Constructive suggestions concerning ticketing

[BurnerLoki]

Thank you to all the hardworking people who make the event possible. I am sure you are sick and exhausted right now trying to deal with the ticketing situation. I don't want to rant or place blame here I just want to make some suggestions. On the playa Burning Man brings out some magical qualities in a lot of people, sadly in the default world that number is much reduced. I know the lottery and the pricing structure is driven by the ideas of equitability; sadly this idealism falls under the weight of self interest and market forces.

Saving Burning Man this year is a public relations problem. I know there will be still 50,000 people on the playa, who will have the most amazing time. Please, please don't put lipstick on a pig and call the lottery a win that just needs some tweaking.

"It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried." -- Winston Churchill. I know you are trying really really hard to improve on capitalist market economics, just like democracy as much as it sucks everything else sucks even more.

Here are my ideas for future ticket sales:

* Single tier ticket pricing.
* Raise the price of tickets
* First come, first serve.

Use the increased ticket revenue for the following:

* Low income and artist reduced price tickets. The reduced price tickets are ID dependent and non transferable. Some additional technology/staff to deal with overhead this will incur.
*Robust servers for the ticket rush. Rent server space for someone like Amazon or another company with near infinite scalable server structure already in place.
*More art grants
*More port-a-pottier. Particularly near large sound stages and a few scattered in the open playa.

It really pains me to see an event that I have known and loved for over 15 years radically deteriorate not because of government or corporations or apathy but because of people who are trying so hard to make it better for everybody. I know you are idealistic, I know it seems that with just a few more tweaks it can be made to work. Don't put aside the lessons of consumer psychology and market economics just because we build a transient utopia. It really is that simple -- IF DEMAND EXCEEDS SUPPLY RAISE THE PRICE. As attractive as other options may seem they are doomed to make things worse, not better.

[igor47]

oh. my. god. MORE PORTAPOTTIES! why didn't *I* think of that?

listen, last year we camped across the road from this total spectator palace. we called it 'RV Fortress' cuz there was no way to get in really it was totally surrounded. they had people come out and build them a dome and bring out their RVs and some dude was vacuuming rugs, it was eerie. then they would hang out in their dome and they finally invited us over on friday after ignoring us all week cuz i hassled them with a megaphone from the top of pipe dream and their paid sommelier gave me 2-buck-chuck out of a real wine glass as i chatted with their "leader" it was so cult-like...

anyway, what if we just dropped porta-potties into the middle of their camp? it would totally harsh their vibe. we'll need a crane to get through the ring of RVs... we'll just plonk a few right around and in the middle of their shit, and then install signs directing traffic there and people will crawl under rvs to get to 'em. make the doors extra-bangy, too. they'll hate it, and they won't come back, and there'll be more tickets for the rest of us!