My YC Startup Enters Private Beta

http://www.draftmix.com/

by mattmaroon • 19 years ago

27 47 19 years ago

draftmix.com

What do you think? We're still twiddling with the design, so any notes there would be greatly appreciated.

mattmaroon14• 19 years ago

We're still twiddling with the design, so any notes there would be appreciated.

nickb• 19 years ago

Design looks great to me! You've nailed the sports theme! Signed up for beta.

PS: Another cool Rails startup!

mattmaroon14• 19 years ago

I'll send you an invite.

rms• 19 years ago

I like the design a lot. I find the fixed scrolling thing on the left disorienting. You've got a lot of extra room in the bar at the top; can you make the login box, the register link, and/pr the navbar links bigger?

cstejerean• 19 years ago

I don't mind the feedback button scrolling, after all it's a beta site and it makes good sense to have the Feedback button jump out at people otherwise they'll never do it.

dartman111• 19 years ago

It is stolen from Yahoo! Sports? http://sports.yahoo.com/nba

garbowza3• 19 years ago

I really like the design and the concept is quite clever. I think there's a definite niche here. However, I too am annoyed by the scrolling feedback bar, and my browser won't let me close it once it's opened.

mattmaroon14• 19 years ago

You can't hit cancel and close it? What browser/OS do you use?

garbowza3• 19 years ago

Windows XP & Firefox 2. The Cancel button jumps in and out of view, but doesn't stay available long enough to click it. It works fine for me in IE though.

brianr• 19 years ago

i like the design a lot.

can you make the 'FEEDBACK' link look clickable? (hand cursor)

mattmaroon14• 19 years ago

Thanks, we will.

Alex3917• 19 years ago

I love how you incorporated online poker design idioms into your interface. Did you talk about that in your initial pitch to YC or is that something you decided on later?

mattmaroon14• 19 years ago

Yes, we did. We're definitely incorporating a lot of what made online poker so successful.

muerdeme• 19 years ago

Will I be able to multi-table drafts? What's the official stance on bots? Just kidding. Halfway. This is a great idea and I hope you guys do well. Is there a friendly rivalry with Chris Fargis going on?

kyro• 19 years ago

Like most have said, the design seems very appropriate for this type of site. Signed up for beta as well. I'm curious to see what's inside.

herdrick• 19 years ago

Love the new silhouette front page. I can smell the Ohio loam.

I can only register for a Freeroll within 60 minutes of start time?

mattmaroon14• 19 years ago

Yes. Otherwise it would fill up 4 days in advance and nobody would actually play.

mikesabat• 19 years ago

Cool idea - I was definitely looking for this two months back. I'm excited to see the type of stuff that you guys are adding to fantasy sports.

Maybe you could add some cool, weekly pickems, at least for football. I don't know anyone that plays basketball or hockey. I'd imagine football is way ahead for fantasy sports, and I don't think people will start fantasy football now.

JRM4• 19 years ago

The site is based on short season leagues. So playing fantasy football right now is actually exactly what people will be doing :D

brett• 19 years ago

"register in seconds" and the huge "play free now" button did a really good job of funneling me to the register page that I couldn't use because I don't have an invite code. I realized that I needed to request an invitation only after I had filled out 2/3rds of the registration form.

mattmaroon14• 19 years ago

Oh, sorry. That button will have some much more exciting functionality in the near future, but we should fix that for now.

muriithi• 19 years ago

Good design but I have to keep scrolling to see everything on my poor man's 800*600 res.

russ2• 19 years ago

Sorry man...didn't know those existed anymore! jk :P

daniel-cussen• 19 years ago

Are you the soldiers for fortune guys?

ced• 19 years ago

I had to look up what a Fantasy Sport was. Perhaps a one-liner in your FAQ could help.

Tichy2• 19 years ago

I looked it up when the first information about the Summer YCs was available. Nevertheless, it seems very difficult to get into, so maybe a tutorial would be called for. I am really not the target audience, though, as I don't care one iota for spectator sports. Although I am interested in game theory and gambling, so who knows.

mattmaroon14• 19 years ago

You would be surprised how little sports you need to know to compete.

fleaflicker2• 19 years ago

is the request invite feature broken?

JRM4• 19 years ago

I dont think it is. What problem did you have?

fleaflicker2• 19 years ago

it's working now, wasn't earlier

Caligula2• 19 years ago

A lot of the sports leagues demand royalty from fantasy sports leagues. There have even been lawsuits over this as they believe it to be proprietary data. Are you guys paying them royalty?

Real good concept. Add a real money feature and i'd play.

JRM4• 19 years ago

There is a recent case against the MLB which says that the data is public domain. The MLB has already lost an appeal on this matter as well (see http://www.draftmix.com/news/index.php/2007/10/17/draftmix-n...) for details

Caligula2• 19 years ago

Good to hear.

another note , in your about us you say "We're currently the only site offering live drafts all day every day throughout each sport's season. We offer short term, hands off leagues, so you won't be penalized if you can't login five times a day to manage teams. And we offer guaranteed cash prizes with a simple, easy to understand structure"

A quick google search showed https://www.fantasysportslive.com

Im sure there are other sites. I think your game lobby is better than yours. I look forward to trying it when other players are on and its real $. cheers.

r7000• 19 years ago

I like the preseason 'beta' label. Very waggish.

utnick• 19 years ago

cool design

Have you consulted with a lawyer about the legality of running a league with an entry fee and a prize pool?

I have a feeling that is not legal in all 50 states.

JRM4• 19 years ago

Yes we have. It is legal in most states. We will post this info in our terms of service once the lawyers finish them up. States where it is not legal are still able to play in free games.

mattmaroon14• 19 years ago

Yeah, we are going to operate in 39.

goofygrin• 19 years ago

Request Invite requires a name with a space in it? I just put my first name in and got a generic error message.

It looks like you're using Flex? How'd that work for you?

russ2• 19 years ago

Hm..I put in a name without a space and it worked fine..? What error msg did you get?

mattmaroon14• 19 years ago

Flex is pretty awesome. We use it for the draft and lobby. The lobby we probably could get away with AJAX for in the future, but I'd dread using that for the draft.

Mistone• 19 years ago

congrats on the launch - maybe its just me - but it took me a while to figure out what the site does - I don't think that info belongs in the FAQ section.

Design is clean - well done.

Again I'm not a big Fantasy player or online gamer but there are terms and language on the site (Draft lobby) that I simply did not know what they are referring to.

a short demo video, or "new to fantasy sports?" tab would be helpful. I guess I felt like I wanted to use the site but did not know what to do.

My YC Startup Enters Private Beta

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