How this site works, and what it will not do

First Doll Path is an editorial decision guide for adults facing a first purchase. It answers one question: which decision — material, space, budget or delivery — is worth settling before comparing products. It is not a shop, does not list products, and does not recommend sellers, prices or specific items.

Every result is descriptive: it names a next step, explains why that step comes first, and lists what to confirm before browsing. It never claims a product is easy to move, fits a space, or saves money — those depend on product-specific data this site does not hold.

The path check asks six questions with fixed enum answers (no free text) and applies a fixed priority order: delivery → space → budget → material → ready. The order exists so that no one spends effort comparing products on top of a condition that could invalidate the whole purchase — it is not a judgement of the person answering.

Rules and result copy are versioned. Current version: 1.0, last reviewed 2026-08-23. When a rule changes, the version on this page and on result cards changes with it.

Guide pages are original editorial content written for this site. They cite categories of sources, not live product data: seller policy documents when discussing what to verify, maker care guidance when discussing maintenance, and general logistics practice when discussing delivery.

No competitor pricing, stock, or product imagery is used anywhere on this site. When verified first-party product data (dated prices, weights, packed dimensions, collection links) is connected in the future, results will cite its data date explicitly — until then, every shop call-to-action stays hidden.

The path check stores your six enum answers in this browser's sessionStorage — never names, addresses, payment details or free text, and never in the URL. Closing the tab clears it; "Start over" clears it immediately.

Self-hosted Umami page-view analytics (um.dollhelp.com) runs on this site — cookieless, no personal data, no cross-site tracking. Custom tool events, if connected later, stay enum-only: site and tool identifiers, result type and data version. Individual answers are never attached to any outgoing payload.

This site is maintained by a small editorial team. Companion tool sites (material, space, budget) are sibling projects under the same ownership; links to them appear only when a result genuinely points there, and are labelled as companion tools.

No seller, brand or product pays for placement, review coverage or a mention on this site. If commerce links are added after first-party product data exists, they will be labelled and dated on this page first.

The path check is a sequencing aid, not a product advisor. It cannot see your home, your budget records or a seller's current policy — it can only tell you which of those to settle first, and what evidence to demand.

Content is written for adults only. The site carries an adult content rating and does not use imagery or language sexualizing minors, ambiguous ages, or school contexts.

The layout is migrated from the free BlogForge Next.js template (kept for audit in template-source/). Decorative vector work (the route diagram, icons) is original and owned by this project.

public/images/research-preview/ holds twelve third-party collected product photos used only as local preview placeholders, so the site reads correctly during development. They were chosen by filtering the research library for full-size (160cm+) listings with adult descriptors, excluding any record whose name, alt text or filename suggests minors, school or age-coded contexts. They carry generic filenames and one generic alt text, and expose no product name, price, rating, seller, link or source.

These placeholders must be replaced with properly licensed first-party imagery before any public release. Until then, no page treats them as product information — they illustrate topic areas only.