Thinking about making a website for my game (2 Viewers)

[Booshme]

Hey guys, I try to remove as many steps as possible for both myself and my friends even if it means a lot of initial time and effort. I like to streamline thing, and want to make a web page where people can check home game details and RSVP etc.

I saw a post in the flyers thread and was inspired. Does anyone have experience with this that can offer any tips? Or if you’re a player what would you like to see if a friend was hosting a game?

 

[Moxie Mike]

You could use Squarespace or Wix to whip up a quick website no problem. The free version would probably suffice. Or if you're a little more ambitious and don't mind spending some money, you could purchase a domain and hosting and publish your site using Wordpress.

That said, are you sure this is such a good idea?

I considered it briefly when I started the Moxie Poker League, but I ended up deciding against it for a few reasons. Mainly because it'd be more work for me to maintain the site than it's worth, and I really don't want a public website out there with all the information about the game.

In my world, discretion is paramount and participation is strictly by invite only. So even though there are ways to prevent the site from being indexed in search engines, it's still a risk that doesn't have much justification.

 

[merkong]

You could use Squarespace or Wix to whip up a quick website no problem. The free version would probably suffice. Or if you're a little more ambitious and don't mind spending some money, you could purchase a domain and hosting and publish your site using Wordpress.

That said, are you sure this is such a good idea?

I considered it briefly when I started the Moxie Poker League, but I ended up deciding against it for a few reasons. Mainly because it'd be more work for me to maintain the site than it's worth, and I really don't want a public website out there with all the information about the game.

In my world, discretion is paramount and participation is strictly by invite only. So even though there are ways to prevent the site from being indexed in search engines, it's still a risk that doesn't have much justification.

This… ^^^^^^

 

[Booshme]

You could use Squarespace or Wix to whip up a quick website no problem. The free version would probably suffice. Or if you're a little more ambitious and don't mind spending some money, you could purchase a domain and hosting and publish your site using Wordpress.

That said, are you sure this is such a good idea?

I considered it briefly when I started the Moxie Poker League, but I ended up deciding against it for a few reasons. Mainly because it'd be more work for me to maintain the site than it's worth, and I really don't want a public website out there with all the information about the game.

In my world, discretion is paramount and participation is strictly by invite only. So even though there are ways to prevent the site from being indexed in search engines, it's still a risk that doesn't have much justification.

That makes sense to me. I think I just like having projects lol. I’m going to see if there’s a way to have an easy passcode or something, and my game is small stakes, even smaller than small lol so I might just play with it to have fun and maybe add some funny details / inside jokes just to get a laugh outta the guys.

That said, if there’s something worth it there I think it’s a fun thing to put some effort into

 

[Moxie Mike]

That makes sense to me. I think I just like having projects lol. I’m going to see if there’s a way to have an easy passcode or something, and my game is small stakes, even smaller than small lol so I might just play with it to have fun and maybe add some funny details / inside jokes just to get a laugh outta the guys.

That said, if there’s something worth it there I think it’s a fun thing to put some effort into

You could create a username and password for every member of the group, which wouldn't be difficult, especially with a Wordpress site.

But you're also operating under the assumption that people are even going to use the site. You'll still get the same number of texts about when the next game is... especially from older members of the group who don't want to deal with yet another piece of technology just for poker night.

So if you want to do it for fun and password protect it that'd probably be fine but if you think it's going to make life easier as a host I wouldn't be too sure about that.

 

[buzzmonkey]

I use Goggle forms to make a quick invite and then text or email it out.

 

[Booshme]

You could create a username and password for every member of the group, which wouldn't be difficult, especially with a Wordpress site.

But you're also operating under the assumption that people are even going to use the site. You'll still get the same number of texts about when the next game is... especially from older members of the group who don't want to deal with yet another piece of technology just for poker night.

So if you want to do it for fun and password protect it that'd probably be fine but if you think it's going to make life easier as a host I wouldn't be too sure about that.

Thanks man for helping me set a realistic expectation

 

[Booshme]

I use Goggle forms to make a quick invite and then text or email it out.

I’ve never used it before. I will look into this

 

[buzzmonkey]

I’ve never used it before. I will look into this

It's free. You just need a gmail account. Tons of videos on YT to help you.

 

[divinerites]

The Google doc is already setup for you. Great tool

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/resources/invitetracker.98/

 

[AutoDonk5000]

The Google doc is already setup for you. Great tool

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/resources/invitetracker.98/

I use this, it's actually what brought me to the site.

Took a little noodling but it works great!

To send out texts reliably you can either use Twilio (requires a little money and setup time) or a Siri shortcut (iPhone). I don't have an iPhone so I got Twilio.

It gives a little landing page for people to select in or out. You can fit a little game info in there but not a ton.

 

[Booshme]

I use this, it's actually what brought me to the site.

Took a little noodling but it works great!

To send out texts reliably you can either use Twilio (requires a little money and setup time) or a Siri shortcut (iPhone). I don't have an iPhone so I got Twilio.

It gives a little landing page for people to select in or out. You can fit a little game info in there but not a ton.

I think I’ll try it out once the home game gets bigger and I have a bigger player pool. For now it’s google forms!

 

[glynn]

You don't even need to assign accounts or passwords. Before I paused my game, I was working on a site that allowed one-click registration using unique URL slugs, just like the shareable links offered by Google Docs. Through that same link, each player for each game could edit his reservation, move himself to the waitlist, even edit his profile information.

Of course, I have development experience, which factors into the cost/benefit calculation. The majority of folks here won't recover their effort from anything more complicated than a Wix page.

 

[BarrieJ3]

I see the value if there’s a bit more to it than next game info.

Like if we’re in an ongoing series, tracking tourney winners, calendar with upcoming invites, submitting buyins/donations online, etc.

I created https://www.wabpoker.com/ for general information on a game, and had many dreams for it, but got pretty sick and didn’t have the time/energy to finish aspects I wanted to.

Once I get a game going again in the future I’ll look to utilize it, maybe even sync it with some access control solutions or something.

Individual logins for each user, text through twilio, etc. But I don’t really see any value in this vs a simple group text/google sheet.

 

[Booshme]

I see the value if there’s a bit more to it than next game info.

Like if we’re in an ongoing series, tracking tourney winners, calendar with upcoming invites, submitting buyins/donations online, etc.

I created https://www.wabpoker.com/ for general information on a game, and had many dreams for it, but got pretty sick and didn’t have the time/energy to finish aspects I wanted to.

Once I get a game going again in the future I’ll look to utilize it, maybe even sync it with some access control solutions or something.

Individual logins for each user, text through twilio, etc. But I don’t really see any value in this vs a simple group text/google sheet.

Honestly man I didn’t even consider those options, for a dedicated league etc it would be worth it to me to post that info.