New format for buying tickets

[johnny-yen]

For anyone who tried for coach tickets last night, can you summarise the new ticket buying process and how the queue system worked please?

 

Better or worse than before?

 

Any tips or things to look out for?

 

Thanks

[dirtysteve]

My summary of it; absolute bloody bobbins.

 

It's the end of an era, is now down to pure luck and totally out of our hands, whereas before it was only mostly down to pure luck and totally out of our hands but at least we had some small modicum of influence on the outcome that we could deploy by spamming F5. I was in the queue on two devices to see if I could get in and buy for one of the groups, but never got more than two progress bars, just sat here looking at my screens twiddling my thumbs for half an hour. Pure tosh, have no optimism whatsoever for Sunday tbh. Que sera, sera!

[Lucy92]

It’s the worst. I never wanna see those green progress bars again 

[CharlotteB]

Is it fairer though, do we think?

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

As someone who's had varying degrees of personal success in scoring tickets over the past 20 years, the fact that it seemingly removes any ability to affect your chances (by manually refreshing) would appear to make it a level playing field. So I'd stick with my previous description of the new system. It's harder but fairer.

 

However, because of the new system, if I'd never been before, I'd be more concerned that my chances of attending have greatly reduced. 

 

Staring at two green bars for 35 minutes last night, it definitely felt like it was pre-determined that I wasn't going to get a ticket but in fairness, in the past I've not even got a holding page, so maybe in that respect, it's no different?

[uscore]

23 minutes ago, Supernintendo Chalmers said:

As someone who's had varying degrees of personal success in scoring tickets over the past 20 years, the fact that it seemingly removes any ability to affect your chances (by manually refreshing) would appear to make it a level playing field. So I'd stick with my previous description of the new system. It's harder but fairer.

 

However, because of the new system, if I'd never been before, I'd be more concerned that my chances of attending have greatly reduced. 

 

Staring at two green bars for 35 minutes last night, it definitely felt like it was pre-determined that I wasn't going to get a ticket but in fairness, in the past I've not even got a holding page, so maybe in that respect, it's no different?

 

fairness is a subjective term though.  Is it fairer that everyone gets the same chance in a lottery, or fairer that people who persevere with f5 have a slightly better chance?  Everyone will have different ideas on that.

 

And I'd argue the new system isn't that much of a leveller.  It's still skewed to techy people who can get on multiple devices,  and (now more than ever) popular people who can rope in loads of friends and family to help them.  And still skewed to big syndicates.

[Nestacres]

37 minutes ago, CharlotteB said:

Is it fairer though, do we think?

There is no way of saying. I logged on at 5.30pm and at 6 has two bars in the queue. I have no way of know how my place in the queue was allocated compared to anyone else. I got to 4 bars before calling time at 6.30pm. Having a queue number/how's many people on front would have helped but I found the process quite boring - at least when pounding f5 there was hope and something to do. This was just dull. 

Edited 2 hours ago by Nestacres

[Euphoricape]

I was in a group of 6. I didn't get past 2 bars but 2 people in my group got 10 plus and 1 person successfully got us all tickets. 

[nikkic]

42 minutes ago, Supernintendo Chalmers said:

As someone who's had varying degrees of personal success in scoring tickets over the past 20 years, the fact that it seemingly removes any ability to affect your chances (by manually refreshing) would appear to make it a level playing field. So I'd stick with my previous description of the new system. It's harder but fairer.

 

However, because of the new system, if I'd never been before, I'd be more concerned that my chances of attending have greatly reduced. 

 

Staring at two green bars for 35 minutes last night, it definitely felt like it was pre-determined that I wasn't going to get a ticket but in fairness, in the past I've not even got a holding page, so maybe in that respect, it's no different?

Agree with all this. 
 

I guess it’s always been random, but with the old way it felt you could add an element of effort and therefore have an advantage over people who weren’t refreshing every second. I felt it almost rewarded tenacity. 
 

However, the fact I’ve been to Glastonbury 10 times and only managed to be the person to get tickets once, is perhaps evidence this approach didn’t serve me well!

[Jack.194]

It means that tickets will be more evenly distributed, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s fairer.

[Euphoricape]

I wouldn't say it's any more or less fair, but definitely less chaotic.

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

8 minutes ago, uscore said:

 

fairness is a subjective term though.  Is it fairer that everyone gets the same chance in a lottery, or fairer that people who persevere with f5 have a slightly better chance?  Everyone will have different ideas on that.

 

And I'd argue the new system isn't that much of a leveller.  It's still skewed to techy people who can get on multiple devices,  and (now more than ever) popular people who can rope in loads of friends and family to help them.  And still skewed to big syndicates.

 

To answer your question, I'd say that fairer means no advantage to anyone, from a physical system point of view. A level playing field. It's out of the festivals hands on the number of devices available to people or organised groups, there's only so much they can do. Maybe to counter that, they need to reduce the purchase number from six to four?

 

A great deal of the subjectivity here comes from multiple-attendees that are used to the previous processes and knowing certain methods to potentially gain an advantage. 

 

From what I've seen so far, the larger syndicates have not been as successful but the acid test will be Sunday. We can probably make a better judgement then. 

[Nobody Interesting]

50 minutes ago, CharlotteB said:

Is it fairer though, do we think?

Yes, much fairer

[redrog]

I think because there is less effort required, it will encourage more people to give it a go which reduces the chances for us veterans. Is that fairer? Maybe but doesn’t reward the most desperate. I like the old system. It worked for me. 

[incident]

56 minutes ago, CharlotteB said:

Is it fairer though, do we think?

 

Despite the vaunted Bot protection, it's certainly easier to "game" if you have sufficient resource of the correct type. Something I'll be working on today.

 

So on balance I'd say no.

[The Nal]

1 hour ago, CharlotteB said:

Is it fairer though, do we think?

 

Depends. More easily manipuated now. More devices, more chances.

 

And theres tech bros out there who can have loads of logins via multipe VPNs et al.

 

Either way, al of our chances of going to Glasto from now on have reduced fro "ok" to "slim to none". 

Edited 1 hour ago by The Nal

[Toilet Duck]

2 minutes ago, Supernintendo Chalmers said:

 

To answer your question, I'd say that fairer means no advantage to anyone, from a physical system point of view. A level playing field. It's out of the festivals hands on the number of devices available to people or organised groups, there's only so much they can do. Maybe to counter that, they need to reduce the purchase number from six to four?

 

A great deal of the subjectivity here comes from multiple-attendees that are used to the previous processes and knowing certain methods to potentially gain an advantage. 

 

From what I've seen so far, the larger syndicates have not been as successful but the acid test will be Sunday. We can probably make a better judgement then. 

Haven't heard as many complaints about it hanging, or getting kicked out at the point of purchase though (some, but not a whole lot), which is what drove me mad with the previous system over the last few sales. Most reports saying the actual purchase was pretty smooth (with the caveat that the Thursday coach sale is always insane anyway trying to find available departures...especially 6 seats available!...never gotten coach for more than 1 or two before). Every year we've had multiple people in our groups through with reg numbers entered in good time, but toggling back and forth to get the payment through and still not managed to secure tickets for everyone, so I think if this system stabilises the actual purchase, it's probably worth it and no more or less pot luck than it was previously in terms of actually getting on the See site to buy in the first place. Hammering F5 seemed like it was helping, but I've done it for years upon years and there's been plenty of times I never got past the blue holding page, so maybe it only "felt" like we were influencing the outcome! From last night, basically, if your two bars don't start moving fairly sharpish, it looks like you are so far back in the queue with that device that you may as well give up with that one. 

[jonnytee1]

I think we just have to look at it as a "change" that we can do nothing about. Like in Business you either embrace it and move on or waste time bemoaning it. 

 

We all love and get used to what we know -  if it was as it is now and then changed to how we have been doing it for 20 years would it be any better? Nope!

 

I preferred the real old school way where you either walked into a record shop and bought your ticket or attempted to scale a fence.

 

 

[priest17]

its a bit like the new trend of queuing at the bar in pubs, it might be a touch fairer but its pants.

[I am Jon]

As a web developer the new system is way better. Didn’t see a single error page and luckily for me I got through and the transaction was smooth. Way better than F5ing error pages and praying the transaction doesn’t fail half way through. 
 

However the endless error pages, F5ing & hopelessness of the old system did reward persistence which worked out well for many on here.
 

As before working in groups with as many devices as possible is the way to go. 

[The Nal]

2 minutes ago, I am Jon said:

As before working in groups with as many devices as possible is the way to go. 

 

Yep. So massively disadvantages people who dont have large group of friends. Or devices. Or know how to use VPNs. 

[Talcroft]

29 minutes ago, incident said:

 

Despite the vaunted Bot protection, it's certainly easier to "game" if you have sufficient resource of the correct type. Something I'll be working on today.

 

So on balance I'd say no.

 

I was gonna say... It's fairer this year while people figure out the tech to game it. If not by Sunday then certainly by next year there'll be enough people with enough knowledge to game the queue I've absolutely no doubt. 

[Scotdy]

It's a fairer system.

When I started going you would buy tickets from the local record shop, so I've seen it evolve over the years into a unfair system until this year.

This forum was a good example. A spreadsheet of say 50 groups all trying for eachother that pushed a 'normal' ticket tryer down the pack due to shear volume focusing on specific reg numbers and tech tricks. A lot of the posts I've seen over the past few years always highlighted to me we deserve to go because we want it more and put the ticket day effort in. EVERYONE should have a equal chance to get a ticket not just the gatekeeping select. The festival needs to constantly evolve it's customers to live and develop, so if it's full of first timers then so be it... and I'm speaking as someone who has been 20+ times and failed yesterday.

[I am Jon]

23 minutes ago, The Nal said:

 

Yep. So massively disadvantages people who dont have large group of friends. Or devices. Or know how to use VPNs. 

Same as before. 
 

Not sure a VPN helps but worth using on some devices if you can. Use mobile data on phone, WiFi on PC’s. Dig out any old phones, laptops etc to get as many devices as possible. Rope in family and friends to help or join one of the groups on here. 
 

Good luck to those trying on Sunday. I still need to help son get his tickets. 

Edited 52 minutes ago by I am Jon

[Nobody Interesting]

3 minutes ago, Talcroft said:

 

I was gonna say... It's fairer this year while people figure out the tech to game it. If not by Sunday then certainly by next year there'll be enough people with enough knowledge to game the queue I've absolutely no doubt. 

 

The system for the queue has been around for years and there were ways but they were all closed off years ago. Not sure how it will now be easy to find something nobody has yet managed to find and touts and others like that will have been trying.