Waiting Room? Isn't that a ballot?

magpiejay · Post by **magpiejay** » Tue Mar 22, 2016 6:39 pm

New email about the sale.

"In anticipation of high demand and a high server load, a 20-minute waiting room will open Wednesday, March 23 at 11:45am PDT. Actual sales begin at 12:05pm PDT.

Opening multiple browser tabs won’t improve your chances; when the sale opens, everyone in the 20-minute waiting room will be assigned a place in line that is not related to when they entered the sale. Anyone who joins after 20 minutes will be placed in line after those already in the queue."

Not related to when they entered the sale? Doesn't that mean the crucial ticket window is now a 20 minute ballot randomly allocated?

I'd also love to know if it's the device browser session, or re-use of the access code that bumps in and out of lines.

(5.45am start in Australia, grabbing a ride to Confest at 6.15am, might be a close-call/device shifter)

Post by **trilobyte** » Tue Mar 22, 2016 6:55 pm

Realistically speaking, it's impossible to actually put that initial batch of people in the queue in the order in which they arrived. With a super-high-demand queue, at any point that the gate gets opened there will be well over a thousand users who are there at the exact fraction of a second that the proverbial gate opens.

Unlike a physical lined at a physical box office (like the good old days before the internet), the people hitting that server are coming from everywhere, all at once. It's nice to see Burning Man and Ticketfly acknowledging that initial random chance factor, rather than pretend it doesn't exist.

Elorrum · Post by **Elorrum** » Tue Mar 22, 2016 7:26 pm

"...Anyone who joins after 20 minutes will be placed in line after those already in the queue."

so does this mean we should start 15 minutes earlier or not?

Post by **trilobyte** » Tue Mar 22, 2016 7:40 pm

I'm not registered for tomorrow's sale and have not received either the email or any special instructions from the ticket team. Check your email and interpret as you see fit, directing any questions to [email protected].

Speaking personally, if I was participating in the sale, I would want to join the queue at the earliest possible moment. The random chance during that initial moment it opens is still going to be ahead of the people that queue up after.

Jenifersteppat · Post by **Jenifersteppat** » Tue Mar 22, 2016 8:09 pm

I am registered for the main sale. I haven't gotten this email. Where is this from?

Post by **trilobyte** » Tue Mar 22, 2016 8:13 pm

I've heard from the ticket team, this is the email that is being sent out today with your unique registration code and link to the sale (do not post or share your code with others). If you haven't received it yet, don't panic - there are tens of thousands of people registered for the sale and it may take a while for the emails to all go out. If you haven't already done so, check your email provider's spam filter and trusted senders list, and read through the information in this post.

Jenifersteppat · Post by **Jenifersteppat** » Tue Mar 22, 2016 8:16 pm

Yep just got it. This is so cryptic! Is it saying we SHOULD get in 20 minutes early or not??

swayne441 · Post by **swayne441** » Tue Mar 22, 2016 8:27 pm

My thoughts exactly. They've just turned the first 20 minutes into a lottery. Isn't that what everyone HATED about 2012?

Jenifersteppat · Post by **Jenifersteppat** » Tue Mar 22, 2016 8:29 pm

[quote="trilobyte"]

Speaking personally, if I was participating in the sale, I would want to join the queue at the earliest possible moment. The random chance during that initial moment it opens is still going to be ahead of the people that queue up after.

Trilo,

Are you saying you would click the link 15 minutes early and get in the waiting room?

Tiahaar · Post by **Tiahaar** » Tue Mar 22, 2016 8:37 pm

that would be a terrible bad thing, have you seen waiting rooms these days? people hacking and coughing, little kids running around crying and spreading who knows what cold germs, noooo you really don't want to go early to the waiting room...

Post by **trilobyte** » Tue Mar 22, 2016 8:50 pm

I've just heard back from the ticket team (thanks Lulu and Quaker!), here are the details regarding the waiting room.

In order to handle the anticipated server load (which will be heavy), here's how the waiting room works.

From 11:45 to 12:05, everybody who accesses the sale will go into the waiting room. Doesn't matter if you're 11:45:00.0000000001 or 11:49:30, or 12:00:31459. At 12:05, all the people who came into the waiting room during that 20 minute window will be assigned a random place in line and placed into the queue. Everyone who arrives after that happens will be placed into the queue AFTER the waiting room bunch, in the order that they arrived.

That said, my personal (and completely unofficial) advice would be to enter the waiting room sometime between 11:45 and 12:05. You'll get assigned a random place within that group of people, but you'll be ahead of the people who arrive at 12:05 or later.

I'm closing this thread, since the question about how the waiting room works has been answered, and will make a minor adjustment to the thread title and the ticketing announcements. Thanks to magpiejay for asking it, and the Burning Man ticket team for getting the answers.

Waiting Room? Isn't that a ballot?

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