What the rejection letter says:

[randomgirl7]

Title: Burning Man Ticket Main Sale Notification

DEAR Samantha,

We're really sorry to inform you that your entry was not selected in the Main Sale to purchase Burning Man 2012 tickets. But remember this isn't the end - you still have other options for acquiring tickets!

The next chance to buy is directly through the Open Sale, which begins March 28, 2012. There are 10,000 tickets that will be offered in that sale at $390 each. The Open Sale is a first-come, first-served, no-registration-required sale.

We will also open our new resale system, the Secure Ticket Exchange Program (STEP), for the buying and selling of secondhand tickets starting February 22. We expect that a fair number of tickets will be redistributed within the participant community (as happens every year), and we ask that you use the STEP system to do so, avoiding sites like eBay, Craigslist, or ticket resale sites, so we can maintain a central source for tickets and discourage scalping. Full details will be posted on tickets.burningman.com and through the Jack Rabbit Speaks email newsletter.

Please help us discourage scalpers. Don't buy or sell Burning Man tickets above face value.

Since you were among those unable to secure tickets through this Main Sale drawing, you will get priority in signing up for the STEP system's first-come, first-served process. Please watch for an email before the end of February with details about how you can participate in this program.

Sincerely,

Burning Man Tickets

[randomgirl7]

First come priority sounds like both good and bad for us burners.
They forget that the scalpers also didn't get all the tickets they wanted though. But at least the NEW scalpers won't get further ahead of us.

[Saguache]

Since you were among those unable to secure tickets through this Main Sale drawing, you will get priority in signing up for the STEP system's first-come, first-served process.

This sentence bothers me a great deal. How can we get priority if the system is set up FCFS? Also, I haven't even gotten this notification mail yet.

[randomgirl7]

I was wondering the same thing.

Can't they just let us show pictures of us at burning man! :p

[theCryptofishist]

We will also open our new resale system, the Secure Ticket Exchange Program (STEP), for the buying and selling of secondhand tickets starting February 22.

Hawt Dog! Luis Bunuel's birthday!

[alt12]

Since you were among those unable to secure tickets through this Main Sale drawing, you will get priority in signing up for the STEP system's first-come, first-served process.

This sentence bothers me a great deal. How can we get priority if the system is set up FCFS? Also, I haven't even gotten this notification mail yet.

It means the many thousands of people who didn't get tickets in the lottery will have a priority over those who did not enter the lottery at all. I imagine this means there are two categories of first-come first-serve for STEP, the priority caetgory of those who lost at the lottery, and then the general STEP. Those who were not in the lottery will have an opportunity to register for STEP before those that did not...

Either way, they are using a first-come first-serve model which is funny given the great lengths they have gone to create this lottery system and convince everyone that is working...