How it works

How BuildDock actually decides what to show you

This page exists because the FAQ's short answer leaves out the mechanics. Here's the real thing, in more detail — including the parts that aren't built yet.

The short version

Every time your bar loads, BuildDock runs a weighted random draw over every eligible project. Projects that have been shown less recently get better odds; projects that have been shown a lot recently get worse odds, temporarily. It's not a fixed rotation and it's not a coin flip — it's somewhere in between, on purpose.

The weighted draw, step by step

For each eligible project, BuildDock counts how many impressions it's received in the last 48 hours — a rolling window, not an all-time total. That count feeds directly into a weight:

All the weights for that moment's eligible projects are added up, and BuildDock rolls a random number against that total — the same idea as a raffle where a less-shown project holds more tickets. Because the 48-hour window is rolling, a project's exposure history isn't a permanent mark against it: impressions age out, and its odds recover on their own as time passes without a new one being added.

What keeps it fair right now

• No immediate repeats. BuildDock remembers, per requesting site, which project it recommended last, and excludes that project from the very next draw.
• Self-exclusion. A member's own site is never recommended its own project.
• Only active members are eligible. A paused or cancelled project is excluded from the draw entirely.

What's designed but not built yet

The fuller system BuildDock is building toward adds three things this version doesn't have: synchronized rotation slots shown to every site at the same moment, a dedicated cooldown period, and a contribution-weighted Boost pool. None of that exists yet — we'll update this page the moment any of it ships.

Why this version, and not the full design yet

This is a first, honest version of the scheduler, built on real data with no fabricated numbers. We'd rather ship something real and say exactly what it does than describe a system that doesn't exist yet.