The match charter
Every match published here is reviewed before going live, whether we wrote it or a visitor proposed it. This page says what review accepts and what it refuses. It applies equally to the free route and the paid one: paying speeds up examination and buys visibility, never the right to bypass what follows.
What makes a good match
A good match sets things against each other, not people: two recipes, two habits, two cities, two ways of doing something. It is understandable without explanation, it makes you want to defend your side, and it has no right answer — if one side is objectively wrong, it is not a debate, it is a quiz. The best ones are those you have already had for real, with someone, at a table.
What is refused, without exception
- Private individuals. No match may be about someone who is not a public figure — neither to celebrate nor to mock them, not with their presumed consent, not even between friends.
- Anything targeting origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability or gender. These are not put to a vote.
- Defamation and insult. A public figure may appear in a ranking on the basis of their work. A match accusing them of something, or labelling them with a degrading term, is refused.
- Party politics. No matches between parties, candidates or political figures: the mechanics of this site do not suit it and would add nothing to public debate.
- Boycott calls and campaigns targeting an identified company or person.
- Sexual content, gratuitous violence and anything ill-suited to a broad audience. Teenagers read this site.
Brands and proper nouns
We prefer generic wording to registered trademarks: two city names rather than two club names, "classic cola or diet cola" rather than two brands. This is not legal timidity — a generic debate interests more people and ages better.
Duplicates
A match repeating a debate that is already open will not be published: it would split the count in two and neither page would say anything any more. If your proposal resembles an existing match, it will be flagged as a duplicate with a link to the original. Proposing a missing contender in an existing ranking, on the other hand, is always welcome.
How review works
Free proposals enter a queue, examined regularly, with no guaranteed delay: some are published within days, others wait longer, others are never taken up. We do not systematically explain refusals. A published match carries its author's name and earns them voices — more still if the match finds its audience.
A match already online may be withdrawn if it turns out it should not have passed. An unwelcome score, however, is never grounds for withdrawal: it is precisely the result the site exists to show.