I am simultaneously shocked and honored that Riverdex, my entry with Chris Tenbrink to the 2008 Rails Rumble competition, has taken 3rd Place!

Now I have absolutely no excuse not to finish the site. I procrastinated building it for almost 2 years, and it became a reality in less than 48 hours.

So, for those of you preparing entries for next years' competition already, I've got a few bits of advice for you:

First, image is everything. Spend plenty of time making sure the first impression of your site is a good one. Make sure an uninitiated stranger can understand the purpose of your site simply by looking at the home page for a few seconds. Don't build any features that require more than a few clicks to access.

Second, spend most of your planning time on logistics. Identify exactly which plugins you'll need to use for your site, and practice installing them. Practice setting up a VPS from scratch. Only plan the design of your application in a loose way. You'll likely mis-estimate which pieces will take the most time, so you need to stay flexible about which ideas to leave on the cutting room floor.

Third, take breaks. I've heard from many of the other top-ten folks that they used far less than 48 hours. In other words, they actually slept. I did too, about 6 hours a night. I also went to the park with my family, and went out to dinner too. Your brain needs rest, and you'll operate more effectively when you're not burned out.

I've just submitted the final copy of my repository for riverdex.com, my entry for Rails Rumble 2008. I'll be updating this post with some additional background info and explanation later, but for now... enjoy the site.