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STANDBYESPORTS BROADCAST TALENT, ON DEMAND.

Changelog

What's new on Standby.

Invoices, privacy controls and an easier signup

October 31, 2026

New

  • Orgs and talent can invoice another Standby member directly, outside a booking. Find them by email or handle, list what the invoice covers, and send them a link to an invoice page they can pay by card.
  • Paid invoices are paid out to the person who sent them through Stripe, minus the same flat 8% fee as a booking. Payouts are held for a few days after payment to cover refunds, and a refunded or disputed payment is stopped before it goes out. To send invoices you need a finished Stripe payout setup.
  • Invoices can be one-time, monthly or per semester, or a one-time fee plus a recurring one. When both are set, only the one-time fee is due up front and the recurring fee starts one period later.
  • Invoices you have not been paid for yet can be edited, canceled or deleted. Editing stops any link you already sent from working on the old price.
  • A cookie choice on your first visit. Google Analytics only runs if you accept, and you can change your mind any time from Cookie Settings in the footer.
  • Review reminders, new-applicant alerts and similar emails now have an unsubscribe link. Booking, payment and account emails still arrive.
  • Creating an account now asks you to tick that you agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

Improved

  • Every signup, login, password, onboarding, profile and event form field is now properly labelled, so screen readers read them out and password managers fill them in. Errors are announced instead of only shown.
  • The site now loads its real fonts (Montserrat and Hanken Grotesk) instead of falling back to your system font.
  • Profiles fit on a phone screen, buttons and form fields are bigger to tap, and form fields no longer zoom the page on iPhone.
  • Grey text is easier to read, and keyboard users always see where they are on the page.
  • The verify-your-email banner shows the address we emailed and how to get a new link.
  • The privacy policy names every service we use and how to reach us about your data.

Fixed

  • The What's new popup and the cookie choice no longer open on top of each other.
  • After paying an invoice, clients land on a thank-you page instead of an error page.
  • A signup could finish without a verification email being sent and nobody knew. The team is now alerted when that happens.

Talent-posted events, chat names, and safer payouts

September 12, 2026

New

  • If you posted your own event as talent, you can now accept, reject, confirm volunteers and mark applicants complete. Before this, those actions were blocked for talent.

Improved

  • Posting an event now uses the game list instead of free text, so your event shows up when people filter by game.
  • New and edited events appear on the site right away instead of up to a minute later.
  • Payouts were rebuilt so a payment can only ever go out once. If a payout cannot be confirmed, it is flagged for a person to check instead of being retried.

Fixed

  • Messages from orgs in chat showed a placeholder code instead of the org name.
  • Event dates and talent availability showed one day early for people in some timezones.

Talk before you book, and unpaid bookings

September 11, 2026

New

  • Chat now opens as soon as a talent applies. Orgs can ask questions and agree details before funding escrow. Previously chat stayed locked until after payment, so the only options on an applicant were pay or reject.
  • Volunteer events can now be booked. If the event is unpaid, the org confirms the applicant directly, with no payment or escrow step.
  • New How it works page: how the money is held, what triggers release, the flat 8% fee, and six common questions.

Improved

  • Every booking now uses the same 7-day payout window. Orgs used to pick the window per event, which meant the site could promise 7 days while a talent actually waited far longer. Talent no longer have to check the window on each event before applying.
  • The payouts page now tells you whether Stripe setup is actually finished. It used to show "connected" as soon as an account was created, including for anyone who started onboarding and never completed it, so people believed they could be paid when they could not.
  • Homepage claims tightened to match what the product actually does: "Funded on booking" rather than "100% Protected", and "Book directly, no waiting on a reply" rather than "guaranteed availability".
  • The cookie policy now names Google Analytics and the cookies it sets, instead of describing analytics in general terms.

Fixed

  • Talent were never told when they got a booking. The confirmation email now sends as soon as escrow is funded.
  • Withdrawing an application permanently hid the Apply button for that event, even though re-applying was allowed. It comes back now.
  • A paid event could take an application with a $0 rate that then could not be accepted at all. Rates on paid events must now be above $0.
  • The homepage showed a broken image where an org logo bar used to be.

Account menu, volunteer profiles, and a redesigned dashboard

August 14, 2026

New

  • Clicking your name in the top nav now opens an account menu (view public profile, dashboard, payouts, privacy, log out) instead of a bare logout link.
  • Talent profiles can now be marked "I volunteer" instead of setting a day rate. Shows as "Volunteer" everywhere a rate would normally appear (browse, profile, dashboard).
  • Privacy (email change, download your data, delete your account) is now its own page, linked from the account menu at /talent/privacy for talent, /org/privacy for orgs.
  • Orgs now get a Discord connection card on their dashboard, matching talent.

Improved

  • Talent dashboard reorganized: Total earned / In escrow / Rating and the 6-month earnings chart now live in one card instead of four separate stat boxes; "My events" moved into a compact sidebar widget; added a dedicated Upcoming section for confirmed bookings.
  • Empty earnings chart now shows "No earnings yet" instead of six flat, unlabeled bars.

Searchable roles, richer credits

August 7, 2026

New

  • The role filter on Browse Talent is now a searchable box instead of a fixed dropdown, and includes custom roles talent have added, not just the preset list.
  • Experience/credits entries can now include a game and month, both optional, on top of event, role, year, and org.

Improved

  • The Org field in Experience now reads "Org (who hosted it)" so it's clear what goes there.

Type your day rate in your own currency

August 3, 2026

New

  • Edit profile now lets you type your day rate in your own currency, with a live USD conversion shown underneath. Bookings still always settle in USD.

Fixed

  • If your payment session timed out, or you withdrew an application, that role could get permanently stuck and refuse to let you re-apply or re-accept, even after the issue was resolved. Now it clears properly.
  • Booking-update emails (accepted, completed, paid, disputed, new review) linked to a page that no longer exists. Now they take you to the right dashboard.
  • The cookie policy page listed an old cookie name that hasn't been accurate for a while. Fixed to match what's actually set.

Highlight reels, verification, and real numbers

July 26, 2026

New

  • Highlight reel embeds on talent profiles: paste a YouTube or Twitch link, it plays right on the profile.
  • Admin-verified badge for talent, ID/socials checked before it's granted.
  • Earnings dashboard for talent at /talent/payouts: total earned, escrow, 6-month history.
  • Spend and most-booked-talent analytics on the org dashboard.
  • Referral program: every account gets a shareable signup link and a running count.
  • Event waitlist: join when a role's filled instead of a dead end.
  • Prices now auto-convert to your local currency, with a manual override in the footer. Bookings still settle in USD.

Improved

  • Talent search now filters by game and language, on top of role, rate, rating, and travel.
  • Both sides of a booking get emailed to leave a review once the payout releases.
  • Edit-profile modal resized to fit its own form.

Fixed

  • Sitemap and robots.txt were pointing at the wrong domain. Fixed.
  • Dropdown menus had invisible option text in some browsers.