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# How Fans Find Your Work |
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## Discovery Through Exploration |
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Everything a fan sees on Makenot.work traces back to a decision they made: a search they typed, a tag they browsed, a creator they followed, a project they subscribed to. We call this **Discovery Through Exploration**. The answer to "why am I seeing this?" is always one sentence. |
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No opaque recommendations, no behavioral profiles, no engagement optimization. Fans find your work through search, tag browsing, filters, follows, direct links, RSS, embeds, and mailing lists -- a wide surface driven entirely by intent. |
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## The Discover Page |
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Every fan sees the same Discover page at `/discover`. Filters and search determine what appears. There is no personalized ranking. |
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### Search |
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Fans can search by title and description. Fuzzy matching handles misspellings and partial matches. Title matches rank higher than description matches. |
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### Filters |
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Fans can narrow results by: |
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- **Type**: Audio, Text, Video, Image, Plugin, Preset, Sample, Course, Template, Digital |
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- **Tags**: Hierarchical tag filtering (selecting a parent tag includes all children) |
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- **Price range**: Free, Under $25, $25-50, $50-100, $100+, or custom min/max |
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- **AI tier**: Handmade, Assisted, or Generated |
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> [!UI] discover-filters |
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> Discover sidebar with type, tag, and AI tier filters |
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### Sorting |
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When not searching, fans can sort by: |
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- **Newest** (default): most recently published items first |
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- **Most Sold**: items by sales count |
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- **Price**: ascending or descending |
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### Projects Mode |
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Fans can switch from browsing individual items to browsing projects (albums, series, bundles). Projects can be filtered by category. |
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## Tags Are Your Main Discoverability Tool |
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Tags drive how fans browse and filter. The platform maintains the tag hierarchy; you pick from existing tags. |
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**Best practices:** |
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- Tag at the most specific level. Parent tags are inherited automatically ("Ambient" also appears under "Electronic"). |
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- Use 3-5 tags per item. Too few and fans can't find you; too many creates noise. |
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- Be consistent across related items. |
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- Use projects for grouping (albums, series), tags for describing (genre, format, mood). |
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See [Tags](tags.md) for the full tagging guide. |
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## The Feed |
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Fans who follow you see your new releases in their Feed (`/feed`). The feed is chronological -- no algorithm decides what appears or in what order. Fans can follow creators, projects, or tags. |
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The feed is the main way returning fans stay up to date. Discover is how new fans find you. |
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## What You Control |
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- **Tags**: Choose accurate tags so fans browsing by genre/format/topic find your work |
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- **Titles and descriptions**: These are what search matches against. Be descriptive. |
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- **Item type**: Set the correct type (Audio, Text, Plugin, etc.) so type filters work |
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- **AI tier**: Classify your work honestly (Handmade, Assisted, Generated) |
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- **Pricing**: Fans can filter by price range, including free items |
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- **Visibility**: Items must be public and listed to appear in Discover |
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## What Discovery Through Exploration Rules Out |
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- No opaque recommendations; every result traces to a user action |
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- No behavioral tracking to shape what fans see |
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- No trending or popularity-based default ranking (Most Sold is an opt-in sort) |
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- No promoted listings or paid placement |
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- No editorial curation or featured picks |
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Every creator's work is discoverable on equal terms. The only factors are your tags, title, publish date, and sales count -- all visible, all under your control. |
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The discovery and feed logic is [source-available](../about/generative-ai.md#ai-in-the-platform-itself). |
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## See Also |
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- [Your Feed](./feed.md): Personalized timeline from followed creators |
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- [Tags](./tags.md): Full tagging guide |
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- [Embed Widgets](./embeds.md): Showcase items on external sites |
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- [RSS Feeds](./rss.md): Subscribe via RSS |
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