The standard
The standard, version 1.0.
This is the text as it stands. It is kept at this address as well as at /standard, so a citation made today still resolves to these words after the next version lands.
Standard v1.0 · effective 14 August 2026 · CC BY 4.0
§1
A real, individual freelancer
A real, individual freelancer. Not an agency with a face on it, not a team sharing one account, not somebody else's profile re-listed.
Decided by the reading.
§2
Consistent about who the person is
Consistent about who the person is: one name, one story, no contradiction between the description, the skills and the samples.
Decided by two things. Before publication, a government-issued document is checked — by Stripe Identity, or by a person here when a document check is not possible. Mainstay never receives the images and cannot retrieve them. It keeps the outcome, the country that issued the document, the type, and the name on it. The consistency above is decided by the reading.
§3
Skills that match the work shown
Skills that match the work shown. A tool that is claimed should be visible in something the person made; forty tools against three samples is a list of forty tools.
Decided by the reading.
§4
Contact details in the contact fields
Contact details in the contact fields, not written into the description. This is the clause that is broken most often and in good faith — hold it, name it, and say to move the address and send again.
Decided by the reading.
§5
Enough for a client to judge
Enough for a client to judge: a photograph on file, at least 1 work sample on file, a rate, and a description that says what the person actually does — in their own words rather than a brochure's.
Decided by the reading.
§6
Nothing left unclear
Nothing unclear. Anything you cannot defend publishing to a client who paid to be here is held rather than published.
Decided by the reading.
§7
Confirmed active in the last seven days
Confirmed active in the last seven days, every week, for as long as the record stands.
Decided by the weekly check, and it is not a reading: every listed freelancer answers a check every week, and a record that misses one leaves every list.
What changed
The first published version. Until it, the bar was written in three places that did not agree with each other: the instruction the reading is given, the terms, and the page describing how a check is done. The terms named five warranties and called them six. This version is the reconciliation, and the words above are the words the reading is given.
§2 changed what it asks. It read resident in the Philippines for tax, and it was decided by comparing a declared country. From 14 August 2026 it reads consistent about who the person is, and it is decided by a government-issued document checked before publication plus the reading for the consistency. Where a freelancer lives now decides nothing about whether they are listed. Nobody was carried over: no record stands under this version that was not read against it.
Kept unchanged · CC BY 4.0