So, the Shmoocon tickets started round one today. And, people were pissed. The ticketing system immediately showed signs of being off kilter. It appeared to many that tickets were sold out in the first few minutes. Having successfully navigated the CAPTCHA from hell it was disconcerting to see a failure message saying that round two would take place in December. Most people missed the link buried at the bottom of the page to get tickets once having navigated the CAPTCHA. It couldn’t have been in a worse spot. Shmoo responded on their news page today,
It really was there folks…at the bottom of the page. Yes, we should have top posted and made it easier on all of you. It was an inadvertent overlook on our part and we’re sorry.
That being said, it is a hacker con. Maybe next time we’ll put the link in the middle. 😉
But, after some griping, whining, bitching and a touch of rage…I noticed something.
A chap in Belgium, Security4all on Twitter, mentioned that he had refreshed the page and got a ticket code. My eyebrow went up.
“You don’t say?”
I then took a sip of coffee and proceeded to exercise my F5 foo. Eventually the system coughed up a ticket.
(A keen eye will notice that the time stamps are out of order on the screen caps. These are the caps from an unsuccessful attempt)
This one was a success. So, in an effort to help others I opted to tried to get a second ticket. Not wanting to run afoul of the Shmoo folks I stayed to my two ticket maximum. Others decided to play Robin Hood to get codes for others. Good on them for that. All in all it was a massively frustrating experience. Getting a vasectomy from a rottweiler would have been more pleasant.
Then the tide began to turn. Slowly but surely, folks started to have success getting their tickets.
Griping at the ticket purchase process notwithstanding, I have to say that I’m really looking forward to the great times at Shmoocon.
That being said, I GOTS MA TICKET!
