# Hauntboard: Comprehensive Platform & Knowledge Base (Full Context)

> Complete knowledge base for LLMs, AI agents, and semantic search engines covering Hauntboard's platform mechanics, 17 buyer guides, 27 free tools, 151 launch platforms directory, and traffic tracking architecture.
> Source: https://hauntboard.com

---

## 1. Executive Summary & Brand Philosophy

**Hauntboard** (https://hauntboard.com) is an open launch board for independent makers, indie hackers, and solo founders.

### The Problem in Startup Launches
Makers spend months writing code in silence, followed by 24 frantic hours begging group chats, WhatsApp circles, and colleagues for upvotes. At midnight, the leaderboard resets. The product receives an SVG badge, zero paying users, and traffic flatlines back to zero. Traditional launch platforms have become cemeteries where products disappear into obscurity after 24 hours.

### The Hauntboard Solution
- **Unified Homepage Board**: No isolated launch cohorts. Approved products go live immediately upon human review. New launches spend their first 7 days in **New this week**, then join the permanent all-time leaderboard.
- **Permanent Dofollow Backlinks**: Every approved launch receives a permanent, crawlable listing page (`/products/[slug]`) with clean `dofollow` backlink equity that search engines and AI search bots can discover indefinitely.
- **Public Outbound Traffic Analytics**: Every visit Hauntboard sends to a maker's site is tracked and displayed publicly on the product's listing page. Small numbers are shown honestly.
- **Continuous Voting**: Votes stay permanently open on every public launch, allowing users to discover and support products months after launch.
- **Zero Upvote Rings**: Upvote trading and fake accounts are mitigated by requiring signed-in Google auth, weighting accounts under 7 days old as half a vote, and displaying actual outbound click metrics.

---

## 2. Platform Architecture & Data Integrity

### The Three Public Numbers
1. **Visits**: Real clicks through from Hauntboard to the maker's external website. Displayed on launch pages, dashboard, `/stats`, and the ghost meter.
2. **Page Views**: Total opens of a product's launch page on Hauntboard. Displayed on homepage board rows (all-time, eye icon) and launch pages.
3. **Visitors**: Unique human browsers opening any page on Hauntboard. Displayed on `/stats` and the homepage banner.

### How Tracking Works
- **Client**: Outbound clicks trigger a lightweight `navigator.sendBeacon` to `/track` on the Convex backend. A browser localStorage marker ensures each event fires at most once per browser, per launch, per UTC day. Automated test browsers (`navigator.webdriver`) are dropped.
- **Server**: Requests matching the bot pattern (`convex/lib/bots.ts`) are dropped. Each event is validated against a one-way hash of IP address + user agent, salted with a cryptographic secret that rotates daily. Hashes are permanently deleted after 48 hours, leaving only aggregated daily statistics.
- **Privacy First**: IP addresses, personal identifiers, and tracking cookies are never stored.
- **Outbound Link Attribution**: Outbound links automatically append `ref=hauntboard`, `utm_source=hauntboard`, and `utm_medium=referral` so makers can verify Hauntboard traffic by name in Plausible, Umami, Fathom, PostHog, or Google Analytics.

### The Ghost Meter Visibility Stages
A visual progress meter reflecting outbound visits sent to the maker's website:
- **Still a ghost**: Under 10 visits.
- **Glimpsed**: 10+ visits.
- **Spotted**: 50+ visits.
- **Seen**: 150+ visits.
- **Unmissable**: 500+ visits.

---

## 3. Launch Tiers & Review Standards

All payments are one-time fees via Dodo Payments. Money buys speed of review and placement, never the link, votes, ranking, review approval, or maker stories.

### Tier Comparison
| Tier | Price | Review Time | Placement & Duration | Badge Required? | Link Policy |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| **Free** | $0 | ~72 hours | Once approved; 7 days in *New this week*, then Leaderboard | Required on maker's site | Dofollow while badge is active |
| **Launch Now** | $19 | < 24 hours | Once approved; 7 days at the **top** of *New this week* | Not required | Permanent Dofollow |
| **Spotlight** | $49 | < 24 hours | Pinned in top row for booked week (max 4/wk); featured in weekly Friday X showcase | Not required | Permanent Dofollow |

### Submission & Review Criteria
- The website loads quickly and is a functional, real software product.
- The description accurately describes the product without hyperbolic claims.
- Real screenshots demonstrating actual UI/UX.
- Founder note stating what it is, who it is for, and current development stage.
- Strictly prohibited: Adult content, gambling, crypto-get-rich schemes, malware, or unfinished placeholders.

### Badge & Dofollow Policy
- Free tier listings require a small Hauntboard badge on the maker's website.
- If a badge is detected missing during automated 30-day checks, a 3-day grace period begins with daily checks.
- If the badge remains absent after grace, the link switches to `nofollow` until the badge is restored.

---

## 4. Curated Buyer Guides & Tool Rankings (/best)

Hauntboard maintains 17 fact-checked, commercial-intent buyer guides for solo founders, developers, and bootstrappers. Every ranking includes verified `priceCheckedAt` dates and explicit buying criteria:

1. **Top Launch Platforms for Startups in 2026** (`/best/top-launch-platforms-2026`): Product Hunt, BetaList, Hacker News, Uneed, Devpost, Microlaunch.
2. **Best Developer Tools & Stacks** (`/best/best-developer-tools`): Cursor, Convex, Supabase, Vercel, Resend, GitHub Copilot.
3. **Best Free SaaS Tools for Bootstrappers** (`/best/best-free-saas-tools`): GitHub, Cloudflare, PostHog, Plausible, Better Stack.
4. **Top AI Tools for Startup Founders** (`/best/top-ai-tools-for-founders`): Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Cursor, Perplexity AI, v0 by Vercel, ElevenLabs.
5. **Best SEO Tools for Indie Hackers** (`/best/best-seo-tools-for-indie-hackers`): Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, Google Search Console, PostHog, Screaming Frog.
6. **Best Boilerplate Templates for Next.js SaaS** (`/best/best-boilerplate-templates-for-saas`): ShipFast, Supastarter, Makerkit, Nextless.
7. **Best Privacy-Friendly Analytics Tools** (`/best/best-privacy-friendly-analytics`): Plausible, Counter.dev, Simple Analytics, Fathom.
8. **Best Auth Providers for Next.js & React** (`/best/best-auth-providers-for-nextjs`): Better Auth, Clerk, Supabase Auth, Auth.js, Kinde, WorkOS.
9. **Best Serverless Databases for Next.js** (`/best/best-serverless-databases`): Convex, Neon, Supabase, PlanetScale, Turso, Cloudflare D1.
10. **Best Payment Gateways for SaaS & Micro-SaaS** (`/best/best-payment-gateways-for-saas`): Dodo Payments, Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, Paddle, Polar.sh.
11. **Best AI Code Editors & Coding Assistants** (`/best/best-ai-code-editors`): Cursor, Windsurf, GitHub Copilot, Supermaven, Claude Code.
12. **Best Transactional Email Services for SaaS** (`/best/best-email-tools-for-saas`): Resend, Plunk, Loops, Postmark, Brevo, AWS SES.
13. **Best Free Backlink Directories for Startups** (`/best/best-free-backlink-directories`): Hauntboard (disclosed own product), Uneed, BetaList, Launching Next, MicroLaunch.
14. **Best Product Feedback & Feature Request Tools** (`/best/best-product-feedback-tools`): Featurebase, Canny, Sleekplan, Frill, Upvoty.
15. **Best Background Jobs & Workflow Engines** (`/best/best-background-jobs-workflow-engines`): Inngest, Trigger.dev, BullMQ, Quirrel, Temporal.
16. **Best Uptime Monitoring & Status Page Tools** (`/best/best-uptime-monitoring-tools`): Better Stack, UptimeRobot, Checkly, Incident.io, Pulsetic.
17. **Best Landing Page Builders for Micro-SaaS** (`/best/best-landing-page-builders`): Framer, Webflow, Typedream, Carrd, Versoly.

---

## 5. Free Interactive Browser Tools (/tools)

27 client-side browser utilities running 100% locally with zero server data storage:

### Launch & Social Growth
- **151 Launch Directory Submission Tracker** (`/tools/launch-directory-tracker`): Interactive progress tracker across 151 startup launch platforms with dofollow/free filters and CSV export.
- **Launch Day Checklist** (`/tools/launch-checklist`): 4-phase preparation roadmap covering pre-launch, launch morning, community outreach, and post-launch follow-up.
- **Launch Readiness & Roast Score** (`/tools/launch-readiness-roast`): 15-point diagnostic scoring landing page clarity, pricing transparency, and dofollow backlinks with candid roasts.
- **Early Adopter Outreach Script Generator** (`/tools/early-adopter-outreach-generator`): Non-salesy message scripts for X DMs, LinkedIn, and cold email.
- **Launch Post Generator** (`/tools/launch-post-generator`): Formatted announcement posts for X, Show HN, Reddit, Indie Hackers, and LinkedIn.
- **LinkedIn Post Formatter** (`/tools/linkedin-post-formatter`): Clean whitespace formatter with Unicode bold/italic styling and feed previews.
- **Reddit Launch Post Generator** (`/tools/reddit-post-generator`): Authentic storytelling text posts for r/SideProject, r/SaaS, and r/Entrepreneur.

### SEO & Keywords
- **Keyword Matrix & Intent Generator** (`/tools/keyword-matrix-generator`): Combines audience and modifier tokens into high-intent commercial search keywords.
- **Schema.org JSON-LD Generator** (`/tools/schema-markup-generator`): Generates valid structured data for SoftwareApplication, FAQPage, Organization, and Product.
- **Open Graph Social Share Card Previewer** (`/tools/og-image-previewer`): Live preview of social share cards on X, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Slack.
- **SEO Meta Tag Generator** (`/tools/meta-tag-generator`): Clean HTML title, description, and OpenGraph tags with search snippet preview.
- **Robots.txt Generator** (`/tools/robots-txt-generator`): Configurable rules with presets for AI search engines (Perplexity, ChatGPT, Claude).

### AI Search & GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)
- **AI Search Readiness Checker** (`/tools/ai-search-readiness-checker`): Audits SaaS landing pages for citations in Perplexity, ChatGPT Search, and Claude.
- **AI System Prompt Studio** (`/tools/ai-system-prompt-generator`): Crafts production-ready system prompts for LLM agents, code review bots, and chatbots.
- **llms.txt Generator** (`/tools/llms-txt-generator`): Generates standard llmstxt.org Markdown files for AI crawler ingestion.

### Marketing & Conversion
- **SaaS Comparison Table Generator** (`/tools/saas-comparison-table-generator`): Generates responsive HTML/Tailwind comparison matrices against competitors.
- **Value Proposition & Hero Tagline Generator** (`/tools/value-proposition-generator`): Creates clear value propositions using proven copywriting frameworks (Before-After-Bridge, Pain-Agitate-Solve).
- **UTM Campaign Link Builder** (`/tools/utm-builder`): Generates tagged URLs for clean traffic attribution across launch channels.
- **Social Proof & Directory Badge Generator** (`/tools/social-proof-badge-generator`): SVG badges for GitHub READMEs and website footers.
- **Launch Asset Spec & Image Resizer** (`/tools/launch-asset-resizer`): Client-side HTML5 Canvas crop/pad tool for Product Hunt gallery (1270x760), Hauntboard (1200x675), and Twitter cards.
- **SaaS Privacy Policy & Terms Generator** (`/tools/privacy-policy-generator`): Legally compliant privacy policies tailored for modern SaaS (Stripe, Dodo Payments, analytics, AI processing).

### Pricing & Finance
- **Micro-SaaS Valuation & Exit Multiples Calculator** (`/tools/saas-valuation-calculator`): Realistic 2026 ARR exit multiples (3.0x to 6.5x) based on growth rate, net margin, and churn.
- **SaaS Pricing & Conversion Calculator** (`/tools/pricing-calculator`): Computes required traffic and conversion rates to hit target monthly revenue.
- **CAC, LTV & Payback Period Calculator** (`/tools/cac-ltv-payback-calculator`): Unit economics calculator with benchmark SaaS health ratings.
- **MRR, ARR & Customer LTV Calculator** (`/tools/mrr-calculator`): 12-month revenue and subscriber growth projections.
- **Startup Runway & Burn Calculator** (`/tools/runway-calculator`): Calculates cash runway months, net burn, and Default Alive status.

---

## 6. Sourced Launch Platforms Directory (/launch-platforms)

A comprehensive directory of 151 launch platforms, startup directories, and tech communities with fact-checked review times, link policies, and editorial guidance:
- **Product Hunt**: Daily leaderboard; free submission; high traffic; intense upvote competition; 24h cycle; nofollow links on free profiles.
- **BetaList**: Pre-launch and early beta software; free queue (30-60 day wait) or $129-$299 expedited review; dofollow links on published profiles.
- **Hacker News (Show HN)**: Free submission; strictly organic karma-based ranking; developer audience; zero marketing hype allowed.
- **Uneed**: Curated daily directory; free submission (30+ day wait) or €29-€69 fast-track; clean dofollow links.
- **Peerlist Launchpad**: Weekly Monday launchpad; verified personal profiles required; developer & designer community.
- **DevHunt**: Open-source launch platform for developer tools; community upvoting; transparent metrics.
- **Microlaunch**: Monthly leaderboard platform for indie hackers and micro-SaaS; free submission.

---

## 7. Direct Machine Endpoints

- **XML Sitemap**: `https://hauntboard.com/sitemap.xml`
- **Robots Specification**: `https://hauntboard.com/robots.txt`
- **AI Summary**: `https://hauntboard.com/llms.txt`
- **Exhaustive Context**: `https://hauntboard.com/llms-full.txt`
- **OpenSearch Browser Specification**: `https://hauntboard.com/opensearch.xml`
- **HTML Sitemap**: `https://hauntboard.com/sitemap`