My YC Startup Enters Private Beta | Hacker News Reader

My YC Startup Enters Private Beta

draftmix.com

27 pointsmattmaroon49 comments

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

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?

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

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?

Yes, you can multi-table. Bots aren't really a worry in this, since you can already set a draft queue, and soon we'll have customizable rankings. We (and all other FS sites) basically have a bot built in for you.

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.

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

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.

FSL doesn't do live drafts. They do some goofy version of salary cap pick'ems.

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

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.

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

I suppose I'll be able to find some tutorials somewhere on the web, once I have some spare time. It certainly has several interesting aspects.

I'll definitely work on explaining it to people better.

One of my cofounders is absolutely crushing at fantasy football and rarely ever watches a game. It's more than anything looking at statistics and learning how they apply.

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.

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

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.

Wow, that's unusual. Going to have to check into that. Thanks.

Actually it turns out it only occurs when I change my browser size away from maximized. It never allows me to scroll down far enough to see the buttons...

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.

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

"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.

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

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

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?

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

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

PS: Another cool Rails startup!

I'll send you an invite.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Yeah, we are going to operate in 39.

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?

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

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.

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.

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?

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

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

is the request invite feature broken?

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

it's working now, wasn't earlier

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

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

Are you the soldiers for fortune guys?

i like the design a lot.

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

Thanks, we will.

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