

What never counts in the organic ranking

Podium places, the Sponsored offer and any payment made to Rankserveurs.
Paid options (animated media, videos, etc.).
Reviews and ratings, measured activity, declared population, descriptions, media.
Cancelled votes.
Demo listings (the figures and rank they show in preview are examples), and unpublished, suspended or archived listings (they have no rank).

Podium and Sponsored, what advertising changes and what it does not

Rankserveurs offers two advertising products, booked by the day from the creator space. These paid placements are always marked with a gold crown badge, titled “Sponsored” and read out by screen readers. They are never part of the ranking calculation.

The Podium

Three paid places (left, middle, right) at the top of the home page and of the Servers page (global podium), and at the top of every game page (one podium per game, with Minecraft Java and Minecraft Bedrock each having their own).
Places are booked by the day. A server holds only one place per podium per day.
A Podium card has no medal and no number. Medals 1, 2 and 3 and trend arrows are reserved for the organic ranking.
Only booked places are shown, always in left → middle → right order, never with an empty slot (3 at most, one per position). On the home page they follow each other in that same order, as a carousel on computers (visitors move from one to the next, nothing scrolls automatically) and one below the other on phones. With no booking, the podium does not appear (the home page then shows the top three of the ranking, without the badge).
During the booked days, the server gets the animated thumbnail.

In lists and the ranking table, a sponsored server's row is shown in “premium” colours (dark blue background, gold edge) and carries the “Sponsored” badge. Its size, rank and position do not change.
In search results, sponsored servers matching the search are shown first, with the “Sponsored” badge. Other results keep their order.
On a server's vote page, up to three sponsored servers of the same game may be suggested, picked at random and marked with the “Sponsored” badge.
During the paid days, the listing is customised with the animated thumbnail, a button accent colour chosen by the team, and its cover as the background image of the page.
At most 30 active days per month. Automatic renewal only happens if the team turns it on.

What advertising never changes

The rank, score, medals and trend arrows of the organic ranking. The organic #1 stays #1.
Votes, reviews and activity measurements.
Editorial selections, which are not for sale.
The information shown on listings (measurements, reviews, declared population).
No number of impressions or clicks is guaranteed. Campaign statistics (impressions, clicks by source) are shared with the team that bought it. A click is never presented as a sign-up on the server.

The Visibility and advertising page explains where these offers appear and how to book them. Prices are shown to signed-in creators, in their creator space.

Editorial selections

Home page selections (editors' choice, new servers) are not for sale. The Podium is advertising and carries the gold “Sponsored” badge.

Fighting manipulation

Votes are protected by a delay between votes enforced by the database, a single-use token, limits per IP address and per fingerprint, and automatic anomaly detection followed by human review and, where needed, cancellation. Moderation decisions are logged.
A server that manipulates the ranking faces sanctions. Its votes may be cancelled and its listing suspended or removed, with reasons given and a way to appeal. Public decisions appear in the moderation log.

Transparency

Every calculation records, for each server, the number of votes taken into account and the rank obtained. This record is kept for 30 days.
The calculation rule is the one published on this page. Any change is published here with its effective date.

Questions and disputes

Any question or dispute about the ranking can be sent to the Rankserveurs team from the Contact page. Requests are reviewed by a person.