One vote per member per month, and how I made it hold

Members of The Standard get one vote a month on what I build next. One thumbs-up, in one channel, that’s it. Simple rule to say. Harder rule to actually enforce than it sounds, so here’s what it took.

First problem: what stops someone voting twice. The vote lives in the request channel only, one reaction per member per calendar month. A thumbs-up anywhere else in the app is just applause, it doesn’t count. Try to cast a second vote in the same month and it’s refused outright, not quietly moved to a different item. You get one, and you get to see that you already used it.

Second problem: what stops two devices from both thinking a vote is still available. The vote state gets broadcast to every viewer the member has open, not just the one they clicked in. Open the app on your phone after voting on your laptop and it already knows. No second device gets to assert the vote is unspent when it isn’t.

Third problem: what actually counts as this month’s tally. The vote room only counts reactions from the current calendar month, so an old vote from three months ago doesn’t quietly keep counting toward this month’s build decision.

None of these are hard problems on their own. What made it worth building carefully is that a vote members don’t trust is worse than no vote at all.