

Ask HN: "Tattlr": The End of the Annoying Moviegoer? - GeoffreyHull

I had an awful experience at the movies this past weekend. Read about the full story and startup idea that came from it here: http://bit.ly/mxB7eD<p>On to my idea: What if there was a way to alert theater staff of disturbances without leaving your seat and missing the movie? You can’t make a phone call to the theater because that would further add to the disturbance of your neighbors. (It also may result in some retaliatory action by the culprits.) You can’t send a text message because I don’t know of any theater that has a number you can text that will instantly connect to their staff. In addition, trying to type out a text message in the middle of your movie takes time and the unending glow from your phone may disturb your neighbors. You’ll also miss the movie in the process. Whatever the solution is, it would have to be a simple i.e. 3-step process that lets staff know something is amiss in your auditorium.<p>This is what I came up with: a geolocation check-in app, similar to Foursquare, that automagically pulls down the information of the movie theater you’re attending, along with the seating chart for the actual auditorium you’ll be sitting in. Your only input would be entering the row # and seat # upon entering the auditorium. (This works even better for Arclight or AMC where you can choose your seats in advance upon payment.) Here’s how I envision it working:<p>Let’s say the people behind you are getting rowdy:<p>Step 1: Press the app icon on your smartphone to open the app.<p>Step 2: Select your issue from a short list of possible issues. Stuff like “Sound is off”, “Projector malfunction”, “Idiots on cell phone”.<p>Step 3 (Optional): A seating chart pops up in which you can select the actual seats where the disturbance is coming from, relative to your current position.<p>That’s it. The movie theater would receive this info on their end, possibly a complementary web app that they have running in the background at the concierge desk, and dispatch a staff member to check it out. This works for 5 key reasons:<p>1- You don’t miss any of the movie.<p>2- You’re not disturbing your neighbors with a phone call to the theater, or long text message with the glowing light from your phone, or getting up in the middle of the movie.<p>3- You wouldn’t have to waste time describing your current location, its already stored in the app thanks to your phone’s GPS and your seat input.<p>4- It’s not a social app so you wouldn’t have to worry about random people knowing your EXACT location. Only the theater would have access to your location.<p>5- You don’t risk getting confronted, shot or stabbed in retaliation. These inconsiderate degenerates will have no idea who was responsible for alerting staff.<p>I’ve affectionately titled this app: Tattlr (pronounced tatt-ler). I’ve conducted a fairly exhaustive search and haven’t been able to find anything like Tattlr. I’d love to get your input on this. Let me know if something like Tattlr exists already or, better yet, what the inherent drawbacks are. I can’t think of too many. Check that: I can’t think of any.<p>Feel free to reach out to me in the comment section of my blog (http://thegeoffreyhull.com) if you’re interested on working on Tattlr with me. Obviously we’ll need an app developer, but a biz dev person can be useful also. I’ll be busy with DinnerPlayer  (http://dinnerplayer.com) so I have no problem playing a mere cursory role in Tattlr’s development. Hit me. -G
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true_religion
Just opening your cellphone with its hideously bright screen will make you an
"annoying moviegoer" to many people around you.

~~~
GeoffreyHull
Interesting point. Especially given the current "bigger is better" trend for
smartphone screens these days. That's why it'd be important for Tattlr to
offer a short process to report the disturbance.

Look at it this way: If I pull out my phone to use Tattlr to report a person
chatting it up on his phone behind me during a movie, I'm simply piggybacking
on the existing disturbance as opposed to creating my own disturbance. Who's
going to notice me using Tattlr when the guy behind me is being a far greater
nuisance? Everyone's attention will be on the jackass talking on the phone,
not the jackass tapping the screen on his smartphone.

OR

If a shouting match breaks out in the back of the auditorium. Will people be
more worried about getting nachos and soda thrown on them or the guy 2 rows up
illuminating the place with his smartphone?

~~~
ohashi
Now there is two jackasses causing a disturbance in my movie. Some guy being
noisy and another with a bright light from a phone. Sorry, I think your whole
premise is flawed.

~~~
GeoffreyHull
I would assume most people would view the bright light as far less abrasive
than the guy being noisy talking on his telephone in the middle of a movie.
Besides, 3 quick button presses ensures that most people will hardly notice
the brief illumination in the theater you'd create with Tattlr.

~~~
ohashi
I like how you assume all these concerns away when this is the top comment and
repeated multiple times. Light is visible from basically an entire dark
theater. Sound, on the other hand can vary from a slightly loud neighbor to a
loud guy the whole theater can hear. So, you, my loud neighbor may be
disturbing me and maybe 8 others in your immediate surroundings, but I, with
my cell phone distract everyone behind me, all 100 of them. You want feedback,
don't just tell me I am wrong, listen to your audience. I don't want cell
phones being turned on while I watch a movie for any reason.

~~~
GeoffreyHull
Fair enough. So how do you personally deal with disturbances in movie
theaters?

~~~
alanfalcon
I go to the movies all the time, I've had disturbances maybe twice in all that
time... Where do you go to movies?

~~~
GeoffreyHull
Against my better judgment I went to a theater that's notorious for being a
teenage hangout.

I, like you, can maybe think of one other bad experience I've had at the
movies before this weekend. Tattlr certainly wouldn't be an everyday kind of
app. Heck, one may only use it once or twice a year. However, I think there's
value in the peace of mind of being in a large dark room knowing a theater
attendant is only a couple screen taps away.

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adyus
Instead of relying on users downloading the app, and annoying their seatmates,
here's another idea. Since you're relying on the cinemas' cooperation anyway,
why not sell them a button to be installed under each armrest? The way to
prevent abuse would be for an attendant to quietly come in and witness the
disturbance, then act upon it or simply kick out the abuser at the next false-
alarm buzz.

~~~
GeoffreyHull
>>>Since you're relying on the cinemas' cooperation anyway, why not sell them
a button to be installed under each armrest?<<< Seems to me that you can have
the same effect with Tattlr without having to hard-wire an entire movie
theater with additional hardware.

There can be no abuse of the system because the theater will have access to
the exact seat positioning of the complainer. Remember, people must check-in
in order to use the app.

>>>Instead of relying on users downloading the app, and annoying their
seatmates...<<< I'm not sure it'd be that big of an annoyance for seatmates.
As I said in a previous comment, users wouldn't be creating an additional
disturbance by pulling out their smartphone and using Tattlr, they'd simply be
piggybacking on an existing disturbance that created the need for Tattlr in
the first place.

Example: Guy talking on the phone in the auditorium. Everyone is distracted by
him. You covertly pull out your phone, and with a few screen presses you alert
theater staff. Your seatmates will be too annoyed with the guy talking on his
phone to be concerned with your antics.

Example 2: The sound in the theater goes haywire or projector goes dim for no
apparent reason. You whip out your phone to alert staff with just a few button
presses while everyone in the theater grumbles about the horrible sound and/or
picture.

In short, you're not the origin of a new annoyance, you're simply piggybacking
on the existing annoyance.

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kevinherron
GPS resolution on phones is generally not high enough to pin-point your seat
location. At least not on my iPhone 4.

Also, most of the theaters I've been block cell signals. Seems like a much
simpler solution to me.

~~~
GeoffreyHull
Theaters that offer assigned seating can automatically update your Tattlr
profile with your seating for the given movie. In theaters that do not offer
assigned seating, users would have to manually enter in their own row # and
seat # after selecting their seats.

I've never heard of theaters blocking cell signals.

~~~
true_religion
Rather than row/seat number just have a pictorial representation of the
theater seating so they can tap on their general location.

~~~
GeoffreyHull
Agreed. Thats even better.

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pedoh
How do you propose handling the abusers who download the app and then point
their virtual fingers at some random person in the theater?

~~~
GeoffreyHull
No problem. In order to use Tattlr, you would have to "check-in" using the
app. The theater, thanks to the complementary Tattlr web app, would have
instant access to the basic info of each user including their seating
location. It'd be impossible for a person to submit bogus complaints without
getting called out for it

~~~
sorbus
So the malicious user lies about their location (and other "basic info") -
trivial if you're at the point of having users enter their seating location,
only slightly more difficult if you also use GPS to verify it. Yes, they have
to be in the theater, but if you get bored during a movie and feel like
messing with people, then there's nothing stopping them.

~~~
GeoffreyHull
Fair enough. How about using FB Connect for login as a means of holding people
accountable for their complaints?

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revorad
This is too infrequent a problem to be worth working on. And your solution
sounds overly complicated.

~~~
GeoffreyHull
Before my experience this past weekend I would've agreed with you. However the
same argument can be made for earthquake or flood insurance. Chances are you
wont need it, but if you do need it you'll be glad to know you have it.

As far as Tattlr's complexity is concerned, I'm not sure it gets much simpler
than 3 quick button presses on one's smartphone to alert theater staff of an
issue.

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runaway
I like your idea and really appreciate the goal but I also have the concern
that using the app on your glowing phone might just add to the distraction.

Maybe if the user loaded the app and registered before the movie started, they
could keep it in their pocket, unlock the phone, tap an area of the screen,
and receive a vibration pattern as feedback that the theatre has been
notified? It would leave the usher to determine the problem, but could reduce
the "glow" annoyance. Just a thought. Best of luck.

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ssharp
How does this make money?

~~~
GeoffreyHull
1 of 2 ways:

1) Charge each user a nominal fee for download. OR 2) Charge movie theaters
for their participation. Imagine the profitable data we'll be supplying them
with on every person that checks-in to their movie theater using Tattlr. They
can incorporate their own special promotions based on the ongoing user data
they obtain each time a user checks in.

This what I've come up with thus far. I could be totally off-base with these
assumptions.

~~~
keeptrying
I think you would be surprised by how many theaters would find this useful and
will pay you to have this in their theaters.

It improves the service and gives them Jmp feedback.

Go talk to some movie theaters.

Also don't over engineer it. A simple wa to say that the sound isn't working
for a particular movie at a particular movie theater should be a good start.

-vivek

~~~
GeoffreyHull
Thanks a lot for your input. I'm struggling with the monetization issue
though. Namely:

What type of pricing model can we offer movie theater companies? Monthly fee?
One-time lump sum for each theater? I'm not sure how that would work.

~~~
keeptrying
Forget pricing model for now. They are big companies so you can basically
charge whatever you want if there is a need.

Focus on figuring out if there is a pain.

I remember reading that some company had built this on springwise or sprouter
weekly. But it was a hardware device which had to be installed in the theater
so you could beat them by price.

Bottom line: Write up a proposal (4 slides of how this will be used) and then
hammer linkedin to get an interview with someone who is slightly executive at
a movie theater. Do like 10 interviews. You'll know by then if there is a
pain.

Also research that company I mentioned above.

