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Fair ticket selling methods for large conventions
Posts
Sorry, I'm not trying to be snooty, but I think the fairest solution is to try to accomodate the number of people who want to come. Because the total collection of all the people who want to come are in fact that character of the con.
I don't know how Gabe & Tycho would feel about that, though, given that Seattle is their backyard.
Well, yes, you do have to address issues like that when you change venues. But if N people want to go to your event and you are physically capable of hosting M, once N grows larger than M you're throwing away potential dollars in the pockets of yourself and every money-making venture that attends the event while simultaneously disappointing N - M people in order to ensure that N people have an experience that, with a bit of effort, you might actually be able to replicate for M people.
the main question would seem to be "is the logistical challenge of moving it somewhere other than seattle worth it?" Not a question with a pat answer.
my unofficial autobio will be accompanied with tips on how to smile
cause I've found that when they don't see you frown, they never know that you're a threat
and they don't sweat you when you came around
As for PAX, no idea why the tickets are not non transferable already and photo id would cut down the touting.
Wimbledon has a neat idea, when people leave for the day they have the option of giving up their ticket. If they do they are sold on and money given to charity. This means that people can queue up to enjoy the few hours of the event.
There's also the option of just introducing more events. PAX East pretty much exploded. I mean, you're going to have some degree of overlap where the same people are going to go to all of the available PAXes, and there's an obvious upper ceiling on how many of the things you can host before the major publishers, artists, and famous people who the con-goers are there to see in the first place quit showing up for all of them, but if they want to keep the Seattle Scene, as it were, while fitting in more people... open up a PAX SouthWest in Vegas or San Diego and PAX: The Quattro somewhere else. At least some of the people buying all the passes for PAX Prime would choose to go to a PAX local to them instead if one were available.
Yup. Fuck lotteries.
#FreeScheck
#FreeSKFM
#FreeScheck
#FreeSKFM
Lots of people make plans to go to Pax with friends. Lotteries would seriously fuck with that.
Yep.
They also cause tickets to sell out faster because it rewards duplicate purchases.
Let's say I want to go to PAX with mcdermott and deebaser, and there's a lottery system. The smart thing for each of us to do is buy three tickets each, a total of nine tickets, so if one of us doesn't win the lottery we still all get to go.
If we end up with too many tickets - fine, we'll just resell them.
Scalpers can do the same thing.
my unofficial autobio will be accompanied with tips on how to smile
cause I've found that when they don't see you frown, they never know that you're a threat
and they don't sweat you when you came around
Now we're really winning.
It's basically about picking the least of all evils.
People who want to come to your event won't get to come. That's the sad reality of it.
How many tickets were sold for PAX West? Is it obviously a scalper situation or simply overwhelming demand?
If its the former, that can be alleviated by requiring the person who buys it to use it... make it will-call only and you need an ID.
If its the latter, there's no solution that will satisfy everyone. Everyone who couldn't get a pass, or whose SO couldn't get a pass, or whose friends couldn't get a pass, will be dissatisfied.
PAXEast had ~75K this year and apparently there are plans to let it grow to the 100K neighborhood over the next few years. Based on Admiral @rkhoo 's twitter, its like ~50K for PAXPrime right now. If Seattle can't handle larger than that (and that many visitors is a pretty big strain on infrastructure), LA or Vegas might be their only options in the Pacific Time Zone.
QEDMF xbl: PantsB G+
if three million people buy tickets, everybody gets to watch five minutes of the bungee panel, then go home
my unofficial autobio will be accompanied with tips on how to smile
cause I've found that when they don't see you frown, they never know that you're a threat
and they don't sweat you when you came around
BAM. Done.
it has been and will always be the fairest way
Is a dislike of twitter worth not going to PAX?
t.co/atjddqMr
They shouldn't have to, when there's a zero-cost alternative that takes five minutes to set up?
I can guarantee they hate the situation as much as we do. Good to see a response, though.
True. But is putting the badge in your hand instead any real gain? You're still just talking about picking winners.
Sell them in lots. Stagger times so people overseas (or who are at work without immediate unfettered access to a computer) can have a shot. Announce what time lots are being sold so people can make arrangements to get their passes. (But the strain on our servers! Not my problem. The price of success.)
The twitter thing is what really irritates me, though, and I wasn't even planning on going. I'm too poor to afford a smartphone, let alone the $75-100/month a data plan would cost me, and twitter without a smartphone is fucking pointless; it's absurd that I'd have to sign up to a service I'd never use so I could maybe get a notification once or twice a year when a mailserver can very nearly be run on a toasted ham sandwich.
Better than email.
Mmmmm....toasty.
I use Twitter way more on my desktop PC than on my phone.
Missed out this year I guess. There's always next year and the possibility of my coding an app to purchase said 3 day pass the moment registration becomes available. Don't know if that is feasible or not but I'm willing to try.
Not sure what else the organizers can do really. It's worked alright in previous years. No reason to assume it wouldn't this year. It just snowballed and many people lost out.