For years I was hosting my own pool using my own developed solution. Over the years it evolved from a excel spreadsheet that people printed out, to a spreadsheet that had dropdowns that eliminated misspellings. Eventually there was code that allowed them to submit it to a SQL database hosted on the web. I had built a VB script to move all the data into a single sheet, and then a master sheet that kept track of points for everyone in the pool.
The last few years I started using/modifying open source code:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/tourney/forums/forum/1092265
I dont have time to stand up web hosting space, register a domain name, enter all the tourney teams, etc this year.
So I'm gonna open an ESPN bracket and hope everyone forgives me.
The question is this: Which sites have better feature sets. The major things ESPN / CBS used to lack (and may still, I don't know) were:
- the ability to be able to see what everyone else had picked
- the ability to predict who would win given a scenario
- the ability to determine which possible scenarios exist that each participant could finish in the top X (where you get paid.)
Is there a free site that makes this available? Is one site better than the others? Thoughts?
Pocket Bracket App. I start a pool, and depending on how many people you have (or how much you trust them) you can either enter all the brackets for everyone, or let them "join" if you give them the password (though they can modify it then...though it shows WHEN you modified it). Easy to enter, you just tap on the names, and then you can landscape it to see your whole bracket (and they'll mark off there who won and lost). Used to have only the standard 1-2-4-6-8-10 scoring, but now you can choose from a bunch or make your own. It'll also keep track how your bracket and pool is doing vs. everyone else at their site (as long as you haven't modified after the games start...then you're disqualified, but it will still keep track for you). And for those that don't have something that uses an App, they can actually check the website and find your pool and then their picks in it as well as the standings.
As for figuring out who is going to win if X happens....isn't looking at it and figuring it out part of the fun? I guess not if your pool has 300 people in it.
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