Transparency
Hacker Con Badges uses a deliberately small, clearly labeled advertising placement to help fund the catalogue without turning the research into an ad surface.
Carbon Ads appears as one Responsive unit on the homepage, the main badge catalogue, the MCU platform hubs, the SAO ecosystem page, and the per-year badge pages. It does not appear in badge dossiers, search results, sources, resources, image provenance, issues, credits, methodology, or API responses. Companion Gear blocks appear on badge dossiers and on the MCU platform and SAO hub pages where the recommendations match the page's documented hardware.
Advertising does not influence badge inclusion, evidence selection, technical claims, source notes, credit records, issue severity, image-rights decisions, or the ordering of catalogue records. The Carbon unit is an advertisement, not a recommendation or endorsement by Hacker Con Badges.
Some Companion Gear links may be commission-eligible. Those links are directly labeled “Paid link · supports badge.gallery” and are kept separate from Carbon advertising. Technical matching, caveats, and source links remain visible on the relevant dossier.
Advertising delivery on the eligible pages is provided by Carbon Ads / BuySellAds. Carbon’s published policy describes the information and technologies it may use for its services; read the current Carbon Ads Privacy Policy for its terms and contact details. This site does not describe the Carbon integration as cookie-free.