# saas.garden

A unique directory and community platform for active micro-SaaS builders and indie hackers. Unlike traditional directories where listings are ranked by pure social upvotes or paid placement, saas.garden ranks projects by actual developer activity – a process we call "watering".

## Project Philosophy
The core philosophy is that active development and transparent building in public should be rewarded. The platform encourages founders (Gardeners) to post regular development logs (Watering) to keep their projects (Seedlings) alive and ranking high.

## Core Mechanics & Rules
- **Seedlings (Projects)**: Users can submit their SaaS projects. Submissions can be fast-tracked via a Stripe payment to skip manual moderation.
- **Gardeners (Users)**: User profiles track planted seedlings, earned badges, and recent activity across the platform.
- **Watering (Devlogs)**: Founders keep their project at the top of the feed by posting updates. This is the primary way to gain "Growth Points".
- **Cultivation Scoring Algorithm**: Growth points are calculated based on the quality of the devlog:
  - Base points for simply posting an update.
  - Bonus points for including media (images/videos) in the update.
  - **Penalties**: The algorithm explicitly penalizes marketing fluff and AI buzzwords (e.g., 'revolutionize', 'synergy', 'game-changing', 'next-generation'). The focus must be on genuine development progress.
- **The Compost Heap**: Projects that haven't been watered (updated) in over 30 days are automatically considered dead and are moved to the Compost Heap. This ensures the main Garden Feed is always fresh and full of actively maintained products.
- **Upvotes & Favorites**: Community members can upvote and save their favorite projects, which provides secondary ranking signals and engagement metrics.