Announcing the "Crush your Hopes" INSTEP Program

[JayBobBoy]

For those of you who enjoyed the STEP program, here's my suggestion to keep this feeling all year around. The INSTEP Program (Insecure Ticket Exchange Portal)

Ok...here's how it will go:

1) Every Friday at 12 noon (from now til the end of time) I will release an unnamed amount of tickets for the 50,000 or so people who want them. I will then refuse to tell you what your odds are (because they are 0, dumbshit!) or anything else about the system involved.

2) You are instructed to drop everything (including your drawers), for a period of one to two hours on a workday and log onto a site designed for preschoolers by preschoolers. When the site crashes, I'll just give the 10 tickets that were available to my friends and/or to those willing to perform blowjobs. How the hell will you ever know.

3) You will then get a nicely worded e-mail about what a fucktard you are for wasting your time. Don't lose this e-mail though, or you can't get in on next weeks drawing! I hear there's going to be lots of tickets then!!!

Thank you for getting your hopes up. I'll try to recreate this feeling for you each week!

Enjoy

[drutter]

I don't know if I should scream, cry, or LOL..... so I'm doing them all at once right now.

[phoenix808]

im extremely thankful i cant afford step! i did a low income app because i dont know where my next dollar is coming from at this point (crosses fingers)! silly post though. i have to say i have sympathy for all parties concerned though. what a mess!

[serpentine]

I couldn't have said it better, well, maybe I could, but I have some drinking to do. BMorg has, as the saying sort of goes, "risen to its level of maximum incompetence".

[VampireKitten]

For those of you who enjoyed the STEP program, here's my suggestion to keep this feeling all year around. The INSTEP Program (Insecure Ticket Exchange Portal)

Ok...here's how it will go:

1) Every Friday at 12 noon (from now til the end of time) I will release an unnamed amount of tickets for the 50,000 or so people who want them. I will then refuse to tell you what your odds are (because they are 0, dumbshit!) or anything else about the system involved.

2) You are instructed to drop everything (including your drawers), for a period of one to two hours on a workday and log onto a site designed for preschoolers by preschoolers. When the site crashes, I'll just give the 10 tickets that were available to my friends and/or to those willing to perform blowjobs. How the hell will you ever know.

3) You will then get a nicely worded e-mail about what a fucktard you are for wasting your time. Don't lose this e-mail though, or you can't get in on next weeks drawing! I hear there's going to be lots of tickets then!!!

Thank you for getting your hopes up. I'll try to recreate this feeling for you each week!

Enjoy

I'm just quoting the whole thing because it's like the perfect storm.

[JIHADJIM]

Couldn't agree more. These guys could fuck up a wet dream.

[socks]

This is what they wanted.BM.org are a bunch of money grubbing whores.Buy your tickets from scalpers if you want to go.

[CornMan]

I was hoping that the STEP program would make more tickets available to bring the secondary market price down. But instead, the lowest stubhub price went up from $1,000 to $1,200 today.

[lucky420]

it's only March 2, prices will hopefully go down this summer

[graidawg]

I'm just quoting the whole thing because it's like the perfect storm.

i've just noticed your name and can i have a vampire kitten of my own? that would just be so cool i promise to feed it and look after it

[Mosquitopilate]

like I said yesterday it looks like I am done (All Chances are Gone) The only thing left is Asking I guess, I anyone in the next few months comes across a ticket to sell give me a look I will no doubt buy 1 ticket-I am driving Across the country so let me know by email or PM Thank you

[ranger magnum]

This is what they wanted.BM.org are a bunch of money grubbing whores.Buy your tickets from scalpers if you want to go.

Bottom line: buy tickets anyway you can get them. If someone wants to make money off their ticket, who are we to tell them they cant? The oil companies make money off the fuel they sell you to get there. The retail stores make money off the food/clothing/trinkets they sell that you use while on playa. The ORG is making 600,000 on fees on top of your ticket. Even Gerlach makes money on the water they sell you. Im sorry, the org has no place telling me where or how much to pay for a ticket. They had an opportunity to create a ticketing process that would have eliminated scalpers, and they chose another method.
Yes, scalping violates certain Burningman "ethics". But not all of those ethics apply off playa. I couldnt survive by gifting my services in defaultia. Id last about as long as it would take for my bank to file an unlawful detainer on me.

Did the Donner party engage in cannibalism by choice? No. It was out of need/desperation. While not as dire a situation, it is, nonetheless, where we find ourselves at this point. Do what you gotta do.

[theCryptofishist]

The ORG is making 600,000 on fees on top of your ticket.

I think that money goes to inticketing.

[wh..sh]

2) You are instructed to drop everything (including your drawers), for a period of one to two hours on a workday and log onto a site designed for preschoolers by preschoolers.

Ok, I have been staying away from ticket thread for long now. But...
I work in the software development field... and the fact that a server cannot handle a load of, what we guess to be 60,000 (or lets say 100,000) requests, is horse shit! (Unless, inticketing is actually 2 donated, age old, windows box (even windows is improving), with an access database).

I am sorry, but I see it as height of inefficiency. I don't care what the organization's principles are or how they choose to give out tickets. It's their decision. But I just don't understand these technical problems... especially in times likes these, when sophisticated technology is so readily available.

Yes, they might have to spend a wee bit more on ticketing process than what they do now... but really, I see that as a priority from a business perspective.

[mudpuppy000]

2) You are instructed to drop everything (including your drawers), for a period of one to two hours on a workday and log onto a site designed for preschoolers by preschoolers.

Ok, I have been staying away from ticket thread for long now. But...
I work in the software development field... and the fact that a server cannot handle a load of, what we guess to be 60,000 (or lets say 100,000) requests, is horse shit! (Unless, inticketing is actually 2 donated, age old, windows box (even windows is improving), with an access database).

I am sorry, but I see it as height of inefficiency. I don't care what the organization's principles are or how they choose to give out tickets. It's their decision. But I just don't understand these technical problems... especially in times likes these, when sophisticated technology is so readily available.

Yes, they might have to spend a wee bit more on ticketing process than what they do now... but really, I see that as a priority from a business perspective.

But they're burners man!! lol

[skyhawkecks]

it's only March 2, prices will hopefully go down this summer

Yeah, just like gas prices...

[lucky420]

nope gas prices will go up causing many to cancel said plans to attend bm. and then we shall all have tickets...

yes I am pollyana today

[BBadger]

Ok, I have been staying away from ticket thread for long now. But...
I work in the software development field... and the fact that a server cannot handle a load of, what we guess to be 60,000 (or lets say 100,000) requests, is horse shit! (Unless, inticketing is actually 2 donated, age old, windows box (even windows is improving), with an access database).

At least last year, the ticketing system was hosted on Amazon's cloud services, which scale as needed, and the main point of failure was in the PHP/MySQL system they used. This would probably point to database problems, and it is something that can bring down even the most well equipped networks if not designed for high loads.

[mshaman]

2) You are instructed to drop everything (including your drawers), for a period of one to two hours on a workday and log onto a site designed for preschoolers by preschoolers.

Ok, I have been staying away from ticket thread for long now. But...
I work in the software development field... and the fact that a server cannot handle a load of, what we guess to be 60,000 (or lets say 100,000) requests, is horse shit! (Unless, inticketing is actually 2 donated, age old, windows box (even windows is improving), with an access database).

I am sorry, but I see it as height of inefficiency. I don't care what the organization's principles are or how they choose to give out tickets. It's their decision. But I just don't understand these technical problems... especially in times likes these, when sophisticated technology is so readily available.

Yes, they might have to spend a wee bit more on ticketing process than what they do now... but really, I see that as a priority from a business perspective.

You. Are. So. Right.

This is what they wanted.BM.org are a bunch of money grubbing whores.Buy your tickets from scalpers if you want to go.

I've made my disappointment in the org abundantly clear, but calling people who are simply in over their heads "money grubbing whores" seems out of bounds to me. Disagreeing with specific decisions and policies is fine in my book. Drawing attention to those specific decisions through some dark or sarcastic humor, I'm guilty, for better or worse. But vilifying and name-calling just seems mean. Do you know how much sleep they've lost over this? The board is made up of a bunch of artists. They are idealists. I think they WANTED very much to come up with a good system. With all their hearts. I just don't think they had the training or the strategic support to do it. I'm hoping they hire help in.

[ZaphodBurner]

it's only March 2, prices will hopefully go down this summer

I hope scalped prices go UP this summer because I want people who support scalping to understand just exactly what they're worth. IE, somebody who pays $2000 for a Burning Man ticket is worth more than somebody who can't afford to pay it.

'You're too POOR to buy $3000 tickets from a scalper? Well, kid, Burning Man's a lot like any other country club: Not for you.'

[ZaphodBurner]

Did the Donner party engage in cannibalism by choice? No. It was out of need/desperation. While not as dire a situation, it is, nonetheless, where we find ourselves at this point. Do what you gotta do.

If you read the diaries of the Donner party, you'll see similarities in the way the community behaved. The families, who had relied upon one another for the entire journey, turned on each other, and especially on those who were PERCEIVED to be hoarding food.

You shouldn't buy tickets from scalpers simply because you think the Org fucked up. You may have a point but, you're making it out of selfishness, not virtue. Also, you're doing it at the expense of all the burners who have struggled so hard to keep consumerism, commercialism and the evil hands of capitalism from destroying the "experiment" in exchange for entertainment.

"Decommodification: In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience."
http://www.burningman.com/whatisburning ... iples.html

[Steel Kitty]

[quote]... the burners who have struggled so hard to keep consumerism, commercialism and the evil hands of capitalism from destroying the "experiment" in exchange for entertainment. [/quote]


You're forgetting that a percentage (most likely a large one) of people going this year don't know the first thing about Burning Man ethos, and a percentage of those people probably don't give a rats ass about following it. I mean, do you really think Snookie or Jwow (as an example, there's a myth/truth/who knows about them having tickets and showing up in a big Jersey Shore RV) really know anything about what it means ?

We've opened a pandora's box -- where in the past you brought in people slowly, they understood the importance of MOOPing, of what a special place the playa is. Now, you've got people going because they read about it in Town and Country, or saw it in Cosmo.. and just HAD to get to the biggest party on the planet!!! With cool costumes, and awesome music to boot. ENTERTAINMENT.

That's the scalper's customer base and they know it.

[Velvetchrist]

To me the worst part about the whole thing is for people who missed the lotto IE my friend and I that are still making plans to go this year the future looks grim. I wish I could say I wouldn't pay for a ticket that was above face value but at this point since I'm am only a small part of the regional group near my home, my resources for getting tickets for us are slim. I plan on holding out for as long as possible at least till June and the mail tickets are finally sent out befor I decide what I'll do. I think if I can't get them from a fellow burner I might just wait till next year :-/ but I'm def in for the long haul this year .

[BBadger]

What probably should be done with STEP is that lottery entrants get a half-month period to sign up for "higher priority" to get whatever recycled tickets, and then it is open sign-up for anyone else. It seems the STEP policies obviate the need to make it lottery-exclusive, and in the end they've killed off the open sale that many were betting on (myself included).

[Velvetchrist]

That's what I was thinking you can still keep it non transferable and still allow people who missed the lotto a much better fighting chance