Not a question, but a few suggestions to make the app and website more compelling:
1. Make all match scores public, so each player has a data-filled profile page that shows their entire history, game type, event type, opponent, etc. Currently, players can “opt in” to make their matches public, but very few players even know about that option, and even fewer do it. If privacy is a concern, make profiles visible only to logged-in members. Otherwise, I don’t think it’s a privacy issue, since the matches themselves are played in public.
2. Improve the search engine so you can search by name, match venue, event, city, state, country, or radius to a postal code, allow filtering the results by rating range, and allow sorting the results by rating, name, or distance. The current search by name is very limited, and cuts off after the first page of results. Results should be paged or auto-flowed when scrolled to to the bottom.
3. Improve the rating history charts, allowing a dynamic time frame and showing the rating when a point on the chart is tapped. Allow adding other players to the same chart so you can compare historical trends directly.
4. When data comes in, try to get the meta data from the operators like table size, game type (8, 9, or 10 ball, one pocket, 14.1, etc), and event type (league, small tournament, large tournament, etc). Show at least the % breakdowns for each of these meta data categories on the profile pages, and for each match. It should also be possible to show a separate FR for each player by table size and game type.
5. Make the app more social by showing follower and following counts and names, and allow DMs so we can reach out to other players for matchups or just to make friends. Allow me to opt-in to get notifications on new match scores for all players I follow.
6. Have a home page news feed in the app that shows latest match results for all the players I follow, and show me suggestions of who I may want to follow.
7. Offer the ability for TOs to advertise upcoming tournaments in the app, filtered by geography and rating, as long as they’re reporting data back. Send notifications on these tournaments by default, but allow players to opt-out. Give players an easy way to search a tournament calendar filtered by geography and date range. Put tournament announcements in the news feed as well.
8. Might be too much to ask, but if operators could include a player’s email and/or mobile number when submitting data, then players could be contacted and encouraged to install the app. If that’s too much to ask, give operators handouts to give to each player with a QR code and encourage them to promote the app.
I’ve been a startup coder and founder in the web and mobile app space since ‘98, so I know how much work these features would take. They’re the low hanging fruit that I would be working on first, in the order above. Back when I was still coding, this feature list would be about 5-6 months of full-time work for me. I’ve done them all many times over.
I believe FargoRate has been an important part of the games growth in recent years, and it’s in prime position to be an even bigger driver of growth if the app is built out with compelling and social features like these.