6 ms·

Plancast Is Foursquare... For The Future

42 points by hwork 17y ago

dkimerling 17y ago
definitely. Once they get gcal integration going, that will just take it to the next step.
- jaymon 17y ago
  While we don't have full integration yet, every page does offer an iCal feed so you can at least subscribe to your Plancast feed in Gcal to get a one-way stream going.
auston 17y ago
I've been a "beta" tester for this - it's pretty useful! Congrats Mark!
milkshakes 17y ago
really cool -- hope they open up an api
- jaymon 17y ago
  We're working on it, judging by the amount of emails we're getting about an API, I'm thinking we're going to drop all our other upcoming features to get the API up and running for everyone. The only thing that stands in our way are all the bug reports we've gotten also.
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
enki 17y ago
whoa. that signup was extremely frictionless with both twitter and facebook. i already found friends and plans i share with them without doing anything really. i'm impressed.
- milestinsley 17y ago
  Seconded. That's how signup should be done.
- ojbyrne 17y ago
  You found the form with 12 fields to fill in to be frictionless?
  - sachinag 17y ago
    Even with pre-population, I would have to give them an e-mail address and create a new password. Sorry, I'm not joining until my friends make me. And given that I'm just barely still in my 20s, not bloody likely.
maxklein 17y ago
It's an excellent idea, and in Trumps voice: This is going to be huge.
patio11 17y ago
Somebody asked recently what I meant when I said lots of startups make things for technically-inclined twenty-something males. I meant that lots of startups make things like this. If your first thought after "I kind of want to go out to dinner on Thursday." is "I wonder if a site exists that can broadcast this to my social networks yet?", you are solidly in the demographic most B2C startups seem to care about. There are also people who, when they think "I want to go out to dinner on Thursday.", follow it up with "Naturally, I will bring my husband and children." These people do not have an endless stream of Silicon Valley companies trying to satisfy their every whim. That is a pity, or opportunity, depending on how you look at it.
- jaymon 17y ago
  Of course not everyone is going to want to broadcast every move they are going to make, but that isn't half of what Plancast can offer you. For example, a couple weeks ago I learned that Marcy Playground had released a new CD and was touring. I was bumbed I missed their show simply because I didn't know about it. Now, if Marcy Playground was on Plancast I could've just subscribed to their upcoming feed and easily have seen where they were going to be and when they were going to be there. Now, how awesome would it be if all your favorite bands were on Plancast? You could create a feed of just bands you liked and have their tour schedules come to you. But let's not stop at bands, what about your favorite clubs or restaurants? You could create a custom upcoming feed of only the places you want to go. Give Plancast a chance and you might just grow to love it.
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
  - ams6110 17y ago
    I think I would feel like a puppet who's strings are being jerked in 20 directions by all my different "feeds". But that's probably just me. I have never seen the allure of the "social" internet that puts ever facet of your life on line. It seems to be to be the height of arrogance to think that anyone really cares about where you are going to dinner on Thursday night.
  - 17y ago
kilps 17y ago
I really like the idea, but the feature mentioned at the end of the post to allow limiting plans to certain friends is a must have - many of my plans I won't want the whole world to know about.
- jaymon 17y ago
  We have been going back and forth on how to do this, the problem is we really don't want to clutter the simpleness of "what, when, where" with lots of other dialog boxes, so we are trying to find the best way to integrate advanced functionality like privacy and still remain simple.
  - fbailey 17y ago
    very nicely done, we tried something similar some time ago but i never finished it :-) good luck
zach 17y ago
So it's a 43Things reboot?
FreeRadical 17y ago
This reminds me of dopplir, in essence but much more localised. I'll never use this myself but I can see this doing well.
rglullis 17y ago
Wait, wait... A few hours ago I submitted a link about Sponty and how they can compete with Foursquare. (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=969221 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=969221). It's kind funny how the techcrunch article gets instantly lots of votes, and link to random blogger gets ignored. Anyway, Sponty also offers a social calendar, where you can broadcast your intentions, and also have feeds for different events.
- iamdanw 17y ago
  There's a large glut of "this new service is like foursquare" submissions over the past few days.
maryrosecook 17y ago
Very impressed by the date handling. I entered Thursday to Saturday and it figured out what I meant. However, I can't make it understand ranges further in the future. For example, I'm going to All Tomorrow's Parties from 11th Dec to 13th Dec and I can't make Plancast understand that.
- jaymon 17y ago
  Funny story, turns out I forgot to commit our latest date_parser before Thanksgiving break and then accidentally over-wrote it with the one from the repository because I thought it would be the most up to date. So, the current date parser has some bugs that were caught and fixed and then lost. The good news is I have re-fixed most of all those bugs and I just tested "11th Dec to 13th Dec" and it parsed it correctly. The new parser should be pushed live in a day or so.
  - maryrosecook 17y ago
    Cool. Thanks a lot.
maryrosecook 17y ago
More feedback: - Really lovely site. Lots of great touches. I typed that I will be going to Bar Wotever (actually the name of a night, not a place) tonight and it figured out where the venue is automatically. - Could the little red bars next to each time window (today, next week etc.) give some idea of futureness? e.g. green for today, yellow for this week, red for further away in time. - Can I hide a friend's plan? - If I'm on the Discover Friends page, the data does not refresh when I switch between the Twitter/Facebook/Email tags. To do that, I must refresh the whole page in my browser.
iamdanw 17y ago
Plancast needs support for uncertainty. I might be going to this place sometime next week but I'm not sure yet. Perhaps if a friend also says they're going then I'll be more certain. Similar to upcoming.org's interested vs attending.

42 points by hwork 17y ago

dkimerling 17y ago

definitely. Once they get gcal integration going, that will just take it to the next step.

jaymon 17y ago
While we don't have full integration yet, every page does offer an iCal feed so you can at least subscribe to your Plancast feed in Gcal to get a one-way stream going.

auston 17y ago

I've been a "beta" tester for this - it's pretty useful! Congrats Mark!

milkshakes 17y ago

really cool -- hope they open up an api

jaymon 17y ago
We're working on it, judging by the amount of emails we're getting about an API, I'm thinking we're going to drop all our other upcoming features to get the API up and running for everyone. The only thing that stands in our way are all the bug reports we've gotten also.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]

enki 17y ago

whoa. that signup was extremely frictionless with both twitter and facebook. i already found friends and plans i share with them without doing anything really. i'm impressed.

milestinsley 17y ago
Seconded. That's how signup should be done.
ojbyrne 17y ago
You found the form with 12 fields to fill in to be frictionless?
- sachinag 17y ago
  Even with pre-population, I would have to give them an e-mail address and create a new password. Sorry, I'm not joining until my friends make me. And given that I'm just barely still in my 20s, not bloody likely.

maxklein 17y ago

It's an excellent idea, and in Trumps voice: This is going to be huge.

patio11 17y ago

Somebody asked recently what I meant when I said lots of startups make things for technically-inclined twenty-something males. I meant that lots of startups make things like this. If your first thought after "I kind of want to go out to dinner on Thursday." is "I wonder if a site exists that can broadcast this to my social networks yet?", you are solidly in the demographic most B2C startups seem to care about. There are also people who, when they think "I want to go out to dinner on Thursday.", follow it up with "Naturally, I will bring my husband and children." These people do not have an endless stream of Silicon Valley companies trying to satisfy their every whim. That is a pity, or opportunity, depending on how you look at it.

jaymon 17y ago
Of course not everyone is going to want to broadcast every move they are going to make, but that isn't half of what Plancast can offer you. For example, a couple weeks ago I learned that Marcy Playground had released a new CD and was touring. I was bumbed I missed their show simply because I didn't know about it. Now, if Marcy Playground was on Plancast I could've just subscribed to their upcoming feed and easily have seen where they were going to be and when they were going to be there. Now, how awesome would it be if all your favorite bands were on Plancast? You could create a feed of just bands you liked and have their tour schedules come to you. But let's not stop at bands, what about your favorite clubs or restaurants? You could create a custom upcoming feed of only the places you want to go. Give Plancast a chance and you might just grow to love it.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- ams6110 17y ago
  I think I would feel like a puppet who's strings are being jerked in 20 directions by all my different "feeds". But that's probably just me. I have never seen the allure of the "social" internet that puts ever facet of your life on line. It seems to be to be the height of arrogance to think that anyone really cares about where you are going to dinner on Thursday night.
- 17y ago

kilps 17y ago

I really like the idea, but the feature mentioned at the end of the post to allow limiting plans to certain friends is a must have - many of my plans I won't want the whole world to know about.

jaymon 17y ago
We have been going back and forth on how to do this, the problem is we really don't want to clutter the simpleness of "what, when, where" with lots of other dialog boxes, so we are trying to find the best way to integrate advanced functionality like privacy and still remain simple.
- fbailey 17y ago
  very nicely done, we tried something similar some time ago but i never finished it :-) good luck

zach 17y ago

So it's a 43Things reboot?

FreeRadical 17y ago

This reminds me of dopplir, in essence but much more localised. I'll never use this myself but I can see this doing well.

rglullis 17y ago

Wait, wait... A few hours ago I submitted a link about Sponty and how they can compete with Foursquare. (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=969221 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=969221). It's kind funny how the techcrunch article gets instantly lots of votes, and link to random blogger gets ignored. Anyway, Sponty also offers a social calendar, where you can broadcast your intentions, and also have feeds for different events.

iamdanw 17y ago
There's a large glut of "this new service is like foursquare" submissions over the past few days.

maryrosecook 17y ago

Very impressed by the date handling. I entered Thursday to Saturday and it figured out what I meant. However, I can't make it understand ranges further in the future. For example, I'm going to All Tomorrow's Parties from 11th Dec to 13th Dec and I can't make Plancast understand that.

jaymon 17y ago
Funny story, turns out I forgot to commit our latest date_parser before Thanksgiving break and then accidentally over-wrote it with the one from the repository because I thought it would be the most up to date. So, the current date parser has some bugs that were caught and fixed and then lost. The good news is I have re-fixed most of all those bugs and I just tested "11th Dec to 13th Dec" and it parsed it correctly. The new parser should be pushed live in a day or so.
- maryrosecook 17y ago
  Cool. Thanks a lot.

maryrosecook 17y ago

More feedback: - Really lovely site. Lots of great touches. I typed that I will be going to Bar Wotever (actually the name of a night, not a place) tonight and it figured out where the venue is automatically. - Could the little red bars next to each time window (today, next week etc.) give some idea of futureness? e.g. green for today, yellow for this week, red for further away in time. - Can I hide a friend's plan? - If I'm on the Discover Friends page, the data does not refresh when I switch between the Twitter/Facebook/Email tags. To do that, I must refresh the whole page in my browser.

iamdanw 17y ago

Plancast needs support for uncertainty. I might be going to this place sometime next week but I'm not sure yet. Perhaps if a friend also says they're going then I'll be more certain. Similar to upcoming.org's interested vs attending.