Auction Rules

Every round, players read one sentence out loud. Four positions in that sentence — the 2nd, 4th, 8th, 14th word — are sponsor slots. Whoever holds a slot chooses the word that goes in that position, and their brand name, link and icon appear next to the word and orbit the microphone on the home page. If the sentence is shorter than the slot position, the sponsor word goes at the end.

Sponsor words are inserted into whatever sentence is live; the sentence itself is written by players and changes every round. You don't control the sentence, only your word.

• Minimum opening bid for an empty slot: $5.
• To take a held slot you must bid at least 2× the current bid — $5 becomes $10, then $20, $40, and so on. You may bid more than the minimum; the next takeover then has to double whatever you paid.
• Your word must be a single word of up to 20 letters or digits (apostrophes, hyphens, ampersands and periods allowed). Your brand name is up to 40 characters. Both pass an automated profanity filter.
• Your icon must be a PNG, JPG or WebP no larger than 400×400 pixels and 512 KB.
• Bidding authorizes your card for the bid amount through Stripe — it is not charged yet. Checkouts not completed within 30 minutes expire and never take the slot.

Once Stripe confirms the authorization, your bid becomes the active holder of that slot and your word appears in the next sentence composition immediately. You keep the slot until someone outbids you — there is no fixed term.

Only one bid per slot is active at a time. Ties aren't possible because every new bid must double the current one.

Outbid within your first 7 days: your word comes down and the authorization on your card is released. You are never charged — nothing to refund, no fees.

Held the slot for 7 days: you're charged the bid amount once. Card authorizations only last seven days, so the capture happens during the last 24 hours of that week; from the moment you're charged until the week is up, nobody can take the slot over, so the week you paid for is guaranteed.

After that: you keep the slot for free until someone outbids you. Being outbid later doesn't refund anything — you already got the week you paid for, and every extra day was a bonus.

If two sponsors race for the same slot, order is decided by when Stripe confirms each authorization. An authorization confirmed after a higher one, or while the holder is in their guaranteed paid week, is released immediately and never displays.

If your bank declines the capture on day 7 (expired card, insufficient funds), you lose the slot and it reopens. No voluntary refunds once you've been charged.

• We can remove a word, name, link or icon that breaks our content rules (hateful, sexual, misleading, infringing, spam, etc.). If you haven't been charged yet the authorization is released; if you have, we may refund in whole or in part at our discretion.
• We can change the minimum bid, the multiplier, the number or position of slots, or how sponsor words are displayed. Changes apply to future bids; a paid, active bid keeps its slot under the rules it was placed under until it is outbid.
• We can pause or end the auction. If we end it permanently, unreleased authorizations are released and anyone charged less than 7 days earlier is refunded pro rata.

Bidding with stolen payment methods, chargeback abuse, automated bidding, or using slots to harass players or other sponsors will get the bid removed (without refund, if already charged) and the sponsor banned. Sponsor placements are advertising, not endorsements, and may be spoken, displayed and screenshotted by players.

Burd LLC · burdconnor@gmail.com. See also the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.