Every world gets a fresh account and at least four weeks of play, usually more, in Chrome and Firefox on ordinary laptops. We don't spend during that window, so the pressure reading reflects the non-paying experience. Pricing gets checked separately afterwards.
Depth. Are the decisions still interesting in week six, or is it timers all the way down?
The shop. How a non-paying player is treated and how loudly the store asks. Low pressure is good weather.
Pace. How soon a fresh account reaches its first real decision, and whether the middle keeps moving.
Polish. Interface, stability and load times in an ordinary browser over long sessions.
The number in the corner
The weighted total out of ten. Nothing under 7.0 is issued: a world that reads lower gets no forecast rather than a bad one, because a chart of places we don't recommend isn't useful to anyone.
The five-day chart
Each stage, from the first hour to the end of a season, gets a condition word and an icon. These are observations, not readings: they describe how the world felt at that point for an observer who never paid. Shaded cells carry a warning.
Who pays for the station
Affiliate commissions, and nothing else. "Set out" buttons lead to each publisher's official site through a tracking link, and if you create an account afterwards the publisher may pay us. That doesn't change the price you pay, and it has never moved a reading. Publishers don't see forecasts before they're issued and can't buy a region.
Reissues
Every region is re-read each season. When a reading moves, the synopsis says why and the issue date changes.