1) Will OS make any effort to inform users who deposited the $2,500 max in 2008 that they can deposit more money for calendar year 2009 if they so desire, before their 1yr. anniversary date? Perhaps send out a monthly news letter telling people the state of the site, what improvements have been made, etc? The folks who are part of the OneSeason Nation are all up to date, by the minute, with OneSeason news, but I think a lot of people, especially new users don’t know there is a OneSeason Nation where they can get all the help they need?

Answer:  Yes, I think it is highly likely that this will be included in a future newsletter(s).

Answer: No.  OneSeason is for the fun and entertainment of (living) sports fans.  Accounts cannot be transferred among users (alive or dead).

Answer: We do not currently anticipate charging any listing fee’s for placing orders.  We have been working on some adjustments to prevent the repeat orders that have been occurring.  The display of Trade Orders should minimize the distraction of any orders placed far away from recent activity.

Answer:  Right now we are focused on building a system that is intuitive and accessible to a large audience.

Answer:  The investment provides the company with additional resources for our operations (includes all of the above) so that we can continue to build out our system.

Answer:  I agree with the intention of your suggestion, let us think about the best way to implement.

Answer:  This is something that we have thought about and will continue to revisit but really would prefer to design in such a way that folks look at what matters from the start (otherwise it is just deferring the issue).

Answer:  Wow, this is the best and most important question that I have been asked.  I would have to say both.  That way Gisele would assume that I was with Adriana, Adriana would assume that I was with Gisele during which time I could chase Erin Andrews and get some work done.

Answer:  Alex works with a group in Seattle that does some contract work for us helping to manage social/viral/community buzz.  When the company that he works for is engaged with OneSeason, his trading ability is suspended and prohibited.

Answer:  OneSeason continues to be built in logical phases.  Building and stabilizing the trading system along with achieving proof of concept can now be checked off.  Gone are the days of pre-launch assumptions as we now have live operating data and can see what features people like/use, what needs to be improved and what should be removed.  At this point we have a product/service that is approximately 25% of what we envision existing and are working methodically to build it out.  Based on the usability information, we have been working on some redesigns which you will begin to see implemented over the coming weeks along with a number of new features.  OneSeason has begun to encourage content providers to use the platform for distribution.  This includes widget, data and feature embeds on other websites as well as the development of 3rd party applications on and around OneSeason.com.  As this virtual goods marketplace and social gaming platform for online sports entertainment gets more complete, we will become more aggressive on attracting users to a clean, intuitive, compelling experience.  Optimizing and scaling a product/service that is appealing to a broad audience is the next chapter to be written for our story.  I cannot provide any more detail about the timeline or potential future releases.  We are hopeful that you enjoy the system as it is currently available and are working hard to continually improve the site.

Session 6 of Ask Mike is here for your enjoyment. Thanks to OneSeason and Mike Sroka for continuing this program for the Nation. Thanks to Boonflop for gathering the questions. Session 7 to come soon. Get your questions in to Boonflop in the forums!

Thekid  Will there ever be risk limits placed when entering orders? For example, you can only place orders with a limit price of +/- 25 cents current best bid or best offer to prevent manipulation and trading mistakes.

Answer:  Order confirmations should prevent mistakes when placing an order.  We do not want to interfere with willing buyers and sellers transacting by putting limits on the orders that can be placed.  This seems to be consistent with how other marketplaces (market systems) operate.  Hopefully the recent changes to the Trade Orders screen improves the transparency and usability.

2. Tdpenny2000 — Multiple part question: Why was PORT released next day as opposed to the 2 day wait we have seen with all the other IPOs? What determines what time during the day the IPO is actually released (not announced)?

Answer:  There is no set time period for when IPO’s will be released relative to the Notice of Upcoming Issue.  We want to balance providing users with enough time to put in their indication of interest (request to obtain SOIs) while not freezing funds for longer than necessary.

We started out announcing the time of day an IPO would be released but this caused a massive spike in activity (lots of concurrent users hitting refresh) causing poor system performance.  We now release IPO’s at an unspecified time when our development team can monitor the release and ensure the issuance occurs properly.

3. DrDread — HHHHmMMMmmmm.. Maybe a question on a Quick update for Canada and how it’s going? Maybe ask him if he expects more Hockey IPO’s with More Canadians on the site and will it be more than NFL (since no one beating the NBA.)

Answer:  I do not have any update on the timing of potentially expanding into the Canadian market.  As mentioned previously, operating in new markets requires a lot of work relating to legal research, payment processing and fraud prevention.  During our first 12 weeks of operation we have not been able to complete this work yet.

4.New2Boston — Is someone is working on improving graphing?

Answer:  YES!  We have begun tackling some of the front end clean-up items and you should see improvements to the graphs shortly.

5.TdPennyWhat is the purpose of the reserved cash remaining reserved until the shares are sold?
Answer:  The purpose behind the entire IPO process is to create a flat system that encourages active use of the site and provides everyone with an equal opportunity to participate.  IPOs should be special but must also stimulate activity in the secondary market.  Users do not actually pay to obtain IPOs but this is balanced with potential opportunity costs associated with having funds not available for other purposes.  This is consistent with the above mentioned goals as it spreads out the allocation of IPOs and creates an incentive to sell into the secondary market.

6.TDPenny What is the typical day like for you guys?

Answer:  I think that I speak for everybody here when I say this is our dream job.  That being said, getting this company humming along requires significant commitment and I could not be prouder of our team and all of their hard work so far.  One of the many stimulating things about this experience is that there is no typical day.  We have a small team and a TON of work to do so everybody has to wear a lot of hats.  Operating a new market that is open 15 hours a day, 6 days a week and much of the development occurs after market hours and on Saturdays means office is home.

7. Biggins Wht is ur guys thoughts on the negative pessimistic misleading untrue pyramid ponzi scheme crap that is polluting the OneSeason boards ask him that we know its not true but why they allow people to say all those false statements or try and scare people into leaving oneseason because its failing

Answer:  I think that we are going to have to start moderating the message boards as these false and misleading statements do not add value to the OneSeason community.  It has been our preference to allow users to interact as they please as long as it is not threatening or offensive.  We underestimated the amount of time and energy some folks are willing to commit to something that they apparently do not like.  This is unfortunate for them, we hope that they find what they are looking for but will not facilitate this activity in the future.

8. Slappy ask him what he thinks about all of the people who are coming up with all of their ways and ideas and theories about rescuing OneSeason from the coming apocolypse. does 1season need saving?

Answer:  We always want to hear suggestions from our users and want to move forward with the best system possible.  We launched OneSeason 12 weeks ago and are just getting started.  There is a ton of stuff designed that we are working to implement.  The only way we know how to accomplish these things is in phases (build, open, tweak, repeat).  We are thrilled with the progress we have made thus far and are way ahead of where we expected to be right now.  We are hopeful that folks enjoy the current functionality and will be patient as the platform is built out.  I encourage everyone to review the evolution of other popular systems for reference frame on the necessary time associated with building out a successful product.

9. BB  some people believe that a flood of new user signup is not a top priority for you guys at this time. is this true? if so, how far out do you project that driving huge amounts of traffic to the site like we saw in october, will be your number 1 priority?

Answer:  Our top priority is building out a great product.  As mentioned above, we still have a lot of work to do just to implement the things that have been designed.  We want to stay disciplined and follow our initial plan: build and stabilize trading system, improve social features and open functionality to 3^rd parties, attract content producers to use the platform, attract users to a compelling offering.  Please note that the early spikes in traffic were viral (user and media driven not company driven) and attracted a lot of folks that do not usually consume online sports entertainment.  Ideally, we would like to achieve moderate, steady growth with users that want to be a part of a new, exciting way to enjoy sports online.

I know this isn’t high on your priority list but have you ever thought about some user suggestions for future ticker symbols? I know most are self-explanaotry but I think the dedicated sports fans that use OS could come up with some rather creative yet acceptable symbols for future IPO releases. Just a thought. -GoDJ

It will kill some of the guys here to give up ticker naming (currently done in an open outcry system) but I like it. For the time being just send ticker suggestions to support until we can build a better solution.

If 3rd party applications are developed will it be possible or feasible to trade/bet/exchange stocks outside of the OS website? For example, will we ever be able to go to a 3rd party website and bet 5 stocks of Portis to run for 100+ yards on MNF, or ever have a site where users post a bet of SOI’s looking for takers and have a legitimate way to enforce fair transactions of SOI’s based on the outcome? -Cooltime

I think that it is unlikely that we will be able to allow SOI transactions outside of OneSeason or any private SOI transactions. The open/central marketplace allows a fair, safe way for willing buyers and sellers to transact. These SOIs which may be considered as units or % of ownership may be used in all kinds of applications created by 3rd parties. These 3rd parties may offer goods and services that you can pay for with your OneSeason account. I hope this is not repetitive but we want for folks to manage a stable of players and use them in the applications that they want whether that is fantasy games, pick’em games, challenge games, video games that use connectivity or move online, etc. 3rd parties might also provide Analyst reports or functionality similar to a brokerage. These are just some of my ideas, there are LOTS of people running around smarter and more creative that will do amazing things we hope. We want to create a more efficient and compelling distribution channel for online sports entertainment. That means letting the user determine their own experience and not encroaching on that experience with ads or other junk that does not add value.

Why was the vision of 3rd party development and allowing people to compete with each other using their sportfolios on various 3rd party site not communicated anywhere on the OneSeason website? I think that a lot of people would have understood this right away, and the fact that the SOI’s do have a possible underlying value, would have calmed a lot of fears that people are trading SOI’s for no other reason than to just trade them? -Multiple Nation Members

We do not feel that it is appropriate to state potential future product/service enhancements and features on the website. If you ask me my opinion of what I think is cool and what we would like to build (as this format is doing) I am happy to respond to the best of my ability. We are building the company of our dreams and are hopeful that others will enjoy it. Folks that do not enjoy the current system or are purely motivated by the potential for financial gain do not belong here. OneSeason is for the fun and entertainment of sports fans providing a way to compete and interact. We are in the very early stage of building out this platform and are thrilled at the response it has received thus far.

i believe there was speculation as to an application being developed for the iphone? If this is true is there a timeframe for a release? It is increasingly difficult for myself (and I am sure others as well) to stay on OS while at work, sooner or later I actually have to do real work not monitor OS!!! -Peter

You should be able to access OneSeason on your iPhone right now minus the Flash features which it sounds like apple is working on and may have available in 4-6 months. I can’t give you specifics about future releases but will say that an iPhone app is high on our priority list. We want folks to be able to access OneSeason from any device with internet access.

What happened to the Paypal deposit feature? -Slappy

We are testing our payment options which requires understanding user habits and balancing convenience, fraud prevention and economic efficiency. We would like to offer more transfer options (both in and out) and are working to determine the best offering taking into consideration the above.