A wheel with your own entries that picks one at random, for settling who goes first or who pays.
A wheel settles small arguments because everyone can watch it stop. This one picks which of eight supper club members hosts in December, and its prompt starts a wheel for your own list. Know one thing before you send it: each person who opens the link gets a separate wheel, so two phones can land on different names.
Who it's for
Anyone who needs a group to accept a random pick: who buys the coffee, who presents first on Thursday, who hosts next month. One person spins, and the rest watch or get a screenshot.
Keep it away from anything with money or rules attached, such as a raffle or a prize draw. No record of the spin is kept, and nothing stops someone spinning until they like the answer.
What a good one contains
- Entries you can edit. The names sit in a box, one per line, and the wheel redraws as you type. Someone always joins late.
- The draw before the turn. The winner comes from the browser's random number generator, and only then does the wheel turn to that slice. Reading the result off wherever an animation happens to stop is how a wheel ends up favoring some slices.
- Equal slices, with the odds in writing. "8 on the wheel, each with a 1 in 8 chance" tells the group nobody's slice is thinner.
- A few seconds of slowing down. The example goes round at least five times and stops in under five seconds. Much shorter looks rigged, and much longer gets skipped.
- The result in words. The winner's name appears in large type, and a screen reader announces it. A pointer near a slice's edge proves little.
- Remove and spin again. One button takes the winner off and spins for the next pick, which turns a single draw into a running order.
- A list of spins. A line such as "Spin 1: Juno · Spin 2: Fumiko" keeps the order after the wheel has moved on.
- Stillness for people who've asked for it. With a device set to reduce motion, the wheel goes straight to the result.
Agree whose spin counts
Decide before anyone taps. The simplest rule: the person who sent the link spins once, on a call or with the screen shared, and that result stands. If nobody's watching, spin and post a screenshot with the list of spins showing.
Keep the wheel to about a dozen entries. Past that the labels shrink, and the example takes no more than 24 lines. A reload brings back the original eight names and clears the results, so finish the draw in one sitting.
How to send it
As an open link. It holds first names or lunch options and goes into a group chat. Each person who opens it spins a wheel of their own, so agree whose spin counts.
Every page you publish gets one link that opens in any browser. You choose who can open it: anyone with the link, anyone with the password, or only the people and company domains you name, who sign in with Google or Microsoft. Change the page later and the link stays the same.
