Guests, game links, and a nudge. What changed since opening day.
Turf Wire opened nine days ago. Since then managers and players have been asking for things, and most of this post is those things that got built.
A guest list
Most teams have a few people they would text before they would post. Now they have a place. A manager can invite someone as a guest, from the list of players they have already played with, and the guest sits on the same roster as the team without being on it.
When you are short, ask your guests first. Pick the game, pick who, set an answer-by time, and each one gets a push with In and Out one tap away. A yes counts like any yes: the tally, the names, the reminder all treat them as a player for that night.
Guests hear from the team only when asked. No RSVP reminders, no polls, no fees, no roster check. If one of them becomes a regular, promote them to the roster with one tap.
A link that is the game
Every game now has a link you can mint from its card and paste into the thread. Whoever opens it sees the team, the opponent, the kickoff, the field, and one question: are you in?
Someone who is not on the team and taps Out is thanked, taps In, they show on the roster for that game only.
The nudge
A manager can nudge a game once a day. Everyone who has not answered gets one push, the others hear nothing. The card shows when the last one went, so you know you have already asked.
The calendar, for everyone
The team's calendar link used to be the manager's. Now every member has it on the team page. Subscribe once and every game lands in your phone's calendar, with changes following on their own.
Nicknames, and who sees what
Rosters know people by what they get called on the field, so you can now set a nickname on your profile. Your teams see it in place of your name, on the roster, on the game card, in the polls.
Managers also keep a label of their own for each player, which only the team's managers see. It is for telling the two Mikes apart, and it never leaves the manager's view.
One more change on the roster page, a team's managers can now see the email address of everyone on their roster, so they can reach you about games. The page tells you so. Nobody else sees it, a claim on the board still reveals nothing until the manager approves, and guests are not included.
Pick what reaches you
What the board used to call a callup is now called an open spot notification. Your profile has a Notification preferences block where each kind of message has its own switch to opt out of the noise if you want.
That includes this newsletter. When The Dispatch has a new post you get one push, or one email if the push does not reach you, and the switch on your profile turns that off.
Smaller things
The team page is the games now. The roster, the managers, and the guest list are one link away on their own page, so the schedule is the first thing you see.
Starting a team and your league is not in the list? The form asks for it right there. We set leagues up by hand and write back when yours is in.
Change the schedule link on your team and it is read right away. "Check now" works once a day on top of that in case you think the facility messed up the schedule.
There is a terms page, at turfwire.app/terms, because you know, there should be.
The apps
The Android and iPhone apps are in testing with a few people. They are the same marketplace, with push notifications that do not depend on the browser, and they will be in both stores when the testers stop finding things. The web keeps working the whole time. They are all using the same codebase and it is our goal to ensure they all deploy on a similar cadence. However, due to the specific app store policies, the web app will always get changes first.
Getting in
Go to turfwire.app. Sign up! Please, this only works with more people. If you run a team, start it. If you play, say which nights, and the board is yours.
See you Thursday, and Sunday, sometimes Monday....and Saturday.....
Thank you from the Turfwire team!
Nathan, Morgan, Paul, Kelsey and Elizabeth
