Rules

1. What can be claimed

A territory is one administrative division on the map: a country, a region, a county, a locality or a neighborhood, as published by the open geographic sources the service imports.

A territory is claimable only when it has a stable source identifier, a valid boundary, a readable name, a resolvable parent hierarchy and no administrative suspension. Anything missing one of those is visible on the map but cannot be claimed.

2. What a Boss is

The Boss of a territory is the account that currently holds it: the highest payer so far. The Boss's handle, display name and permitted link are shown on that territory.

The title is cosmetic and revocable. It is not ownership, not authority, and not a relationship with the real place or the people who live there.

3. Starting prices

An unclaimed territory costs its starting price, which is set by its level:

• Country, dependency: 100 dollars
• Macroregion, region: 25 dollars
• Macrocounty, county: 10 dollars
• Localadmin, locality, borough: 5 dollars
• Macrohood, neighborhood, microhood: 2 dollars

Kadıköy is a county-level territory. If nobody holds it, the first claim costs 10 dollars.

4. The 5 percent minimum increment

Once a territory is held, the next target must be at least the current price plus the minimum increment:

minimum increment = max(1 dollar, ceil(current price x 5 percent))

At 19 dollars the increment is 1 dollar. At 20 dollars it is 1 dollar. At 21 dollars it is 2 dollars. At 400 dollars it is 20 dollars. Targets are always whole dollars, and the maximum target for a single claim is 999,999 dollars. You may always aim higher than the minimum.

5. A challenger pays the full target

Anyone who is not the current Boss is a challenger. A challenger picks a target at or above the minimum and pays the whole target.

Northstar holds Texas at 400 dollars. The minimum increment is 20 dollars, so AtlasLab must target at least 420 dollars, and AtlasLab pays 420 dollars. When that payment settles, AtlasLab is the Boss of Texas and its price is 420 dollars.

6. The current Boss pays only the difference

The current Boss can raise their own price without giving up the territory. This is strengthening a claim.

Northstar holds Texas at 400 dollars and wants it at 420 dollars. Northstar targets 420 dollars and pays 20 dollars, the difference above the price they already hold. Texas is then priced at 420 dollars with Northstar still the Boss.

7. Settlement decides who wins

Nothing is decided in the browser. The server locks the territory record, re-checks the price, and settles payments in the order they are confirmed. The first confirmed payment that still satisfies the rules takes the territory.

Ties do not create two claims. A payment that only equals the current price does not clear the current minimum, so the claim that settled first keeps the territory.

8. Several people can be paying at once

Opening a checkout does not reserve a territory and does not hold it for you. Several people may have a checkout open for the same territory at the same time, and none of them holds it until a payment settles.

Pending payments never appear on the map, in the activity feed, or on the Leaderboard.

9. A payment that arrives too late is refunded

If your payment completes but the territory has moved on, your payment is stale. That happens when you were the current Boss strengthening a claim and anything about the territory changed, or when you were a challenger and your target no longer clears the current price plus the current minimum increment.

A stale payment is refunded in full, automatically, exactly once. It never takes the territory at a reduced price.

10. The price only rises

A territory's price never decreases. There is no bidding down, no decay back to the starting price, and no way to hold a territory for less than the last person paid.

The number you see on a territory is the most anyone has ever paid for it.

11. Levels are independent

Every territory is claimed and priced on its own. Holding Texas grants nothing inside Texas, and holding every county in a region grants nothing at region level.

Parent and child territories are separate claims with separate Bosses, separate prices and separate histories. There is no inheritance and no bundle discount.

12. The World Boss

The World Boss is the account holding the single highest-priced active claim anywhere on the map. If two claims are at the same price, the older claim keeps the title, so it cannot flip without a payment.

13. The Empire Leader

The Empire Leader is the account with the largest combined value across all the claims it currently holds. Someone holding many small territories can lead the empire ranking without ever being the World Boss.

Both titles are shown on the Leaderboard and are recalculated from settled claims only.

14. Claims cannot be transferred

Claims, titles and accounts cannot be gifted, sold, assigned, inherited or moved to another account. A claim ends where the account that paid for it ends.

15. No land, no authority

A claim is a digital promotional placement inside this product. It is not land, not real estate, not a governmental title and not any authority over a real place or the people in it.

Presenting a claim as real land or as an official endorsement is a rule violation, and content that does so is removed.

16. No cash-out

There is no payout, no balance, no wallet and no way to convert a claim back into money. A rising price is a rule of the game, not a yield.

17. What a link may point at

One promotional link is allowed per profile. It must use HTTPS, must resolve to a public host, and must honestly describe where it goes.

Redirect chains, cloaking, link shorteners that hide the destination, malware, phishing, illegal goods and services, deceptive financial offers, sexual or exploitative material, and anything else listed in the Community Guidelines are not allowed.

18. Enforcement

Depending on severity, the operator may hide or remove a link, avatar, pitch or handle, restrict an account, suspend it, or close it. A territory may be suspended when its data is broken, its border is contested, or it is being abused.

Enforcement does not by itself create a refund. What money comes back, and when, is set by the Refund Policy.

19. Reporting a problem

Anyone can report a Boss, a link or a territory from the interface. Reports are reviewed and the reporter is told the outcome.

For anything that needs a person rather than a form, including a payment problem, write to buzzicra@gmail.com.