The BuiltByMe Quality Standards: What Gets Listed, What Gets Removed, and Why
We have removed more than 50 submissions. Here is exactly what we look for and what crosses the line.
A directory is only as valuable as the products in it. We have removed more than 50 submissions from BuiltByMe since launch. This post explains exactly what we look for when reviewing submissions, what gets a product removed, and why we take curation seriously enough to turn away submissions and delete listings that do not meet our standards.
What we look for in a submission
A real product
The product must exist and be accessible at the URL provided. We check every submission. A landing page with a waitlist is acceptable for early-stage products if the product is genuinely in development. A placeholder page, a broken link, or a domain that redirects to something unrelated fails immediately.
A real maker
The maker profile attached to the submission must belong to a real person. This means a real name (not a username or alias), a genuine bio that says something specific about who you are and what you build, and ideally a profile photo or social link that corroborates the identity. Profiles that look like they were created five minutes before submission with a generic one-line bio fail this check.
An honest product description
The product description must accurately describe what the product does. Descriptions that are pure marketing copy with no actual information about functionality, or descriptions that describe a product significantly different from what the URL leads to, do not pass review. We are not looking for perfect copywriting. We are looking for honest communication about what the product does and who it is for.
An original product
We do not list products that are direct clones of other products with no differentiation, or products that exist primarily to wrap another product's API with a thin interface. There are a lot of "ChatGPT for X" products that do nothing meaningfully different from typing the same prompt into ChatGPT directly. These do not add value to the directory and we do not list them.
What gets a product removed after approval
The product goes offline
If a listed product's URL stops working and is not restored within a reasonable window, the listing is removed. Dead links in a directory degrade the user experience for everyone browsing. We check listings periodically and send an email to the maker before removing. If there is no response and the product remains offline, the listing comes down.
The maker profile is updated to fail our standards
Approved listings have been removed when makers updated their profiles to remove real information or replace a genuine bio with a placeholder. The profile is part of the product's credibility. If it degrades below our standards after approval, the listing is reviewed.
The product changes to something significantly different
If a product pivots to a completely different category or purpose, the original listing may no longer be accurate. We handle these on a case-by-case basis. Usually this means updating the listing rather than removing it, but significant changes warrant re-review.
Spam or abuse patterns
Automated upvote patterns, multiple accounts submitting the same product under different names, or any attempt to game the weekly competition ranking results in immediate removal of all associated listings and accounts.
Why we are strict about this
The value of being listed on BuiltByMe is directly tied to the quality of the other products in the directory. If we listed everything, the directory would be noise. When someone browses the AI tools category or searches for productivity software, they should find real products built by real makers that are worth their time to explore. That experience is only possible if we remove the listings that do not belong.
We have turned away submissions from people who were frustrated by the rejection. We understand that rejection feels bad when you have put work into something. Our standard is not about the quality of your product relative to others. It is about whether the submission meets the basic criteria: real product, real maker, honest description. If it does not, we explain why and give you the option to resubmit after addressing the issue.
Every product we remove makes the directory more valuable for the ones that remain. Curation is not gatekeeping. It is the thing that makes a directory worth browsing.
How to make sure your submission passes
Before you submit, check four things. Your product URL loads and shows a real product. Your maker profile has your real name and a bio that says something specific about who you are. Your product description explains what the product actually does in plain terms. Your product is meaningfully different from just opening a generic AI tool and typing a prompt.
If those four things are true, your submission will pass. If you get a rejection email, it will tell you specifically which of these it failed on. Fix it and resubmit. We are not looking for reasons to reject. We are looking for reasons to approve.