Are you looking to connect with others who share your recreational sports interests?
Find your #SportsSquad with #moveready.
After reading our last post, you should have a good idea of how the #moveready discovery platform works. It’s easy: you pick a sport, find an available activity and you go play.
But what if you need a team or other players? What if you don’t have anyone in your circle of friends or acquaintances available to play? What do you do?
That’s where the #moveready community comes in. Its main purpose is to help you in two ways:
- Connect you with others who share their recreational interests.
- Automatically notify you about upcoming recreational sport activities.
However, the community can satisfy many different uses cases. But before we look at how it works and what those uses cases are, let’s start with a short overview of the platform we are using.
The platform
The #moveready community is hosted on Slack.
Slack is an easy to use real-time messaging app for enterprises, that can be accessed on the Web, via desktop app, smartphone and tablets, and even your Apple Watch.
It allows teams to communicate and collaborate, and create customized workflows tailored to the their environment, via app integration, such as Google Hangouts, Dropbox, Asana, and even Lyft.
More recently, Slack is starting to be used for topic- and interest-based groups. Like what we are doing.
We are not the first ones to use Slack in this way. levels.io’s successful #nomads community was the first big public one — that’s where our idea originates.
How it works
First off, you’ll have to sign up via our Typeform registration form. It’s a quick process that shouldn’t take but a few minutes. The information we ask is to get a sense of who you are and to set up you Slack account as per your preferences. These are the details you’ll have to fill out:
- First name.
- Last name.
- Age.
- Gender.
- Email address.
- The activities you want to participate in. We currently offer: badminton, baseball, basketball, cycling, dodgeball, football, hockey, running, soccer, swimming, tennis, ultimate frisbee, and volleyball.
Channels
Our Slack board is set up with a number of Channels, one for each of the activities listed in the registration form.
Once we receive your registration details, we set up your account. This includes adding you to the appropriate Channels. So, for example, if you select badminton and volleyball, you will be added to the badminton and volleyball channels. You also have the option to add yourself to any other Channels.
Activity notifications
We think this is pretty cool: a number of our channels are hooked up to our activity calendar. So, everyone that’s part of that Channel will receive daily and weekly notifications about upcoming activities.
- Weekly reminders are sent out every Monday at 9 AM ET. They include a list of activities happening that week.
- Daily reminders are sent out every day at 9 AM ET. They include a list of activities happening that day.
Direct Messages (DMs)
If you find yourself wanting to have a private discussion with other community members, you can use DMs. You can include up to 8 other people (9 total, including you). These conversations are visible and searchable only to you and the people you DM.
Private Channels
There is another way to communicate privately on Slack. If you need a space for your team, feel free to contact us and we’ll set you up with a Private Channel.
How you can use the #moveready community
While you might find other ways to use our community, we’ve listed five distinct uses cases for how you can interact with other community members, each with examples.
1. Individuals wanting to play a pick-up game.
- Recurring activities: Who wants to play tennis Saturdays at 4pm at the Bayview Village Park courts?
- One-time deal: Who wants to play in the drop-in game that just popped up in the soccer channel?
- One-time deal: Would love to join a volleyball game tonight if any are happening. Anything going on?
2. Individuals looking to join existing teams.
- Playing in a league: Anyone need a soccer player for their rec team playing in North York this winter?
- One-time deal: Need a goalie for your soccer team this weekend? I’m available to play.
3. Individuals looking to form teams with other community members.
- Playing in a league: New in town. Looking to play baseball this summer. Any other beginners want to start a team? DM.
4. Individuals looking for activity partners.
- One-time deal: Who’s down for a bike ride tonight around 7pm?
- Recurring activities: Looking to start running. Early mornings before work. Would love to get more people involved. Who’s interested?
- As time permits: Just starting to hit the gym again. Any experienced gym go-ers interested in joining me from time-to-time? We could help motivate each other!
5. Teams needing players to fill their rosters on a temporary or part-time basis.
- Filling up the roster: Looking for a couple of volleyball player for a co-ed summer league in the Beaches. DM for more details.
- In case of emergency: Need a basketball player for my rec team in a couple of hours. DM if interested.
Conclusion
The takeaway here is that the #moveready community can help you connect with people who share your recreational sport interests, while keeping you up to date about upcoming recreational sport activities.
We dare you to sign up and give it a shot! Let us know what you think.
Next up, we will explain how we use our Twitter account to live tweet sports drop-ins.
What’s next?
Follow us across the Web. We’re everywhere. Almost.
- Follow us on Medium for company news, product announcements, feature updates, and more items you would read on a company blog.
- Visit our site to learn more about #moveready.
- Register to our Slack community.
- Follow us on Twitter for drop-in reminders approximately two hours before start time.
- Like us on Facebook for curated health, fitness and lifestyle stories.
- Follow us on Instagram for a showcase of recreational sports venues.
- Chat us up on Kik, Line, or Telegram for recreational sport advice.
