The aftermath of signups...

[breakinglight11]

So I'm sure most of you experienced the madness that was signing up for Festival last night. The site experienced technical difficulties that infuriatingly prevented people from registering for games until they were dealt with. Fortunately natbudin heroically stepped in and straightened things out, allowing things to proceed at 7:30 instead of 7. I am really sorry for the trouble, and I hope it didn't screw up anyone's plans too badly. I received no fewer than five phonecalls at once at one point, which I apologize I didn't answer, but I was already on the phone with Nat trying to understand what was going on and what I could do to help. And, you know. There were lots of you at once.

I was kind of upset about it happening at the time. I've been working really hard to get things going well for the con, and that felt kind of like a disaster. But you know, if I wanted to be responsible for this thing, that means I need to be ready to deal with the problems that arise as well. And I think things ended up okay, though much more thanks to Nat than to me. I hope nobody was too mad. I am feeling better about it now, but at the time I felt pretty horrible that things screwed up on my watch.

As usual, things filled FAST. Most games already have a complete roster, and in fact there are already some timeslots that are totally full. Still, there are many great games that still need players, so I encourage you to jump into those if you haven't already. I plan on watching how the schedule goes from here on to see if anything needs help, or if any adjustments should be made. For on, I just want to admire the mostly-full con and send out my casting questionnaires. Both Resonance and The Stand are good to go, so I'd better take advantage of all the advance notice we GMs have got.

Comments

[twilighttremolo.livejournal.com]

I apologize for the desperate / angry tone of our phone communications. Last night I wasn't really in a mental state for anything else to go wrong in my evening, so when it did, I lost my cool.
I do have a question -- or more of a do-you-and-Nat-and-whoever-else-who-should-know-know-about-this. I signed up to pinch-hit on Friday night, a time-slot when I am also on a waitlist. I tried do do the same for Saturday afternoon, when I am also on a waitlist, but it gave me the you're-already-signed-up-for-something error. Huh?

[natbudin.livejournal.com]

It appears that the "can people sign up for this event at the same time as other events" setting is different between the two pinch-hitter lists, which is what's causing the issue for you. I'm not sure which one is the intended setting, though.

_dragonwolf_, should these be allowing people to do simultaneous signups, or not?

[breakinglight11.livejournal.com]

Yes, they should be able to sign up simultaneously. Fixed that.

[breakinglight11.livejournal.com]

Sorry about that. The issue should be fixed now.

[nennivian.livejournal.com]

I inadvertently did a good dead yesterday by not contributing to the flood of traffic on the Festival website at sign-up time.
[Can't believe she forgot to sign up and is kicking herself for getting shut out of everything she had been planning on playing.]

[nennivian.livejournal.com]

Yes, I did a good dead. That's exactly what I meant to say. :P Oops.

[acousticshadow2.livejournal.com]

Don't beat yourself up too bad. I for one was able to get into everything I really wanted to play. I would be willing to run another run of my game on Sat morning (or even High Rollers as it is almost done) if you think the con needs it. I know that I have a waiting list for Happily Ever After? and if they aren't currently in something on Sat morning it gives another option.

[sylverfyre.livejournal.com]

This really makes me wonder if Festival should perhaps implement/adopt the system where you can only sign up for one game for the first week of signups (opening the rest of signup after some number of days) - it would have twofold benefit:
1 - More people get their first choice game.
2 - Less stress on the system since the entire con won't be attempting to log on frantically when signups open - even more frantically when things don't work immediately.

I wasn't home to witness this, but I also fell victim to logging in when I did get home and seeing absolutely nothing open :(

[laurion]

I suspect that as Festival grows it will have to go that route. That's why Intercon moved to a staggered model.

The pinch-hitter as a 'global waitlist' idea is a nice add, and makes a lot of sense for a 'free' convention especially, where last minute drops are a more regular occurrence.

[beholdsa.livejournal.com]

Take it from me: Website issues can and will happen, and there's not a whole lot you can do about it until after they occur.

[arthoniel.livejournal.com]

Th-They're already mostly filled up?? Geez, I only took one day off from the internet, and... DX