A benchmark for an opaque market is only worth what its verification is worth. Here is exactly how a report earns its way into the medians.
Reports are extracted from affiliate-dashboard screenshots and confirmed by the submitter. Confirmed values must actually appear in the screenshot text — numbers typed in that the screenshot never showed drop the report to manual tier.
Image metadata is scanned for editing-software traces. Payout-to-volume ratios are checked against real exchange fee schedules — a report implying fees no exchange charges is rejected or stripped of Verified status.
Screenshot fingerprints are matched across accounts; the same dashboard can't back two Affdoor accounts. One report per exchange per period per affiliate — re-uploads replace, never stack.
Screenshot-verified reports are the benchmark — nothing else enters it. Manually typed numbers stay visible only to their owner. Reference data (used while an exchange's pool is small) carries half weight and retires automatically as verified reports accumulate.
Benchmark access is earned by contributing and kept by staying current: if your latest report is older than 90 days, access re-locks until you add a fresh period. That is why Affdoor's medians reflect this quarter, not last year.
Screenshots are used once for extraction and never shown to anyone. Other affiliates only ever see medians, distributions and percentiles — never your identity, account, or raw numbers.