Individual Sales Recap

[trilobyte]

Here's a brand new post on the Burning Blog - Individual Sales Recap. Go take a look!

[Jenifersteppat]

So glad they are putting this out.

[trilobyte]

The post contains a lot of good information about the sale. Most surprising to me is that it was 80K registrations, and not registrations for up to 80K tickets (as I had been told in a conversation). That. Is. Massive. To put that into perspective, during the great ticket kerfuffle of 2012 there was demand for 120K tickets with only 40K tickets in the supply. 80K registrations is potentially bigger than that!

How the hell did that happen? My personal opinion is that it was a combination of factors. If ticket limits weren't an issue, interest in Burning Man grows each year (check out the awesome timeline on the newly redesigned main site). Generally slowly and steadily, but sometimes by leaps and bounds. Since we do have limits on the number of available tickets and the city hasn't been able to grow in population to cover that, there's a lot of pent up demand. The biggest factor, in my personal opinion, was probably the damned Associated Press article. Sure, it wasn't as amazing as Teddy Saunders' kickass video in 2012, but it was the Associated Press (here is a wiki page about AP). Their articles get picked up by countless news organizations around the world, reminding people the world over that if they want to go to this awesome cool thing, now is the time to register.

Beyond that, I was very glad to learn that a) only a couple hundred people were able to take advantage of that exploit I've heard so much about in the last 24 hours, and b) those sales will be canceled and the tickets put into the OMG sale. Speaking personally, if it was up to me I would have fed those tickets into STEP as soon as the program opens up so people could connect with tickets as quickly as possible. Alas, it's not up to me.

Between that and the recent post about Vehicle Passes, I'm glad to see Burning Man getting this kind of information out quickly.

[danibel]

Speaking personally, if it was up to me I would have fed those tickets into STEP as soon as the program opens up so people could connect with tickets as quickly as possible. Alas, it's not up to me.

Too bad it's not up to you, Trilo. This seems like a better way to get tickets into the hands of people that were trying yesterday. And those STEP tickets could be shipped would reduce the amount of Will Calls (potentially) from the OMG sale.

[TT120]

That's a nice article. Timely, no spin, and contains a lot of good information.

[lumbug]

Great article. We got 2 of the 4 tickets we needed, this article helps alleviate the pain of what happened. We are determined to get the other 2!

[fetishk]

Amazing insight. Kudos.

[crease]

Glad they clarified all of that. Its always easier to blame your frustrations on the belief that you lost out unfairly rather than accept that you lost out purely on luck.
Pretty gutted but C'est la vie, will just have to work harder now to find a ticket.

[lucky420]

Good luck crease. Hope you find your way over here

[econ][]

Yup, it's effectively a lottery among the people who click the link within 45 minutes of 12pm. The randomness comes from software bugs, internet routing, server clock drift, load balancing, etc, etc. I'm not sure it's possible to make a system like this truly first come first serve.

[econ][]

Also, they say only about 200 people took advantage of the hidden link trick. I wonder how they figured that out?

[AlexMN1984]

There was a thread someone started on reddit after the fact:

Basically, if you looked at the page's source, there was a way to "click the button" before the button actually appeared. If you're asking how BMorg figured out that it happened, they would be able to tell who was in line before the button appeared. I don't know exactly how ticketfly works, but I'm sure they keep some sort of record of everyone in line by time entered and ip address. They would just have to look at the ip addresses that were in line before noon Pacific, compare them against the ip addresses of everyone who bought tickets, and toss all the matches.

Also, they say only about 200 people took advantage of the hidden link trick. I wonder how they figured that out?

[vargaso]

There was a thread someone started on reddit after the fact:

Basically, if you looked at the page's source, there was a way to "click the button" before the button actually appeared. If you're asking how BMorg figured out that it happened, they would be able to tell who was in line before the button appeared. I don't know exactly how ticketfly works, but I'm sure they keep some sort of record of everyone in line by time entered and ip address. They would just have to look at the ip addresses that were in line before noon Pacific, compare them against the ip addresses of everyone who bought tickets, and toss all the matches.

Also, they say only about 200 people took advantage of the hidden link trick. I wonder how they figured that out?

Ticketfly exposed the URL to the waiting room in the source code of the landing page. Unbelievable. Those 200 people should be able to keep their tickets. This was not even a hack and entirely Ticketfly's fault.

[willc43]

Trilobyte -

I think I may be one of the ones who slipped through, not intentionally though. Now I'm worried I'll have my tickets taken away and be punished for a system that broke down and allowed a select few to slip through. This was my first year attempting to buy tickets so I wasn't terribly familiar with the process.

Here's my experience. I clicked on the link from my email maybe a minute early, and it said you're early and you can either wait for the green button to appear or you can refresh the page once the clock starts manually. Well as soon as it hit 12 noon plus one nanosecond I hit refresh, and the page was hanging without any activity so I closed the window and went back to my email and reclicked the link within another second. The page opened back up and it said the ticket buying service was down and was being worked on. I panicked and closed out the page, tried reopening it again, the page was hanging. Panicking more, I didn't know what to do, a couple minutes passed, and thought I might try an alternative way of getting to the ticketfly burning man site by typing it in direct. Tried it, and boom got in, tickets purchased.

I never saw the queue or green button, went straight to the purchase ticket page and had my tickets and VP in under 10 minutes. I didn't try gaming the system... my actions were simply the result of the regular approach I was told to take leading to a dead end of the service being down, and trying another avenue that might lead to a workable solution. I don't think I deserve to have my tickets taken away or should be punished...that will leave a very negative taste in my mount about the Burning Man community if so...

How soon will people that slipped through like this find out if they are getting their tickets revoked? There's no real way to find out out stumbled upon this method vs those who were intentionally trying to exploit it. I was so stoked to get my tickets, and now I'm stressing that they might be taken away

[Lonesomebri]

Great rundown and concise. Explains alot. But because they have to deal with/cover up/ ignore/explain away what they created in the past, there is the now customary carnival of mirrors.

“Our community has historically demonstrated its commitment to buying tickets at face value — a very small percentage of participants in the past have paid inflated prices, and we are certain that “scalpers” are not responsible for the high demand for tickets. But as long as people are willing to buy tickets at exorbitant prices (we wish they wouldn’t, but some apparently do), there will be a market for predatory resellers. It’s antithetical to our community’s ethos…”

What about the people who didn't pay inflated prices, but actually caused them? What about starting a camp that sells spots for $16,000? How does that fit with all this hippie talk put out here to sooth the masses? Seems like that is inflated prices, and working from the inside is kinda predatory, and the Borg are in fact part of that, at least until Jimbo is dumped. So funny to read this part about inflating the cost "we wish they wouldn’t, but some apparently do". Hilarious. Who is this "we" you speak of white man? "Our community"? I was looking at that community from the outside, but couldn't see it thru the wall of RVs.

Maybe the org could throw Tanabaum on the alter as a sacrificial lamb to what is antithetical to our community. Just a suggestion.

[Sham]

Lonesomebri, are you planning on being there this year?

[Lonesomebri]

Lonesomebri, are you planning on being there this year?

Yes, I will be there, and I am a part of the problem, I realize...but that's it....I realize I am part of the problem. My ticket should have gone to someone more worthy.

[Sham]

Lonesomebri, are you planning on being there this year?

Yes, I will be there, and I am a part of the problem, I realize...but that's it....I realize I am part of the problem. My ticket should have gone to someone more worthy.

Clearly!

[trilobyte]

@willc43 - you should contact ticketsupport@burningman.com to discuss specific issues.

[666isMONEY]

I had pretty much the same experience willc43 had, here's the screen I was hung up on:

burningman.jpg

I cut pasted the URL from the email, having pre-signed in to Ticketfly (already had an account with them and have bought other tix from them before), thought I saw the buying page but then a second later, the screen, above came up.

I panicked and made a few posts on eplaya:

1:06 AZ time: viewtopic.php?f=417&t=73085#p1061291
"mine says promo code accepted but I refreshed another window and now it says the system crashed!"

1:23 AZ time: viewtopic.php?f=417&t=73085&start=30#p1061365
"I think I'm out of the queue." (I attached the above picture)

1:29 AZ time: viewtopic.php?f=417&t=73085&start=60#p1061397
"so am I not going to get a ticket? Doesn't look like I'm in a que. :("

1:34 AZ time: viewtopic.php?f=417&t=73085&start=60#p1061410
Someone commented on one of my previous posts and I commented:
Token wrote:
666isMONEY wrote:
so am I not going to get a ticket? Doesn't look like I'm in a que. :(

Maybe having multiple browsers refreshing got you all scrambled up.
When you follow the on-screen instructions, things work just fine.
Good luck.

sad :(

1:38 AZ time: viewtopic.php?f=417&t=73085&start=90#p1061433
OMG, got a ticket!!!!!!!!! Opened up a new window and boom! Happy dance . . . I'm going home!!!

In the new window I entered the URL minus the promo code and question-mark.

[Simon of the Playa]

Pretty gutted but C'est la vie, will just have to work harder now to find a ticket.

stealth virgin...


i have high hopes for this one.

[Lonesomebri]

Lonesomebri, are you planning on being there this year?

...and why do you ask? Kisses? Accolades? A popsicle?

[Sham]

Lonesomebri, are you planning on being there this year?

...and why do you ask? Kisses? Accolades? A popsicle?

I want to give you a rib cracking hug.

[Simon of the Playa]

ice pick...

[Jovankat]

Pretty gutted but C'est la vie, will just have to work harder now to find a ticket.

stealth virgin...


i have high hopes for this one.

Yep. I got a PM from him not long after the sale ended as I'm a "Known Aussie" and thus in the same country. He's being proactive about his search, I reckon his chances are good.

[theCryptofishist]

Lonesomebri, are you planning on being there this year?

...and why do you ask? Kisses? Accolades? A popsicle?

I want to give you a rib cracking hug.

Like you did to Eric?

[Eric]

I want to give you a rib cracking hug.

Like you did to Eric?

Now Fishy, don't be straightmanophobic. They don't all look alike, contrary to stereotype.
I mean seriously, the one who cracked my rib was young & cute.

[theCryptofishist]

Come on, that was so wide open someone had to drive a coach and four through it.

[crease]

Pretty gutted but C'est la vie, will just have to work harder now to find a ticket.

stealth virgin...


i have high hopes for this one.

Yep. I got a PM from him not long after the sale ended as I'm a "Known Aussie" and thus in the same country. He's being proactive about his search, I reckon his chances are good.

Thanks for the words of encouragement guys! Yes, very committed. I think you need to look at the positives in these situations, you tend to appreciate things more when you have to work for them.

[FIGJAM]

Keep fighting the good fight!!!

http://www.rgj.com/story/life/arts/burn ... /24156603/