There has to be a better way to allocate tickets

[miniand]

If there is a ballot what is to stop me registering  using the addresses of everyone I know, before you know it I could have 100 different registrations entered into a ballot for tickets, it's not beyond the realm of possibility to do this. It would improve my chances in a ballot...
With the present system I can only try on a few devices at a time. 

[MJP]

Emily was asked about a ballot tonight at Cheltenham Lit Fest. Her reply was that they do need to look at the ticket system, but that tickets bought were evenly spread across the UK and some across the world - even in Afghanistan!?

She doesn't want to be in a position where people who don't really want tickets put in for them but not want them. Emily said 'not all of the 2.4m registered people will want tickets', I guess she didn't think of an opt-in for each year?

Emily also said that you can see a dip in when people stop trying for tickets - around 20 minutes in - so only really dedicated people get the tickets. Though, if they're going on hits, I guess they would naturally die down as people stop refreshing if they get to the booking form.

[august1]

13 minutes ago, MJP said:

 

Emily also said that you can see a dip in when people stop trying for tickets - around 20 minutes in - so only really dedicated people get the tickets. Though, if they're going on hits, I guess they would naturally die down as people stop refreshing if they get to the booking form.

Interesting at lots on here started to get in at 20 past, throttle the page for 20 minutes in future please

[Yeo-vile idiot]

7 hours ago, MJP said:

Her reply was that they do need to look at the ticket system, but that tickets bought were evenly spread across the UK and some across the world - even in Afghanistan!?

I’ve screen shotted this and sent it to a mate of mine from Yeovil who is currently working on America Apache aircraft at an air base in Afghanistan . Who got through on his phone and got 6 tickets last week. He’ll be chuffed his luck didn’t go unnoticed. 

[mcshed]

8 hours ago, miniand said:

If there is a ballot what is to stop me registering  using the addresses of everyone I know, before you know it I could have 100 different registrations entered into a ballot for tickets, it's not beyond the realm of possibility to do this. It would improve my chances in a ballot...
With the present system I can only try on a few devices at a time. 

All they would do is have a statement saying multiple registrations is against the rules and if found out tickets would be cancelled. There is if course no easy way that this could be enforced so people would get away with it but it would be enough to stop well behaved boys and girls like me.

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

8 hours ago, MJP said:

Emily was asked about a ballot tonight at Cheltenham Lit Fest. Her reply was that they do need to look at the ticket system, but that tickets bought were evenly spread across the UK and some across the world - even in Afghanistan!?

She doesn't want to be in a position where people who don't really want tickets put in for them but not want them. Emily said 'not all of the 2.4m registered people will want tickets', I guess she didn't think of an opt-in for each year?

Emily also said that you can see a dip in when people stop trying for tickets - around 20 minutes in - so only really dedicated people get the tickets. Though, if they're going on hits, I guess they would naturally die down as people stop refreshing if they get to the booking form.

That does make a lot of sense, I know I’ve had to repeatedly beat it into mates to not give up and keep trying until it says sold out. They used to have a habit of starting to message the group saying “no luck” and taking stupid pictures of their screen even after about 10 minutes gone. I think it’s human nature to start to feel despondent even before 20 minutes. Extrapolate over the country and there will be a huge amount of less experienced/casual buyers that would’ve started to give up.

[hfuhruhurr]

2 minutes ago, mcshed said:

All they would do is have a statement saying multiple registrations is against the rules and if found out tickets would be cancelled. There is if course no easy way that this could be enforced so people would get away with it but it would be enough to stop well behaved boys and girls like me.

With a hi-res photo now needed and facial recognition software - it would be possible to filter these out?

A ballot isn't as fair as the current system - which I reckon is as good as it gets. I failed this year and am happy that someone else is going in my place.

The wider issue is if regular goers stop getting excited about the festival because their chances of going are low.

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

3 minutes ago, hfuhruhurr said:

With a hi-res photo now needed and facial recognition software - it would be possible to filter these out?

A ballot isn't as fair as the current system - which I reckon is as good as it gets. I failed this year and am happy that someone else is going in my place.

The wider issue is if regular goers stop getting excited about the festival because their chances of going are low.

Assuming you can’t cheat it nothing can be fairer than a ballot, that’s the ultimate of fair. A ballot would however mean those who currently go more years than not (most people on here) would get to go far far less often.

[hfuhruhurr]

1 minute ago, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

Assuming you can’t cheat it nothing can be fairer than a ballot, that’s the ultimate of fair. A ballot would however mean those who currently go more years than not (most people on here) would get to go far far less often.

Ah - what I mean by "fair" (which isn't purely fair!) was that the keen have slightly better odds than the not so keen - since they hit the wheel of fortune that is the load balancer more times than the casual ballot entree.

[TheNewUnion]

On 10/8/2019 at 12:45 PM, squirrelarmy said:

First step is clear all registrations each year. You won’t have 2.4 million names in the hat each time. 

 

 

I don't have the answer, but this would be a great place to start.

[Ayrshire Chris]

Two things

clear the registrations every year

ensure that when you get on to the enter registrations and bank details you don’t get thrown off for an inexplicable reason as long as you stay within the time limit.  That really boils your piss when you do everything right but everything freezes.  Surely that should be possible with the technology available.  

[dotdash79]

On 10/8/2019 at 12:45 PM, squirrelarmy said:

First step is clear all registrations each year. You won’t have 2.4 million names in the hat each time. 

Imagine all the hassle to approve several hundred thousand registrations every year. You would have to wipe them in July and have them all approved by October then having to do that year in year out. 
 

i was involved in a rollout of a European regulation earlier this year which needed each location that was covered had to register. It was estimated that with a team of 6 people it would take 2 years to verify 30,000 locations.

 

[eFestivals]

2 minutes ago, Ayrshire Chris said:

clear the registrations every year

sensible from a ticket-buyers point of view, perhaps less good from Glasto's point of view if they ever want to market tickets at those people if there's a year of slow sales.

[Quark]

1 minute ago, eFestivals said:

sensible from a ticket-buyers point of view, perhaps less good from Glasto's point of view if they ever want to market tickets at those people if there's a year of slow sales.

Or time limited registrations?  Say 3 years, that way you'd at least be looking at a rolling renewal rather than mass block submissions.

[squirrelarmy]

2 minutes ago, dotdash79 said:

Imagine all the hassle to approve several hundred thousand registrations every year. You would have to wipe them in July and have them all approved by October then having to do that year in year out. 
 

i was involved in a rollout of a European regulation earlier this year which needed each location that was covered had to register. It was estimated that with a team of 6 people it would take 2 years to verify 30,000 locations.

 

Do you think they’re checking each registration manually? Surely it’s all managed digitally. If any names or locations flag up then they probably go for review. Otherwise it should be fairly automated. 

[Ayrshire Chris]

3 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

sensible from a ticket-buyers point of view, perhaps less good from Glasto's point of view if they ever want to market tickets at those people if there's a year of slow sales.

How’s about every two or three years then or even during a fallow year,  That might be feasible 

[dotdash79]

3 minutes ago, squirrelarmy said:

Do you think they’re checking each registration manually? Surely it’s all managed digitally. If any names or locations flag up then they probably go for review. Otherwise it should be fairly automated. 

As it’s normally a trickle then yes it will be manual, even with a 20% referral rate on a automatic system you are still looking at tens of thousands of profiles to look at. 

[eFestivals]

4 minutes ago, Ayrshire Chris said:

How’s about every two or three years then or even during a fallow year,  That might be feasible 

sensible ... until you think about how you might implement that sort of system now on top of what already exists.

 

[mcshed]

Am I missing something, what is the benefit of making people re-register again and again?

[squirrelarmy]

Just now, mcshed said:

Am I missing something, what is the benefit of making people re-register again and again?

If a ballot system becomes more of a feature it helps to know which of the 2.4 million registrations are actually interested in going. 
 

A few posts up someone mentioned making your registration active each time you wanted to go to Glasto. That would be a good compromise. That should be very easy to do automatically.  

[Quark]

10 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

sensible ... until you think about how you might implement that sort of system now on top of what already exists.

 

How similar would / could it be to something like your Gold membership setup Neil?  Effectively when you register with GF you "buy" your active registration for a set term (say three years).  At the end of the 3 year period the registration ends and you have to re-register, in the same way you have to go back in and renew membership, otherwise it auto-terminates.

[kevbizarre]

On 10/10/2019 at 1:22 PM, shuttlep said:

there is  a ballott for the London marathon, I have tried every year for ten years to get in that and failed, you would get the same things happening . lucky people and not so lucky. 

 

I know so many people that have registered and wanted to go but didn't know ticket's went on sale on that morning. Imagine if everyone who is registered just got pulled out of a hat. There would be loads of people who change their mind when they actually get a ticket.  more and more people would enter every year just out of the chance they get a ticket. and what if they get a ticket but their friends don't? some people wouldn't want to go on their own. I think it would cause a lot of refunds happening 

If you had a ballot you would do away with deposit and refund system I suspect. Purchase all the tickets applied for, or none at all (like other similar big events) 

[eFestivals]

17 minutes ago, Quark said:

How similar would / could it be to something like your Gold membership setup Neil?  Effectively when you register with GF you "buy" your active registration for a set term (say three years).  At the end of the 3 year period the registration ends and you have to re-register, in the same way you have to go back in and renew membership, otherwise it auto-terminates.

that part is easy enough.

What's not so easy is how you move the existing registrations to a 3-year-expire system at 1/3 per year.

[Ayrshire Chris]

35 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

sensible ... until you think about how you might implement that sort of system now on top of what already exists.

 

See you point there. Maybe wait until the next fallow year, clear it off and have a year and a bit until the next sale to re register. We re registered last year, old photo was beginning to look a bit young! There must be a lot of bearded blokes with photos of themselves as spotty teenagers. 

Edited October 14, 2019 by Ayrshire Chris

[UEF]

I think the festival are painfully aware that there is a fine line between people wanting to go and thinking "fuck this" if it gets too onerous and doing a 2008.