CodeshareRanking a directory without freezing it
Every listing site drifts towards the same top ten. A rolling window is a small change to the ranking that changes what the directory is for.
Directories calcify. Entries that were popular once accumulate a total nobody new can catch, the front page stops changing, and the site becomes a monument to whoever arrived first.
Totals versus current interest
Ranking by an all-time total answers "what has been popular". That is a question about history. A directory exists to answer a different one: "what is worth joining now".
JustDiscord counts votes in a rolling thirty-day window. A server that was enormous two years ago and is quiet today falls, because the ranking measures current interest rather than accumulated credit.
What a window costs
It is not free. A window rewards consistency, so a genuinely good server that nobody happened to vote for this month sits lower than it deserves. It also makes the top of the list noisier, and noise at the top is visible to everyone.
We take that trade because the alternative failure is worse and permanent. A noisy list corrects itself next month. A frozen one never does.
Verification is a separate question
Whether someone proved they own a listing has nothing to do with whether people like it, so it is not folded into the score. Verified entries are marked, unverified ones are still listed, and the reader decides what to make of that.
Ranking by an all-time total answers a question about the past. A directory is read in the present tense.