★ First hand up ★
Buzzers and votes
Hidden votes cast on one passed-around device and turned face up for the whole table at once.
All 7 tools
Ring-in bell
One bell, one job. Ring to answer, ring for service, ring to end a round, with a count and a clock.
OpenMajority vote
Ask the question, list the options, pass the phone. Each vote is private and the bars appear at the end.
OpenSecret ballot box
Everyone votes for a person, privately, on the same phone. The ballots are shuffled before any is opened.
OpenPrediction slips
Everybody writes a prediction, the slips lock, the outcome goes in, the slips open. Points for exact and closest.
OpenAuction paddles
A numbered paddle and a budget of points each. Going once, going twice, sold, with no money anywhere.
OpenQuiz buzzer
Two to eight buzzers on one screen, a zone or a key each, and the first press locks everybody else out.
OpenScrum poker
Planning poker cards for video calls, or hidden votes on one passed-around device. No rooms, no accounts.
OpenWho was first, and what does the room think
Two questions run through this whole family, and they are opposites. The first is about speed: who got there first, settled by something better than three people shouting. The second is about honesty: what does everybody actually think, before anybody has heard what anybody else thinks. A show of hands fails the second badly, because it is sequential. One person commits, the room reads the mood, and by the fourth hand the vote has stopped measuring anything.
The answer to both is the same device, used two ways. For speed it sits in the middle of the table and reads the clock rather than the room. For honesty it is passed from person to person and hides each answer the moment it is given, so nothing is visible until the last person has had it. The reveal is the interesting part: not the result on its own, but the spread, and the two people at opposite ends of it who now have something worth saying to each other.
Seven tools and what each is for
The buzzer is the speed one: the screen splits into a zone per player and the first tap wins, with keys bound for a laptop. The ring-in bell is the single-button version for a host who just needs a noise and a light, and it reads from further away.
For the honest half, majority vote counts a show of hands properly and names ties rather than breaking them, the secret ballot box shuffles the box before anything is opened so nobody can be traced by the order they voted, prediction slips lock an answer in before anybody speaks, auction paddles run a bidding round on points, and scrum poker reveals an estimate as a spread rather than an average. All of them keep the vote hidden until the last person has cast it.
No rooms, no accounts
There is no server behind this site, so there is nothing to sign into, nothing to invite anybody to and no code to read out. Every tool in this family works on the single device in front of you, which is passed around, held up or propped where everybody can see it, with a screen in between that hides the last answer before the next person takes it.
What that buys you is the thing rooms usually promise and rarely deliver: nothing to set up, nothing to explain and nothing to go wrong when the wifi does. Votes, predictions, bids and the names you type stay in the browser on that one device, and clearing your site data removes them. None of it is uploaded, and none of it reaches a link.
Questions
- Is there a room code to share?
- No. Nothing here joins two devices together, because there is no server for them to meet on. The device is passed from person to person, and anything a person must see alone is hidden the moment it has been seen.
- Can several people buzz in on one screen?
- Yes. The buzzer splits the screen into zones, one per player, and the first tap wins by the clock rather than by who is nearest. Keyboard keys are bound to the same zones for a laptop on a table.
- Are the votes kept afterwards?
- The last rounds stay in your own browser so a refresh does not lose them, and every tool can clear them. They are never uploaded to anything, and no vote or name is ever put into a link.
Other families
Trackers and meters
Teams, points, positions and prizes, big enough to read across a room.
See themCollect and unlock
Trays, sets, recipes, pieces, keys and locks, for games where gathering things is the point.
See themTimers and timed games
Countdowns and stopwatches you can start in one tap and read from the back of the room.
See themEvery family is listed on the tools page.