ZEEF Glossary
All key terms, roles, and concepts explained in one place — so you always know what you're looking at.
People & Roles
Reader
Anyone who visits a ZEEF page to find curated resources on a topic. No account is needed — pages are publicly accessible.
Curator
A registered user who creates and maintains pages. A curator selects, organises, and ranks links about a subject they know well. Their name and perspective are visible on every page they create.
Moderator
A trusted user who reviews submitted pages and decides whether they meet ZEEF's quality bar. A moderator can publish, reject, or send a page back to the curator for changes. Sits between curators and admins in the workflow.
Admin
A platform manager with full access. Admins manage moderators and curators, oversee the platform, and step in where moderation alone cannot resolve an issue.
Core Concepts
Subject
The top-level topic a page belongs to — for example 'AI', 'Cycling', or 'Clean Energy'. A subject can be a concept, a person, or a company. Multiple curators can each create their own page for the same subject.
Topic
An informal synonym for Subject, used in everyday language. On the platform itself, the term is always 'Subject' — 'topic' only appears in descriptive copy and conversation.
Page
A curated collection of links on a specific subject, created by a single curator. Every page belongs to one subject and one curator. It has a title, description, and links organised into categories.
Category
A named group of links within a page — for example 'Tools', 'Books', or 'Communities'. Categories help structure the content into logical sections that reflect how an expert thinks about a topic. (Internally called a 'Block' in the codebase.)
Link
An individual URL added to a page. Each link has a title, an optional curator note explaining why it matters, and optional tags for filtering.
Curator Note
The short 'why this matters' description a curator can add to a link. Shown alongside or under the link title to give readers context on why the resource was picked.
Tags
Labels attached to a link for search and filtering. Tags help readers find specific resources within a page without browsing every category.
Identity & Classification
Curator Profile
A curator's public identity page, living at {username}.zeef.com. It shows the curator's name, bio, social links, and all the pages they have published. Automatically created when a curator publishes their first page.
Subject Area
The thematic classification of a subject — shown as a badge on each page and used to group subjects in the directory. There are 12 areas: Tech & Software, Health, Business, People, Sports, Travel, Food, Government, Science, Arts, Education, and Lifestyle.
Person Page
A page about a real, public figure (e.g. an author, athlete, scientist). The subject is a named person rather than a concept.
Company Page
A page about a brand or organisation. Often used by companies themselves to publish curated resources around what they do.
Alias
An alternative slug for a subject — a second URL that points to the same page. Used when a subject is commonly known by multiple names (e.g. 'AI' and 'artificial-intelligence').
Page Workflow
Draft
A page in progress. Only visible to the curator. Can be edited freely at any time before it is submitted for review.
Under Review
A page that has been submitted and is awaiting moderator review. Accessible only via a private preview link — not yet publicly visible. (Stored as 'Pending' in the database.)
Published
A live page that is publicly visible to all visitors. Once published, changes require resubmission for review.
Rejected
A page a moderator has declined to publish because it does not meet ZEEF's quality bar. The curator can edit and resubmit. The rejected badge is sticky — it stays visible until the page is accepted again, so prior decisions remain transparent.
Readiness Checks
Automated rules a page must pass before it can be submitted. These include minimum content requirements, structural rules (at least one category and one link), and link diversity checks.
Submit for Review
The action of sending a draft page to the moderators. If the page passes all readiness checks, its status changes to Under Review and a moderator is notified.
Private Review Link
A unique URL with a secret token that lets a curator share a draft or under-review page before it is public. Anyone with the link can preview the page; no account needed.
Metrics & Engagement
Views
The number of times a page has been loaded by visitors. Tracked per page.
Clicks
The number of times a link on a page has been clicked by visitors — a direct measure of how useful a resource is.
Outclick
A visit that ends in the visitor clicking through to one of the curated links. This is ZEEF's primary success signal: the reader landed, found what they came for, and left for the destination. An outclick is a win, not a bounce.
Thanks
An appreciation signal. Readers can thank a curator for a well-curated page. A light measure of trust and usefulness.
Follows
A subscription to a page. Followers receive updates when the curator adds or refines content.
Rank
The position of a link in the curator's manual ordering. Rank 1 = most valuable; higher numbers are lower priority. Only relevant when a category is using 'Rank' as its sort mode.
Link Sorting
The order of links within a category. A curator can choose between four modes: Rank (manual), A–Z (alphabetical), Clicks (most popular first), and Newest (most recently added first).
Discovery & AI
Discovery Views
Four public ways to browse the platform: Subjects (search), Categories (grouped by Subject Area), Directory (alphabetical A–Z), and Curators (browse the people behind the pages). Each view answers a different 'how do I find what I need' question.
ZEEFAI
Auto-generated pages that fill subjects where no human curator has stepped in yet. ZEEFAI is a bridge, not a replacement — when a human curator publishes a page on the same subject, that page takes over.
Audit
An AI-driven quality check that scores a page on content quality, link diversity, and freshness. The audit produces signals that help moderators and curators see where a page can be improved.
Importing Links
Bulk Import
Adding many links to a page at once via a file. ZEEF supports Excel/CSV (URL + title + description), browser bookmark HTML (preserves folder structure as categories), and plain text (extracts all URLs).
Sitemap Import
A specialised import that crawls a website's XML sitemap to extract URLs. Titles and descriptions are fetched automatically where possible.
Want to know what tools ZEEF offers for curators?
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About ZEEF
The history of search, the age of AI, and why human judgment matters more than ever.
Meaning
ZEEF is Dutch for sieve. The story behind the name, the logo, and the metaphor that drives the platform.
Manifest
Democracy of Knowledge. For people, by people. The founding principles of ZEEF.
How it Works
Learn how ZEEF works for curators and readers — build pages, find quality sources, compare perspectives.
Features
Human knowledge, visible structure, multiple perspectives. What makes ZEEF different.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about ZEEF — what it is, how it works, and why human curation matters.
Showcase
High-quality curation examples from ZEEF's history — see how experts organize knowledge.
Beta
ZEEF is in active development. Learn about the beta, our roadmap, and how to get involved.