5 ms·

TweetBracket (YC W10): An Easy Way To Share Your March Madness Picks

29 points by parasctr 17y ago

khangtoh 17y ago
@140bets, if you are reading this, you need to state rules and regulations CLEARLY to host contests like these in the US. just wanted to highlight that so the founders don't get caught in a bad situation. Google answer about online contests/sweepstakes http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/716341.html http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/716341.html
fseek 17y ago
I had to laugh when read "dead simple" . Someone complained about it on HN a few weeks ago and it is true. Tech Crunch abuss too much of this term..
- Frazzydee 17y ago
  http://www.google.ca/search?q=intitle:%22dead+simple%22+site:techcrunch.com http://www.google.ca/search?q=intitle:%22dead+simple%22+site...
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- moron4hire 17y ago
  hehe, I only clicked on the comments for this thread because I wanted to see if someone would comment on "dead simple" again.
  - NEPatriot 17y ago
    First time I can recall seeing "Dead Simple" is on Posterous. I think we're just used to everything being overly complicated so that anything that's simple is by definition "dead simple". Simple by itself is naked and unsophisticated. Dead simple on the other hand is special.
- ronnier 17y ago
  Lately, I've been seeing "having said that, ..." or "that being said, ...", a little much in comments and blog posts. Having said that, I'm trying to avoid it myself. Just noticed that jackowayed below has a variation of it in his comment.
- adityakothadiya 17y ago
  Generally it goes to YC startups by default.
antidaily 17y ago
Also of note: http://twitpickem.com http://twitpickem.com and http://twitbet.com http://twitbet.com from HN posters.
byrneseyeview 17y ago
Why are they using the $abbreviation syntax? Stocktwits uses that all the time. This must really tick them off: http://stocktwits.com/symbol/LEH http://stocktwits.com/symbol/LEH
pclark 17y ago
was this the YC startup that had special access to twitter?
- jackowayed 17y ago
  The RFS made it sound like any YC company could have special access to Twitter, but I don't see any reason why Tweet Bracket would. I guess they might use it for other parts of the platform in the future, though.
- jasonwilk 17y ago
  We did not apply from the RFP, and YC did not get us onto Twitter. We had to do our own development work there. And Chad : )
jackowayed 17y ago
A little bit of a late launch (even 24h earlier would have been better), but you're not doing a real bracket, so it'll work. That said, since they don't actually share their whole bracket, the name doesn't quite fit. Also: * You should show the seedings of the teams so people can make a better decision. Seed is a lot more meaningful than record. * You need to be much clearer about how the contests work * The pictures of the HDTV and of the final four logo look grainy and bad. * Your about page says you're based in "Norther California" EDIT: You should really not tweet for people unless they explicitly tell you they want to. I wasn't paying attention to the little checkbox under the picking, so I sent 2 tweets and thens saw 10 min later that I had done so. Also, your default tweet wordings are pretty annoying. EDIT2: Alright, this sucks. I decided to do some more picks, so I went back to the site. I had to log back in which was kind of annoying. Then, it started me with games I had already picked. Then I got some new ones, but pretty soon I was on games that had already started, and it gave me an error when I tried to pick them because of that. And it didn't remember that I had unchecked the "tweet this" box, so I sent some more inadvertent tweets. I think having people pick the following day's games may work better.
- jasonwilk 17y ago
  Thanks for the advice!
robrenaud 17y ago
I'd really love to see something that gives recommendations for bets in a local pool based on your region. Assume that geographically concentrated bettors will have similar biases because there is a strong preference of fans to bet for their team, even if its the underdog. By being contrarian, even if you aren't picking the best overall bracket, you can maximize your chance of winning a particular pool. If you could mine the data provided by TweetBracket, you could even get a good estimate of local biases to make good contrarian brackets.

29 points by parasctr 17y ago

@140bets, if you are reading this, you need to state rules and regulations CLEARLY to host contests like these in the US. just wanted to highlight that so the founders don't get caught in a bad situation. Google answer about online contests/sweepstakes http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/716341.html http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/716341.html

fseek 17y ago

I had to laugh when read "dead simple" . Someone complained about it on HN a few weeks ago and it is true. Tech Crunch abuss too much of this term..

Frazzydee 17y ago
http://www.google.ca/search?q=intitle:%22dead+simple%22+site:techcrunch.com http://www.google.ca/search?q=intitle:%22dead+simple%22+site...
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
moron4hire 17y ago
hehe, I only clicked on the comments for this thread because I wanted to see if someone would comment on "dead simple" again.
- NEPatriot 17y ago
  First time I can recall seeing "Dead Simple" is on Posterous. I think we're just used to everything being overly complicated so that anything that's simple is by definition "dead simple". Simple by itself is naked and unsophisticated. Dead simple on the other hand is special.
ronnier 17y ago
Lately, I've been seeing "having said that, ..." or "that being said, ...", a little much in comments and blog posts. Having said that, I'm trying to avoid it myself. Just noticed that jackowayed below has a variation of it in his comment.
adityakothadiya 17y ago
Generally it goes to YC startups by default.

antidaily 17y ago

Also of note: http://twitpickem.com http://twitpickem.com and http://twitbet.com http://twitbet.com from HN posters.

byrneseyeview 17y ago

Why are they using the $abbreviation syntax? Stocktwits uses that all the time. This must really tick them off: http://stocktwits.com/symbol/LEH http://stocktwits.com/symbol/LEH

pclark 17y ago

was this the YC startup that had special access to twitter?

jackowayed 17y ago
The RFS made it sound like any YC company could have special access to Twitter, but I don't see any reason why Tweet Bracket would. I guess they might use it for other parts of the platform in the future, though.
jasonwilk 17y ago
We did not apply from the RFP, and YC did not get us onto Twitter. We had to do our own development work there. And Chad : )

jackowayed 17y ago

A little bit of a late launch (even 24h earlier would have been better), but you're not doing a real bracket, so it'll work. That said, since they don't actually share their whole bracket, the name doesn't quite fit. Also: * You should show the seedings of the teams so people can make a better decision. Seed is a lot more meaningful than record. * You need to be much clearer about how the contests work * The pictures of the HDTV and of the final four logo look grainy and bad. * Your about page says you're based in "Norther California" EDIT: You should really not tweet for people unless they explicitly tell you they want to. I wasn't paying attention to the little checkbox under the picking, so I sent 2 tweets and thens saw 10 min later that I had done so. Also, your default tweet wordings are pretty annoying. EDIT2: Alright, this sucks. I decided to do some more picks, so I went back to the site. I had to log back in which was kind of annoying. Then, it started me with games I had already picked. Then I got some new ones, but pretty soon I was on games that had already started, and it gave me an error when I tried to pick them because of that. And it didn't remember that I had unchecked the "tweet this" box, so I sent some more inadvertent tweets. I think having people pick the following day's games may work better.

jasonwilk 17y ago
Thanks for the advice!

robrenaud 17y ago

I'd really love to see something that gives recommendations for bets in a local pool based on your region. Assume that geographically concentrated bettors will have similar biases because there is a strong preference of fans to bet for their team, even if its the underdog. By being contrarian, even if you aren't picking the best overall bracket, you can maximize your chance of winning a particular pool. If you could mine the data provided by TweetBracket, you could even get a good estimate of local biases to make good contrarian brackets.