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

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

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.

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:

Let’s say the people behind you are getting rowdy:

Step 1: Press the app icon on your smartphone to open the app.

Step 2: Select your issue from a short list of possible issues. Stuff like “Sound is off”, “Projector malfunction”, “Idiots on cell phone”.

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.

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:

1- You don’t miss any of the movie.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

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