How to Use RankedPlaces

RankedPlaces is designed to make discovering and ranking places simple, transparent, and community-driven. Here’s how the platform works and what you can do once you land on the site.

1. Explore and Discover

When you first arrive, you’ll immediately see trending tags, search options, and featured places shared by other users. Each place is categorized under specific tags — such as cafés, parks, viewpoints, or local shops — allowing you to easily browse based on what interests you most.

2. Sign In for Personalized Access

To ensure fair and secure participation, voting and content creation require signing in through Google OAuth. This sign-in process uses a unique Google ID solely to verify identity for voting purposes — no personal information is collected, stored, or shared with any third parties. Your privacy remains fully protected.

3. Vote on Places You Love

Once signed in, you can upvote or downvote places based on your genuine opinion. Each vote helps surface the best-rated and most authentic locations in every tag category. This community-based ranking ensures fairness and helps users quickly identify top-rated local spots.

4. Create Tags and Add New Places

As a registered user, you can also create new tags or add places that others might have missed. For now, the platform remains flexible — allowing users to freely experiment by adding tags and places without strict restrictions during this early phase. The goal is to grow the community naturally and see where creativity takes it.

5. Understand Tag Behavior

The default tag “All” displays a global leaderboard of top-ranked places from all categories. While you can’t vote directly within this tag, it offers a quick overview of which places are currently leading overall. To vote, simply select a tag from the carousel — showcasing the top 25 trending tags — or search for a specific one using the search bar. If a tag doesn’t exist, you can create it instantly.

6. Our Early Stage Commitment

RankedPlaces is still in its early development stage, and we’re testing how users engage with the system before applying stricter content rules. Your feedback and interaction help shape how the platform evolves — making it a space where discovery and community truly matter.

By using RankedPlaces, you agree to participate responsibly — voting fairly, avoiding spam, and respecting the community spirit that keeps this platform thriving.