Current State of Wooters.us
Wooters.us has been becoming more and more popular over the past several Woot-Offs! Over the March 2009 Woot-Off, we averaged between 1500 and 2000 users. The auto-open buy page for the Bag of Crap feature worked great, and we remained very competitive with other trackers, often beating them with updates.
The Windows Mobile app for Wooters.us has been updated several times, you can read all about it here. We are currently planning email/SMS updates, as well as looking into solutions for live push tracking on the iPhone/iPod Touch as well as Blackberry devices.
We have done some minor tweaks to the minimal tracker, as well as creating a chat tracker page where you can join us in the #wootoff chat channel on EFNet while receiving live push updates to an area above the chat. We also have had some wooters.us stickers printed up and are mailing them to anyone who donates!
We are still working on and improving Wooters.us, and we are still listening to all your bug reports and suggestions, so don't hesitate to leave feedback, no matter how harsh it may be.
What is all of this?
CGamesPlay and I have several ongoing projects involving the Deal-a-Day site, woot.com. Our core tracker system and the way everything works has changed a lot in the latest re-write, all of it for the better.
The original software client, written by CGamesPlay and I, is currently awaiting a rewrite with many improvements. It is this project that spawned the creation of the central tracker server. This software tracker is similar to Wootalyzer, though it excels in that it is a push-based technology. Software like Wootalyzer constantly connects to the server looking for an update, which, during high traffic times such as a Woot Off, can cause increased latency, higher CPU loads, and wasted bandwidth. Our tracker system is faster, because it tells you the exact instant there is an update, and it does so without pegging your internet connection and processor.
Roomba is an IRC bot, in #wootoff on EFNet. It posts the woot updates from the tracker directly to the chat channel. It is most useful during Woot-Offs, when there are several hundred people on #wootoff chatting, it keeps everyone up to date without requiring them to use a web tracker.
Disclaimer:
Neither Ryan (CGamesPlay) nor I are affiliated with Woot or Woot partners. Woot, Woot logos, and all associated trademarks © Woot, Inc.
