Rules

One listing describes one live stream, on a supported platform, scheduled for a particular time on a particular day.

A listing needs:

• A link to the stream. Paste it and we recognise the platform from the address, so you know it is supported before you fill in anything else. YouTube, Twitch, Kick, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Rumble and more are supported.
• A title, up to 70 characters.
• A category, and optionally a subcategory.
• A start time, in the listing's time zone — see How long a placement lasts.

A description (up to 180 characters) and a thumbnail are optional. A 16:9 thumbnail up to 5 MB works best — it is resized and re-encoded on upload, so what we store is never the file you sent.

The stream must be one you run or are authorised to promote, and the link must point at the stream the listing describes. That is the rule most likely to get a listing removed, because it is the one that wastes a viewer's click. We may ask you to show that you operate the stream or have permission to promote it, and we may remove a listing where that is not forthcoming.

Position is not for sale, and never has a price. Listing is free. The order is worked out from the streams themselves, the same way for everybody, and there is nothing to pay for a better one.

The board is ordered by, in this order:

1. Live now, above everything that has not started.
2. Starting soonest, so the next thing to begin sits nearest the top of what is left.
3. Most clicked, between listings starting at the same time.
4. Listed first, if everything above is equal — so positions are settled rather than shuffling on every refresh.

The ordering is not personalised and is not reordered editorially. Among the listings eligible to appear, it follows the four rules above and nothing else — no taste, no seniority, and no money.

From the moment it is published until 60 minutes after your stream's scheduled start time.

Your listing is visible as soon as it passes the content check, which is usually well before you go live. That is the point: viewers can find the stream while you are still setting up.

A listing describes one broadcast, not a period of calendar time. When the window closes it leaves the board, and its impressions and clicks stay in your dashboard.

One listing per day, counted against the day the listing is for rather than the day you submitted it.

Cancelled and finished listings do not count. If your stream has already run and come off the board, you can list another for the same day — the limit is on how much of the board one creator holds at once, not on how often you stream.

Editing

A listing stays fully editable until 10 minutes after the start time it was first given. After that it can be withdrawn but not changed.

If your stream is delayed past that window, withdraw the listing and submit a new one. It will be checked again and take its place in the order from then, which is the cost of the rule and is deliberate: a genuine delay loses a place in the queue, and camping loses the listing.

The order matters, and it is this:

1. You submit the listing.
2. The content is checked automatically — the title, description, thumbnail, username and avatar.
3. If the check passes, the listing is published and appears on the board straight away.

If the check cannot run, the submission is refused rather than published unchecked, and you are asked to try again. That is not a rejection of your content — see Review, and what can cause a listing to be refused.

Titles, descriptions, thumbnails, usernames and avatars are checked automatically before anything is published.

A listing will be refused or removed if it is:

• unlawful, or promoting illegal activity;
• promoting gambling or betting — a casino, a sportsbook, a poker room, a betting service or a stream whose purpose is to play one. Licensed or not: this is a flat rule, not a question about the operator;
• offering or soliciting a financial product, a crypto asset, a token or an NFT — asking a viewer to buy, to invest, or to send you money. Talking about markets is not what this is aimed at: Finance & Markets exists for commentary, analysis and teaching, and a stream about crypto is as welcome as a stream about anything else;
• hateful, harassing, threatening, or targeting somebody for who they are;
• sexually explicit, or sexualising minors in any way;
• graphically violent, or encouraging self-harm;
• deceptive about what the stream is — a title or thumbnail that misrepresents the content, or a link that does not go to the stream described;
• impersonating another person or organisation, or using somebody else's identity, name or likeness in a misleading or unauthorised way. Ordinary references — commentary, criticism, interviews, event coverage, naming who you are talking about — are not what this is aimed at;
• in breach of Fair play below.

When the check cannot run

Sometimes the automated check is unavailable. When that happens the submission is refused and you are asked to try again, rather than published unchecked — publishing something nobody has looked at is the worse mistake. That is not a rejection of your content and it is not held against you, and the same listing will usually go straight through on a second attempt.

Automated checks get things wrong in both directions. If yours was refused and you think that is a mistake, write to hello@whatslive.today — a person will look at it.

A listing is a promise to a viewer about a specific broadcast. If that broadcast changes, the listing has to change with it. You are responsible for keeping it accurate — or removing it — if:

• the stream is cancelled, or you decide not to go ahead;
• the link changes, or the platform takes the stream down;
• the start time moves by enough to mislead somebody;
• you replace it with a different broadcast, rather than the one the listing describes.

You can edit a listing until the window described in How many listings, and when you can change one closes, and you can withdraw it from the board at any time from your dashboard.

The board only works if the ranking means what it says. So please do not:

• run several accounts to get around the limit on how many listings one creator may hold;
• inflate your impressions or clicks by automated or artificial means;
• list a stream that does not exist, or that you have no right to promote;
• re-list the same stream repeatedly to occupy several spots.

There are rate limits on submitting, editing and uploading. They are set well above ordinary use and exist to stop automated abuse; normal listing and editing will not reach them.

What we may do about it

Any of these is grounds for refusing a submission or removing a listing under Review, and what can cause a listing to be refused. Depending on what happened and whether it is repeated, we may also:

• not count impressions or clicks we believe to be artificial;
• refuse further submissions from an account;
• suspend an account;
• close an account permanently, for serious or repeated abuse.

We aim to match the response to the conduct, and to hear from you first where there is any doubt about what happened.

The figures on this page — how many listings a day, how long one lasts, how long it stays editable — are the ones the service is running right now, read from its configuration rather than written down twice. We may change them as the directory develops, and a change never applies retroactively to a listing already on the board.

These rules form part of the Terms of Use, and a material change to them is treated as a material change to those terms.