I turned my directory into a literal space race
by Patrick ChenA few weeks ago I killed a product directory I'd built (runs-this.today) and replaced it with something weirder: runs.space, where products don't "launch" — they race to orbit.
Every submission is a rocket. Fuel = community support (people spend a daily free allowance boosting other people's rockets, never their own — that rule is hard-blocked). Two races run at once: a weekly sprint with a real cash prize pool, and a marathon where any rocket that hits 500 fuel earns a permanent Orbit badge. There's a paid tier (Runner) that gives you a bigger daily fuel budget to hand out, but it can't buy you fuel back — money buys visibility, never rank.
It's been live about a week. Still early (a couple of real rockets racing, more reserved pads waiting to be claimed), but the mechanic actually works the way I hoped — watching a rocket move because someone chose to spend their daily fuel on it feels different from a static upvote count.
If you've got something to launch: runs.space
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The rocket mechanic seems to change the behavior beyond a normal upvote. Are people coming back to spend fuel repeatedly, or is the effect mostly first-time novelty?