FanState.com Launches: YCNews thoughts?

by veritas on 6/20/2007, 7:43 PM with 28 comments
  • by veritas on 6/20/2007, 7:45 PM

    Link: http://www.fanstate.com

    Its a digg like website for football (soccer) news that I launched yesterday. It allows you to gain points (like Digg/Reddit) and then wager those points on matches being played.

    Built using Ruby on Rails. Thoughts?

  • by r7000 on 6/20/2007, 8:54 PM

    I added some tags when I submitted an article. But they sort of disappeared which was confusing. Will they eventually be displayed elsewhere along with the article? Will I be able to search by tag?

    http://www.fanstate.com/tag/MLS maybe?

    How do I make a bet?

    I also think you shouldn't track 'karma' and 'points'. It is too confusing for a 'harmless bit of fun' website. Let the people bet their real karma. Why not? If they lose it they will be driven to participate more. You could display subtotals of how much karma was gained/lost due to site activity and how much was gained via skillful betting. That way someone with a lot of activity but a bad betting record could have a total like [r7000 (8 488 -480)] maybe colour-coded or something. I think if you want to make a distinction a single total with subtotals makes more sense. If people aren't betting their actual karma I don't think they'll take the bets seriously.

    Just some ideas.

  • by veritas on 6/20/2007, 11:29 PM

    Okay... today's MLS match between KC and Columbus has been added. Feel free to sign up/login and place your wagers :).

    Edit: Too late lol. The game's started already. Check tomorrow when there's another match.

  • by 8en on 6/21/2007, 12:13 AM

    I would take a look at BallHype.com. It seems like it's well-designed and well-executed, but hasn't taken off just yet. It would be good to understand what happened - whether they were too broad in focus, or whether there is something about the digg model that doesn't quite resonate for sports fans. As a side note, I would not require registration to vote, and I would not require a valid email address. It don't feel like I should have to send you my email address to say that an article is good or bad.

  • by r7000 on 6/20/2007, 8:31 PM

    Is there a reason you are not displaying the logged in user's login name? I think people tend to expect that.

  • by Alex3917 on 6/20/2007, 10:09 PM

    I heard a story about some guy who started a sports website six months ago, and then sold it for thirty million dollars three months ago. Not sure of the details, but it seems like there's money to be made.

  • by ashu on 6/20/2007, 8:08 PM

    quick impression: font letter spacing is a bit too much.

  • by volida on 6/21/2007, 9:11 AM

    change the font