# What makes a tool work well here

How listings are checked and ordered. Everything below is either a published
standard or one of four things this site checks for itself, and each of those
affects where a tool sits in the order.

It is published so you can check the order yourself.

## What this is not

**It is not a test your tool has to pass to be listed.** Nothing here decides
whether a tool is listed. A listing that meets none of it is still listed, still
has its own page, and is still its owner's to correct or remove. What these
change is where a tool sits in the order.

**It is not a judgement of how a tool is built.** Model, server, framework or
none of them: none of that is checked. What is checked is what the tool asks of
the person using it.

**It is not something you can pay to change.** No payment, sponsorship or
affiliate relationship changes the order. If that ever changes, it will be a
separate, labelled part of the page, and it will say so.

## The standards

These apply, and are best read at the source.

- **[WCAG 2.2](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/)** for accessibility, at Level AA.
  WCAG 3.0 is a Working Draft and is not cited.
- **[WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices](https://www.w3.org/WAI/ARIA/apg/)** for custom
  controls. If you built a combobox, a tab set or a modal by hand, this says what
  a screen reader and a keyboard expect from it.
- **[Core Web Vitals](https://web.dev/articles/vitals)** for loading and
  responsiveness.
- **Data minimisation**: collect what the function needs and nothing else.

## What this site checks for itself

Four things. Each one is recorded when a tool is checked, and each one affects
the order.

### 1. Say plainly what user data the tool collects

Every listing carries a sentence its owner wrote saying what the tool collects.
It is shown as their claim, not as our guarantee.

Where the tool publishes a privacy policy, the site reads it. Where the policy
and the sentence disagree, **both are shown, side by side**, and the site does not
decide between them for you.

Publishing a policy does **not** change the order. Most small independent tools
do not have one, and this directory is for them too.

### 2. Do not require an account the function does not need

Needing an account does not count against a tool. A tool that saves your work
needs to know whose work it is.

What counts against it is asking for an account when the tool does not need one.
Where an account is required, saying how to delete it counts in its favour.

### 3. Do not require payment before a visitor can tell whether it helps them

Charging for a tool does not count against it either, and a paid tool with a
clearly stated price is a useful answer to somebody.

A tool you cannot try without both an account and a payment is listed
separately, below the main list. Asking for a card before a trial also counts
against a tool.

### 4. Work without JavaScript where the function allows

Where the function allows. An audio editor cannot; a page of text can. This only
ever helps a tool and never counts against it. What it rewards is a page that
stays readable when scripts do not run.

## What else the check reads

Three things read from the page itself:

- **How many other origins the page loads from**, and which of them are known
  analytics or tracking hosts.
- **Whether the page does what the listing says it does.** A page that
  contradicts its own listing is listed separately.
- **Whether it is a tool at all.** A listing appears in the main list when the
  check can tell it is a web page, an installable app, a package or a browser
  extension. One it cannot place is listed separately. A chat channel, a social
  profile and a page that could not be read are all treated the same way, and no
  platform is named or excluded by name.

Anything else the check cannot tell is recorded as unknown, and counts neither for
nor against a tool.

## These apply to the maintainer's own tools too

Every tool here, including the ones marked Built here, is checked the same way and
ordered by the same score. There is no exemption and no override, and a test
confirms that who submitted a tool cannot change where it appears.

## The editorial carousel, and how those get there

The carousel after the catalogue says **Picked by hand, not ranked**. This is
what that means.

**It is a flag in a file, set by one person.** `tools.json` in the public
repository carries `"featured": true` on a few listings. No algorithm, no score
threshold, and nothing a listing can do to qualify. The file is version-controlled,
so anyone can see which tools carry the flag and when that last changed.

**It does not touch the order.** The score orders the catalogue.
The flag is read only when the carousel is built. Being featured moves a listing
nowhere, and not being featured costs it nothing.

**It cannot be bought.** Not for money, not for a link, not for asking. A
sponsored placement is a separate part of the page, labelled _Sponsored_ in words,
and it changes nothing about any other listing.

## If you think a check got it wrong

Reply to any email from the site, or use the manage link that came with your
listing. A person reads it. Checks run again from time to time, so a tool that
changes is looked at again without you asking. If something is wrong now, saying
so is faster.