nialith wrote:
Do you have any evidence to support the claim that someone logged in 10 minutes after the housing rush started and got a spot at #500? That doesn't even seem possible as the system would have started assigning spots immediately at noon and would have flown past #500 in a heart beat. Unless the system knew exactly how many spots to assign out, it's not just assigning random numbers to people. It's likely starting with #1, assigning it to someone, picking someone for the #2 spot, then moving down the list till it runs out of people to assign. Who knows though. Also, a lottery is the epitome of "fair". Everyone one has an equal chance at grabbing an early spot. What I don't understand is the need for everyone to show up at noon to log in. Why not have an option when you buy your badge to opt-in for a housing lottery slot? Have a cutoff time for purchasing a "badge with housing" option, then as someone else pointed out, send an email out with your spot in line. If you buy your badge after that, you have to move to the end of the line after everyone that purchased early. Then maybe have people log in at noon or at least ahead of your spot in line to verify you will indeed be using that spot. If you don't log in, system skips to the next person in line. Maybe have it so you could fill out your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices ahead of time along with any payment info so it has it all there to save time.
I'm sure the Gencon folks are looking at ideas to make this a more pleasant experience. I volunteer each year and trust me, they really do want everyone to have the best time possible. It's not a cash grab here. They genuinly care about how this show goes. The show is pretty much a victim of its own success.
Not specifically #500, but it was a known(after the fact) error last year that if you waited to buy your badge until after the housing queue started, you could instantly jump right in to housing. So if you bought your badge between Friday and 11:59 on Sunday, you logged in at noon and were assigned a time between noon and about 5 PM. If you bought your badge at 12:01 on Sunday, you logged in at 12:01 and skipped the housing line completely and went right in. It's unknown(publically) how many people took advantage of this but it was acknowledged that it happened. This is why last year's lottery system was anything but fair - there was an exploit that let you skip the whole process. There were also apparently errors that caused people to lose their place in line. My hope is that correcting for these issues might make the lottery less onerous this year but I guess we'll see.
Since they are going to stick with the lottery, I too would love it if we could just get an email with our time without logging in at noon on Sunday. Seems like it would prevent load on the servers, plus I could know right away if my time is, say, 4 PM that I needn't bother.
There was another problem with last year's system - if, due to a bad time, you took a room outside your preferred area, you couldn't change it in the housing system. Once you had a room it locked you out of getting another. This happened to me and a friend last year - my friend settled for a 6 mile away room, but Monday, a few downtown rooms opened up - but my friend couldn't even look at them in the system because he already had a room. His wife couldn't look at them because he had bought her badge so she didn't have her own housing info. I, who was rooming with a different friend, had to go in and reserve the room, then my friend had to cancel his distant room, and we both had to call in to transfer the room to him. This process is a hassle for both us and Gen Con staff and I hope it's improved this year.