The screen

A page at your board's address with /screen on the end, for example onthelist.live/your-board/screen. You find the exact address in the board editor, under "Show on your screen". It is drawn as one widescreen picture that fits whatever window it is in, so it never scrolls: on a screen of another shape, the spare space is left empty around it.

• Across the top: your board's name; the line "Sponsored Board · Paid ads", set in capitals; today's estimated busy hours, if you have described your venue; and, while the board takes bids, a QR code with "Scan to put your business here", which opens your board's page for buying a spot.
• The tiles: your top five paid spots, the first the largest and each one smaller than the one above it. Each tile shows its place, the business's icon, its name, its total, and its message (or, if it gave none, the description from its website). The first spot has a QR code that opens its website; spots two to five show their website's address written out.
• Along the bottom: "Powered by OnTheList.Live — start your own board" and the name of the company that runs OnTheList.Live.

Only paid spots ranked one to five. Your own featured entries and the carried rows from the last cycle never appear on the screen, and neither do spots ranked six and below; every spot is still listed on your board's page. With fewer than five paid spots, the screen shows fewer, bigger tiles.

That is how the screen is laid out: the top spot gets a one-scan route to its website, and the other four print their website's address, so a customer can type it. A scan of the first spot's code goes through our click link, so it is counted like a click on your board's page; a typed address is not counted.

A screen with a web browser: a screen with one built in, or a computer connected to the screen. Screens' built-in browsers differ from model to model and we do not certify any particular one; if yours struggles with the page, a computer connected to the screen is another way to show it. Nothing needs to be installed, and the screen does not sign in to anything.

From "Show on your screen" in the board editor:

1. Open this link in the screen's web browser.
2. Make it full screen.
3. Leave it on. It updates by itself.
4. If the edges are cut off, set your screen's picture size to Fit (sometimes called Just Scan or Screen Fit).

The link shows nothing until the board is published.

Many screens zoom the picture slightly, which cuts off its edges. In your screen's picture settings, set the picture size or aspect ratio to Fit; some makers call it Just Scan or Screen Fit. The whole page must be visible: the Host Terms ask you to show the screen view whole, never cropped, covered or zoomed so that the disclosure line, a spot or the bottom line is hidden.

Yes. When a business pays, the screen shows the new spot and the new order without anyone touching it: tiles slide to their new places. Once a day, at 4:00 in your board's time zone, the page reloads itself to stay fresh.

One large tile across the whole board area: "Your business could be here", with "Scan to put your business here" and a QR code that opens your board's page for buying a spot. It shows no price.

The spots that stand stay on the screen, and the header shows why bids are closed instead of the code, for example in the final minutes of a cycle, outside a daily board's opening hours, or after you stop taking new bids. On an empty board, the invitation tile shows the reason too. A paused board's screen keeps showing; a draft or suspended board's screen shows nothing.

If you have told us your venue's kind and its business hours (in the board editor, under "Search & discovery"), the header shows a small strip, "Busy hours today, est.", with the caption "Estimated from this venue's business hours and type, not from counted visits. Times are the venue's local time." It is an estimate drawn from those two facts, not a count of anyone, and the same estimate appears on your board's page.

No. The screen view is a public page with no sign-in, so anyone with its address can open it, and it shows nothing your public board does not. Search engines are asked not to list it.

It is drawn in your board's colour theme, from the board's settings. Its layout, the disclosure line and the bottom line are fixed, so every screen reads as a page of paid ads, and nothing else can be added to it.