Time to air my beefs...

No Mythbusters last night... No Dexter last weekend... It's enough to make one think that GetGlue has forgotten about the new stickers for them. I'm sure they haven't, but it's still a pretty sneaky way to drive traffic to the site. They said there would be Mythbusters stickers all season. To me that means "every week", not "we're going to have four or five and the weeks we let you earn them are going to be completely random, starting with an eleventh-hour notice on the premiere sticker." (Yeah, I'm still bitter about that. So sue me.) It's the same thing with the Dexter stickers. We had them every other week for a month, which made sense; a sticker for that week and the bonus sticker could be considered the next week's sticker. And now... nothing. It's more than a bit of a letdown. I also have to wonder how the Third Cut sticker got leaked. They seem to lock down everything else on the site with regards to stickers and when they can be earned; why wasn't this one behind a time and date lock in addition to the phrase? Was GetGlue just hoping that no one would figure out the phrase until the clue went out with the sticker? Security through obscurity is no defense. Was there supposed to be a sticker last weekend and someone forgot to flip the switch? That just makes one want to *facepalm* and shake their head.

Item Number Two on my list'o'gripes is a combined issue with check-ins. Specifically, short time windows on check-ins and broken check-ins. This past week we had a sticker for PBS Newshour that was available only during the run of the show, from 11:00 PM to 12:00 AM. Am I the only one who thinks it's absolutely insane to expect users to stay up into the wee hours of the morning, just so they can artificially inflate GetGlue's site hits for them while earning a sticker? I'll get back to the inflated site hits in a bit, but the time window thing is even worse for the overseas users. Instead of checking-in to the shows to earn their stickers during the standard prime-time hours, they have to stay up until oh-dark-thirty to be able to pick them up. How is this fair? The internet is a global medium, not constrained by the boundaries of countries and the limits of geography. Show some love for the users that are in other countries or the users that time-shift the shows. Make the check-in window for show stickers last a full 24-hours. It'll benefit everyone. The actual users who watch the show will still check-in during the show's time. Those that TiVo the show can still check in up to 24 hours later and earn their badge. The overseas users will have a greater window of opportunity. Sticker hunters will spam it no matter what the window is. Everyone is happy. Well, except maybe those who get hit by broken check-ins. Part two of this gripe really burns my ass every time I see GetGlue throw out a Tweet regarding the number of check-ins they get on the weekends. They toot their own horn about how many people are hitting the site. While I can see bragging about your accomplishments, how many of those check-ins are repeats from people trying to earn a sticker and failing because the check-in system broke yet again? More than one person I know of missed getting the special PBS sticker, simply because their check-ins didn't register. Multiple clicks from multiple users equals an inflated hit count, leading to bad statistics. How about you give us the count of hits from unique IP addresses instead?

Item number three is more of a wish-list item, and will probably get re-hashed in Wish List 3: The Wishening, but suffice it to say I feel like it bears mentioning right now. How about a change to the stickers listing on the website that's more along the lines of what is shown on the phone apps? I keep hearing repeatedly from my friends that the iPhone or Android app has a placeholder for "sticker X". They've essentially got an early warning system that lets them know what's coming up. What do the web site users have? Jack squat. What do the non-Droid and non-iPhone users have? The same jack squat. How about giving those of us who can't access those the same ability to see the upcoming stickers? Throw that in with the wishes for the ability to sort the stickers listing.

Ok... ranting over with. I'm out for the night, unless some new sticker crawls out of the woodwork unexpectedly. Have fun out there and don't forget to check into Dexter, Boardwalk Empire, and Sherlock on Sunday.