Not understanding how tickets are a lottery?

[rustygrape]

Tickets are offered as a lottery system. But why is there a "queue" and a matter of getting in line when you sign-in to purchase tickets? Once you register, doesn't the lottery issue from there?

[Elderberry]

Who told you it was a lottery? It's first come, first served. You need to be pre-registered to get into the cue, in which you are placed in line based on when you logged in. That being said, there are glitches at times which is where you might have gotten that idea?

[rustygrape]

Who told you it was a lottery? It's first come, first served. You need to be pre-registered to get into the cue, in which you are placed in line based on when you logged in. That being said, there are glitches at times which is where you might have gotten that idea?

That makes sense. I was referring to when they announced after BM 2011 they would be switching to lottery system. I see now they switched to first-come first-served. Well now I am really doubting my abilities to get a ticket..

[Ratty]

rusty, welcome to eplaya. I see that you live in Reno. You are surrounded by Burners. Get involved now by joining local groups, helping with builds and attending meetings. It's all fun and if you are a very good boy your new friends will help you secure a ticket. There's more to Burning Man than one week in the desert.

[rustygrape]

I am trying to find them! Just checked in with The Generator about volunteering. Projects don't get into gear until April..so yeah I'd love to find some peeps in the mean time

[Chowski]

I second getting involved. Even if you end up getting a ticket on your own, the Burn is SOOOOOO much more fun and rewarding when done with friends.

[lucky420]

I am trying to find them! Just checked in with The Generator about volunteering. Projects don't get into gear until April..so yeah I'd love to find some peeps in the mean time

Check in at the Morris Burner Hostel too

[BBadger]

If the ticketing is like last year, it'll be like a lottery system in the sense that your queue position is ultimately determined randomly.

You'll preregister, and then the day of the sale you have a half hour or so to enter the pool of potential purchasers -- or longer, depending on what undocumented bugs the ticketing system introduces that year. Then after the registration period is up your placement in the main sale queue is determined randomly from the pool of people who registered. This is different than past ticket sales, where your placement in the queue was determined by how you timed out the click on the "buy tickets" button at 12:00:00 noon the day of the sale. All this is supposed to reduce the load on the servers due to a hundred thousand people clicking the same button at the same time, and make it more fair for people who aren't 100ms away from the servers. The onslaught of clicks essentially made the queue position random for most people anyway (even though I was pretty lucky in general).

That's the theory anyway. Usually there's some sort of fuck-up by TicketFly or some other ticketing system that screws people over.

Last year, the queue website had a message telling buyers to not refresh the page because it wouldn't help the person's position in the queue. However, there were cases of people getting stuck with stale sessions that will never add you to the queue (read about it here). Some people did refresh and were immediately presented with the option to buy tickets. One of my friends was one of those lucky individuals.

These sorts of fuck-ups undermine the credibility of any instructions provided by BMORG or TicketFly when trying to purchase tickets with their system. Any resources they thought they're saving by introducing these random queue pools or other schemes are now kaput because who the hell will trust them when following the instructions disadvantages legitimate buyers?

My advice: whatever their instructions, bombard TicketFly's ticket system with page refreshes and whatever else you need to do to get your tickets. If TicketFly's servers are brought to their knees, they can buy some better hardware and resources with the substantial cut they take of the ticket sales. This is the bed TicketFly has made for themselves because of their own fuck-ups.

Really, who even knows what kind of shit will go down this year? It changes every year. Some new scheme, a new fuck-up, or unforeseen consequence. Don't expect any consistency.

[Traveller in Time]

. . . . .
Really, who even knows what kind of shit will go down this year? It changes every year. Some new scheme, a new fuck-up, or unforeseen consequence. Don't expect any consistency.

I think that is one of the better definitions of what is Burning man (the entire event)

[BBadger]

. . . . .
Really, who even knows what kind of shit will go down this year? It changes every year. Some new scheme, a new fuck-up, or unforeseen consequence. Don't expect any consistency.

I think that is one of the better definitions of what is Burning man (the entire event)

Yeah, but while I might embrace that for most aspects of the event, it holds no charm when dealing with the ticket purchasing phase.

[rustygrape]

If the ticketing is like last year, it'll be like a lottery system in the sense that your queue position is ultimately determined randomly.

You'll preregister, and then the day of the sale you have a half hour or so to enter the pool of potential purchasers -- or longer, depending on what undocumented bugs the ticketing system introduces that year. Then after the registration period is up your placement in the main sale queue is determined randomly from the pool of people who registered. This is different than past ticket sales, where your placement in the queue was determined by how you timed out the click on the "buy tickets" button at 12:00:00 noon the day of the sale. All this is supposed to reduce the load on the servers due to a hundred thousand people clicking the same button at the same time, and make it more fair for people who aren't 100ms away from the servers. The onslaught of clicks essentially made the queue position random for most people anyway (even though I was pretty lucky in general).

Ah, so it is some kind of lottery! Thank you for this explanation. I do feel better that my ability to get a ticket won't depend on me clicking at the right time. With that being said, thanks for those suggestions on refreshing the page :~)

[Ratty]

rustygrape good luck in the ticket sales. It is exactly what you believe it to be. There are a lot of conspiracy theorists starting the day of the sale. I haven't been lucky on ticket day lately but I don't cry foul. Try not to be crushed if you don't get a ticket that day. Keep at it and you'll find a way.

[dragonpilot]

FWIW...I have not been able to purchase a ticket thru the General Sale for the last 5-6 years. That said, I have been active on several Regional networks and have become friends with a fairly significant number of Burners. Participate. I owe my last several Burns to my Burner friends. And it has work both ways as I have occasionally ended up with an extra ticket or two, and have helped others...at face value