Playeratr is a website that helps groups of people come together for social events and sports activities. Users can join an existing group (called a Club) or start their own. Invite your friends and build a community within your club, then organize events for member to get together and enjoy.
If you've ever tried to organize a group event, you know how painful it can be. Long email threads are cumbersome, and huge group text messages are annoying. Playeratr solves all these common problem by giving organizers everything they need in one place. Playeratr sends emails to your club members when it's time for an event and gives everyone a central place to respond and discuss the event.
Standard features include group message boards, event scheduling, email updates and rsvp tracking. For competitive sports clubs, Playeratr offers additional features for tracking game results, player statistics, and rankings using the Playeratr ratings algorithm.
In the upper-right corner, click 'Sign In' and log in with a valid Google account. If this is your first time using Playeratr you'll be prompted to create a Playeratr profile.
Playeratr is built on Google App Engine and uses Google Users for account administration. Don't worry, Playeratr never sees your Google password and does not have access to your Google account.
The main things are a unique username and your real name. We also ask for your time zone so we can display times correctly for you.
No, your username is your permanent identifier and cannot be changed.
When you are signed in, click your name in the upper right corner and go to My Profile, then click Edit to change any of your personal info.
No, the only information that is publicly displayed is your username and real name.
The home for each group is called a Club. Each Club is separately managed and has its own members, news posts, message boards, events, etc. Users can join an existing club or create their own.
Just about any group that gets together on a regular basis could become a Club. Sport pick-up games is an obvious example. Book clubs, poker nights, board game nights could each be a Club as well... there's really no limit!
Sorry! Playeratr is currently in Beta and we are not allowing users to create their own clubs yet.
Yes. And you can create multiple clubs too.
We offer several privacy choices depending on how you want to manage your club. You can configure your club to be private or hidden to non-members. You can also require admin approval for new members.
Go to Club Preferences for the Club you want to leave, and click 'Leave Club.' Don't worry, you can always re-join.
If you're a member of a club, you can set a nickname that will appear next to your name. It's just for fun and a good way to strike fear in the hearts of your opponents. You can set it in the Club Menu: Click on your name, then Club Preferences / Club Nickname.
A Sports Club is a Club that has extra features enabled for sport-related functionality, such as ratings, game results, automatic team generation, and more.
You can enable sport club features when you create your club. Or you can enable/disable it at any time after club creation by going to Club Settings and toggling 'Enable Sport Club Features.'
To ensure an adequate number of players, you can configure events to require a minimum number of RSVP responses by a deadline. After the game, you can enter the Game Results, allowing players to look up their game history and see their rankings in the group. Playeratr can even automatically suggest balanced teams for each event. No more worrying you'll be picked last!
Playeratr generates suggested teams for sporting events. The club administrator can pick from several different methods to generate teams (random, alphabetical, registration order), but we recommend using suggested teams based on player ratings. Playeratr looks at the rating of every member attending and attempts to create two evenly-matched teams.
An Event is your meetup/get-together/social activity. Clubs can create Events for their members to attend. The Event has the date/time and location, i.e. 'Friday Happy Hour at the Pub'. Each event also has its own chat board to help members organize the event.
Yes. Recurring Events are fully supported. Each occurrence is treated as a separate instance that users can RSVP to individually.
When creating the Event, the administrator also configures when the RSVP window should open and close. An email is sent out to Club members when the RSVP window opens, and members respond whether they're 'in' or 'out' for the event. The status of each user is displayed on the Event page.
When the Event is created, the administrator sets the minimum number of attendees required for the Event to occur. If the required number of attendees is met before the RSVP window closes, the event will be 'on.' Conversely, if the number of required attendees is not met when time expires, then the event is cancelled. In both cases status updates are emailed to Club members.
Suppose you're trying to organize a pickup basketball game at 7pm today. You want at least 8 people to attend so you can play 4-on-4, otherwise it's really not worth attending (3-on-3 is just too small of a game for your talents). Some people are coming from far away so they need to know 30 minutes ahead of time whether they should bother showing up. With Playeratr, simply create an Event with the rsvp deadline at 6:30 pm and require 8 attendees. Done! Members are notified and RSVP for the event. As soon as you have 8 attendees, the event is on. Or if you don't have 8 attendees by 6:30, the event is off. In either case emails are sent out to notify members of the status.
If you run a Sport Club, you can enter the results of each game to track the teams and scores of all the matches your club has played. Our interface lets you create teams, enter scores, add game notes, and more.
Players love to see their game history, win/loss record, and ranking within the club. It also gives a skill rating to each player, which lets Playeratr automatically generate suggested balanced teams for your next event.
Player statistics include number of games won/lost/tied, win percentages, win/loss streaks. Every player has a rating which changes based on their game performance and is used to rank everyone in the club.
Yes, multiple games can be entered for a single instance of Game Results. Each game can have different players and scores.
Yes, you can enter Game Results that aren't associated with any Event. This is ideal for impromptu matchups and lets you skip all the formality of making an Event.
Ratings are used to track player skill in sports clubs. Each member has a numerical rating associated with them, which represents their skill level relative to other players in the club. The Playeratr rating algorithm is based on a custom application of Glicko 2, developed by Mark Glickman.
Bragging rights! You've always known you were the best player in your group - now prove it! Whether its pool, ping pong, basketball, or ultimate frisbee, you can showcase your dominance by topping the leaderboards. Having accurate ratings also helps Playeratr automatically generate balanced teams for your games.
Each player starts with a rating of 1500, which is considered 'completely average' because the system has no idea how good the player is. The higher the rating, the better the player is expected to perform. Whenever a player wins a game, his rating goes up. When he loses, his rating goes down.
When two players face off, the player with the higher rating is 'expected' to win, and the ratings changes after the game will vary based on who won or lost. If the expected outcome occurs (the higher-rating player won), the ratings changes are small. If an upset occurs (the lower-rated player wins), then the ratings changes will be larger. In other words, beating a higher-rated opponent gives a larger boost to your rating than beating a lower-rated opponent, and losing to a higher-rated opponent has less of an impact on your rating than losing to a lower-rated opponent.
If you're really interested in the math, you're best off reading the Glicko 2 documentaion for the details. Here's the quick version. There are 2 important metrics tracked for each player:
Rating: Every player starts with a rating of 1500, which is considered 'average'. For every player with a rating above 1500, there is likely a corresponding player with a rating below 1500.
Rating Deviation (rd): this measures how confident the system is that your rating is an accurate assessment of your actual skill. New players have a high rd, meaning the system is not confident at all, and winning/losing will have a larger affect on your rating as the system zeroes in on you actual skill level. Players who have played several games have a lower rd, meaning the system is more confident in the rating, and ratings changes get less dramatic.
Your rating goes up or down every time you win or lose a game. The amount it changes is determined by your rating, your opponent's rating, and your rd.
The Playeratr rating system uses Glicko 2 in a custom way that allows it handle teams. When doing calculations, every player's rating is taken into account on both teams. We do this in such a way that you aren't overly punished for losing if you're on a terrible team, nor are you overly rewarded for winning if you happen to be on the Dream Team.
Yes, Playeratr takes scores into account. It doesn't play a major role, so think of it as a bonus. If the game was a close competitive match, that means the teams were somewhat even and the player ratings are somewhat accurate, so less of a ratings adjustment is necessary. But if the game is a blowout, that means the teams were not balanced and a major ratings adjustment is needed. The lesson here is to never show any mercy - your rating is on the line!
Most emails are associated with events. You'll get an email when the event rsvp window opens, and a reminder if you don't respond. You'll get an email when the event is 'on' or 'off.' Club administrators can also broadcast announcements to Club members.
Yes. Add additional email addresses in Email Preferences.
Yes! We hate spam as much as you do and try to only send you emails that are directly applicable to the events in your Clubs. If you want to adjust any of this, you can manage which emails you do or don't want to receive at Email Preferences.
One-click RSVP links include a special code unique to your Playeratr account. Clicking the link lets you respond 'in' or 'out' to an event without actually logging in to Playeratr. We want to make it as easy as possible so you have no excuses for not RSVPing!
No, your email address is never displayed to other users or even to Club administrators. The only exception is if an admin invited you to join the Club using your email address - that is displayed to club admins.
Playeratr was founded by Steve Bonham, Paul O'Keefe, and Vrajesh Patel.
'Player-Rater'
Post on the Help and Support Message Board and we'll answer it there.
You can email us at legal@playeratr.com.