Statistics software

[md5key]

I am thinking of writing some software that could help keep track of your pool games. More specifically, I was thinking about writing different modules that could be used to track your progress during training games.

For instance, one module may be the "Ghost" module and you would record the ghost you played, the number of times it won, the number of times you won, the balls you were able to pocket, and any notes you had on the session.

Another module may be the Bowliards module and would keep track of all your scores.. You could then run averages by time period or even generate a graph to visually see your progress (hopefully it's progress! )

So my first question is - would anyone use this? It would be free to use but would be driven by advertisements so I would need a significant number of people using it to make it worth while. I'm a Software Architect so I don't have to pay to have it developed but I would have to pay for hosting and I'd rather not waste my time programming it if nobody will use it.

Second question is - if people would use it, what would you like to see it do? What games should it be capable of recording? What is important to note for the said games? Should there be some kind of public "Leaderboard" that has all the best scores/averages on it?

Thanks,
Zach

 

[PKM]

Given that you really just need a convenient place to keep track of results, rather than any specialized statistics or anything, wouldn't it be easier to just create some custom Excel worksheets? (I don't know if you could use free alternatives)

Of course, if you're trying to make some money off the website I don't know how that would compare. It seems you could still offer it as a free download.

 

[Jack Montgomery]

Given that you really just need a convenient place to keep track of results, rather than any specialized statistics or anything, wouldn't it be easier to just create some custom Excel worksheets? (I don't know if you could use free alternatives)

Of course, if you're trying to make some money off the website I don't know how that would compare. It seems you could still offer it as a free download.

I was gonna suggest Excel as well, it really is a powerful program as I'm sure you know Zach. Not sure how you could implement spreadsheets into a community type database, but there has to be a way.

 

[md5key]

I was gonna suggest Excel as well, it really is a powerful program as I'm sure you know Zach. Not sure how you could implement spreadsheets into a community type database, but there has to be a way.

Yeah I love Excel - some of the things people build on it are amazing. The problem with it, as you mention, is that there is no central database.. So that makes it very difficult to turn it into a community type application. Besides that there is the whole licensing issue and having everyone keep their spreadsheets in the correct format.

I'll do some research though and see what I can come up with. More than likely I can come up with a fairly dynamic "framework" to handle this information and also make it really easy to use. I think the ability to quickly login and enter information is going to be a must - nobody wants to go through a 10 step process to enter their latest ghost results