Fivehundrd.

How it works

Fivehundrd is one wall with six lanes of 500 numbered spots. A maker holds a spot for 72 hours, free for now. Visitors browse, open, keep and share, without a feed and without an algorithm.

For visitors

  1. Browse the wall. Every spot is a tile: artwork, a name, the lane and a pitch of up to 140 characters. Filter by lane or search by name.
  2. Open a spot. Play a 30-second music preview or a podcast trailer, read the first pages of a book or the latest issue of a newsletter, or watch a game or creator trailer. Up to three links take you to the maker.
  3. Scout what you like. It stays in your Scouts, even after the spot ends. No account needed; sign in and Fivehundrd remembers what you found early.
  4. Share it. Every spot has a lasting link and a share card made for stories and feeds.

For makers

  1. Pick a lane and a number. Any open spot. No number is better than another.
  2. Make your tile. Name, artwork or a printed pattern, a pitch, up to three links, and the preview for your lane. The preview shows exactly how you'll look on the wall.
  3. Place it, free for now. Your story is checked against the wall rules first, and goes live straight away.
  4. 72 hours on the wall. Share your spot's card. After three days the number opens up for the next maker; your lasting link keeps working.

No front row

Everyone sees the same numbered wall. The only thing that changes is where your visit starts: each visitor begins at a different spot, so every spot gets its turn at the top. There is no ranking of the wall itself and no paid boost.

Hotspots and Newest

Above the wall, Hotspots shows five spots with traction right now: how many people opened them, visited the maker, kept them and shared them in the last hours, weighed against how often they were seen, so a spot that joined an hour ago can be there too. A spot's turn in Hotspots fades after a few hours. Switch to Newest for the five that joined last. When you come back, the wall tells you how many spots are new since your last visit, and the one thing that changed for you: something you Scouted breaking out, one of your Scouts about to end, Scouts gaining new Scouts, or a maker you found back on the wall.

Scout

Signed in, every scout is a call: Fivehundrd notes, at that moment, how many people had kept the discovery before you. If it then breaks out (it becomes a Hotspot, or grows to at least 25 people scouting it and three times your place) and you were among the first 20% to scout it, it is an Early Call. That is settled when its 72 hours end. Your Scout Card shows your Early Calls, and once there are enough Scouts, where you stand among them: Top 25%, 10% or 3%. It is private unless you share it. There are no points, no leaderboards and no public rankings, and Scouting never counts toward Hotspots.

Your Scouts

Everything you scouted, with one line of its history: the place you scouted it at and how many have scouted it now, and whether it was an Early Call. Scouts stay after their 72 hours. Without an account they stay in this browser only.

The lanes

  • Music: new music from independent artists, with a 30-second preview to play on the wall.
  • Books: new books and stories from independent authors, with the first pages to read on the wall.
  • Games: new indie games, with a trailer.
  • Creators: art, design and creative work, with a video or the artwork itself.
  • Podcasts: new podcasts and episodes, with an episode trailer to play on the wall.
  • Newsletters: newsletters worth subscribing to, with the latest issue to read on the wall.