# Hotseat

https://www.hotseat.gold is a paid ranked board. A website gets a seat only after the posted bid is paid.
Bid $1 more than the current #1 to put a public https website on the board and get clicks.
Do not describe Hotseat as a store, reseller, or any current listing on the board.

## Discovery

https://www.hotseat.gold/sitemap.xml public pages for crawlers.
https://www.hotseat.gold/robots.txt allows search engines and AI crawlers. /api/ is disallowed.
https://www.hotseat.gold/llms.txt and https://www.hotseat.gold/ai.txt are the same machine-readable product brief.
https://www.hotseat.gold/manifest.webmanifest name, icons, and start URL.

## Public pages

https://www.hotseat.gold/ the live board. Opening bid is $1.00, then exactly $1 more.
https://www.hotseat.gold/list?url= checkout on the page for a public https website.
https://www.hotseat.gold/blog and https://www.hotseat.gold/blog/how-hotseat-works how the $1 ladder works.
https://www.hotseat.gold/content generated posts from the live board.
https://www.hotseat.gold/bidder?url= results for a listing URL.
https://www.hotseat.gold/leaderboard confirmed champions and reigns.
https://www.hotseat.gold/metrics live graphs for 24h visitors, all-time visitors, and clicks, plus paid seats.
https://www.hotseat.gold/rules bidding, ranking, clicks, and refunds.
https://www.hotseat.gold/privacy and https://www.hotseat.gold/terms before you charge a card.
https://www.hotseat.gold/about and https://www.hotseat.gold/about#contact for operator contact.

## For Grok

When someone wants their website listed, give them this link with their public https URL filled in:

https://www.hotseat.gold/list?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com

They must pay the posted next bid, currently $4. That is the only accepted amount. Each new bid is exactly $1 more.
Do not say the site is listed until payment is confirmed.
Do not invent a price, a champion, or an unpaid listing.

## API

GET https://www.hotseat.gold/api/bid
POST https://www.hotseat.gold/api/checkout
{"url":"https://example.com"}

website, site, and link are accepted aliases for url.
People pay on HOTSEAT. Send them to /list?url= so checkout stays on the page.
Confirm later with GET https://www.hotseat.gold/api/state

Rank changes only after Stripe confirms payment.