Author Topic: Constructive suggestions for lines.... Hall H, Sails' Exclusives & Autographing  (Read 17582 times)

Offline dkd

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I don't think an online lottery works. The barrier to join the lottery is too low and thus many people would  throw their hat in to see if they can win just in case. As has been shown by the numerous RSVP only events, people don't follow through and show up. Then those events are left scrambling for people to fill seats. If people have to wait overnight for a wristband, chances are they will show up. One way to deal with an online lottery is to have a penalty for not showing up. Then people will think twice if they aren't before going for the lottery. It could be something like you lose your priority status to get tickets next year. It could be a $100 reservation deposit. You show up, you get your deposit back. You don't and you lose. Either way, people will still camp out overnight for standby. Just like for Conan.

I avoid Hall H like the plague because I hate lines, but I would definitely participate in a lottery and definitely show up.  The solution is that there are two types of tickets awarded in the lottery:  "Definitely getting in" and "Stand by".  The only people allowed in line on Saturday are those groups of people.  There would be no "walk up's" allowed.  The number of "definitely get in" tickets would equal the capacity of Hall H.  The number of standby tickets would equal half the capacity.  That would allow for 50% "no shows" and should be fine.  The organizers could ask other festivals like ATX how many "fast passes" don't show up to gauge what the number should be.  But, I honestly don't think Saturday at SDCC would have 50% no shows.

Hall H isn't a party that you can skip.  I don't think the number of "no shows" for Hall H would be comparable to the number of no shows for a party.  I attended several parties this past week.  For one, I still had to wait for an hour to get into it because it was at capacity.  So, when I didn't show up for a few others (Fandom, for instance), I didn't feel they had to scramble to fill my place.  After all, I couldn't even get into Fandom in 2016 because it was full.

I'm not suggesting this for all the days.  They should try it for Saturday.  The other days aren't as bad.

Look, I don't even go to Hall H under the current system.  I'm just responding to all the complaints I heard at the Talkback.  People are angry and, from what I can tell by the stories I heard, the current system isn't working for people following the rules. 

Offline LB42

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Hall H: Instead of wrist bands- pass out RFID wristbands (ala Disney) for special Hall H entry.

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Offline Michaelnaut

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I love the RFID wristband idea because it covers a lot of what went wrong w/the system this past weekend.  The only challenge here, and specifically w/the solution, is the edge case where a band just might not work as it should.  You've now forced that individual to be removed from the line to "get it checked" and they lost their place to get in.  If that was solvable, I think you have a great solution.

Pros
  • Prevents counterfeiting
  • Prevents linecutting

Cons
  • Introduces technical issues
  • Added cost to purchase this type of band
  • Added cost to purchase scanners for this band

In my opinion the pros outweigh the cons, and maybe they could dry-run it on the Thursday panel, a panel that's not as crazy as the Friday/Saturday panels.

My .02c
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Offline chocolateshake

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They could just have a waitlist or open it up to public to those who don't show. Similar in idea to what they do for the Conan tickets.

Yes, I mentioned that at the end of my post. But because of that, people would still camp out overnight.

Offline chocolateshake

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I love the RFID wristband idea because it covers a lot of what went wrong w/the system this past weekend.  The only challenge here, and specifically w/the solution, is the edge case where a band just might not work as it should.  You've now forced that individual to be removed from the line to "get it checked" and they lost their place to get in.  If that was solvable, I think you have a great solution.

Pros
  • Prevents counterfeiting
  • Prevents linecutting

Cons
  • Introduces technical issues
  • Added cost to purchase this type of band
  • Added cost to purchase scanners for this band

In my opinion the pros outweigh the cons, and maybe they could dry-run it on the Thursday panel, a panel that's not as crazy as the Friday/Saturday panels.

My .02c

Why introduce another RFID chip? There's already one that can be used. It's our badges. That alleviates all the cons. There is no additional cost. There is no need to purchase scanners. You eliminate the bad RFIDs since they should have made sure their badges work already.

When it's wristband time, just have someone with a portable scanner go through and scan everyone's badge. Then the entrance door can work as usual. People just tap to get in. If it's green, you go. If it's red, you are rejected. No line cutting possible. Sure people can still swap badges but that's body for body so doesn't effect anyone's place in line. Even if there's a dispute about someone cutting in further up in line, just scan the RFID code and note the timestamp of when they got "wristbanded". If it doesn't match the people around them. Reject them. To make it easy they can have a timestamp display at the entrance. The timestamps as people go in should be reasonably sequential.

The technology to prevent counterfeits and prevent line cutting is already there. They just have to use it. If they wanted to go full bore, they could also do all this as people get into the overnight line. The only additional cost is to assign someone to be the scanner at the end of the line and move with it.

Offline dkd

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Why introduce another RFID chip? There's already one that can be used. It's our badges. That alleviates all the cons. There is no additional cost. There is no need to purchase scanners. You eliminate the bad RFIDs since they should have made sure their badges work already.

When it's wristband time, just have someone with a portable scanner go through and scan everyone's badge. Then the entrance door can work as usual. People just tap to get in. If it's green, you go. If it's red, you are rejected. No line cutting possible. Sure people can still swap badges but that's body for body so doesn't effect anyone's place in line. Even if there's a dispute about someone cutting in further up in line, just scan the RFID code and note the timestamp of when they got "wristbanded". If it doesn't match the people around them. Reject them. To make it easy they can have a timestamp display at the entrance. The timestamps as people go in should be reasonably sequential.

The technology to prevent counterfeits and prevent line cutting is already there. They just have to use it. If they wanted to go full bore, they could also do all this as people get into the overnight line. The only additional cost is to assign someone to be the scanner at the end of the line and move with it.

Using the current RFID chips was suggestion to the Comic-con President at the talkback.  He brought up the "something could go wrong" argument.

Offline semigeekgirl

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Using some sort of RFID check-in for the line is a good idea - whether it's forcing everyone to get scanned as being in line every so often, or you say how many are in your group when you join the line, and only those people (or member IDs) are allowed to scan in with you, etc. But the problem with all of these ideas is that they require CCI to have people actively monitoring the whole line the entire time. If there aren't enough people to check in with, then too many people can't complete the process and it all becomes chaos again. I think many of the specific measures people are suggesting are great - but I really don't think CCI is willing to commit that many people to administering the line (as opposed to just sort of herding it as security does now).

Scanning your badge when you receive your wristband and making sure it matches upon entry might be doable, but that's no better than a holographic sticker, which is less likely to malfunction. It would stop counterfeits, but would do nothing to deter line cutters and groups that ignore the 1:5 rule.

I really wish CCI would find a way to run this line properly, but it requires a LOT of people out there to do it. I think in the end an online lottery will be the only fair way to do it.

Offline chocolateshake

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Using the current RFID chips was suggestion to the Comic-con President at the talkback.  He brought up the "something could go wrong" argument.

Something can always go wrong. But this set of problems is minimal with minimal challenges and minimal risk. If he's really concerned about this, he needs to hire a better IT person to work the backend. Note how I said person. It's such a trivial problem with trivial solutions that I don't even see it taking up one person's time. Not a full time employee at least. At every place I worked, it would be like a one day project. And that's scheduling out a lot of buffer time just in case.

There's nothing magically about an RFID chip. It's just something with a unique signature. So the computer just notes when it's scanned. It's the software on the back end that does the rest. Right now they use it to look up your record and make sure you are valid for that day. They also have a counter to match up your entrance and exits. It's trivial to add another variable to note if and when you got "wristbanded". When you go tap in for Hall H, if that's not set then you go red.

Offline ripresa

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Yes, someone said above the online lottery could work with 2 groups, one of which is a stand by group and no one else can stand in line.

It also frees up your planning, you know you got into Hall H Friday but not Saturday, so you can plan accordingly. The only people who would overnight would be the people trying to get into the standby and the people trying to get first row seats.

Offline Transmute Jun

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I'll bring a shadow over this idea... how much more crowded would SDCC be if the Hall H lines went away? Where would all of these people go? Think about it...

Offline debster

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I know NYCC is a different animal, but for their main stage panels they rfid tap people's badges at the beginning of each day. They do clear the room in between panels though. Once you come in to the building, you go to the line with the panel you want to see. Once you get that tapped, you can try for other main stage panels you want to see.

I know it's probably infeasible to clear the room after each panel, but maybe split up the day with a 3 hour break in the middle to clear/reload the room?

This year Hall H line was particularly bad, and I'm hoping they will come up with a fair solution. I don't mind not getting into Hall H if I just didn't start standing in line early enough, but it's disheartening to wait in line and follow the rules when others didn't and got in.

Offline semigeekgirl

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I'll bring a shadow over this idea... how much more crowded would SDCC be if the Hall H lines went away? Where would all of these people go? Think about it...

That's definitely one possible reason why CCI would not make the change soon if at all. But I'm at a loss for how else to prevent the massive line explosion (including a not-insignificant percentage of line-cutters) just before wristbands are handed out.

Offline chocolateshake

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I'll bring a shadow over this idea... how much more crowded would SDCC be if the Hall H lines went away? Where would all of these people go? Think about it...

I say something similar to people who talk about San Diego expanding the convention center or moving CC to some other bigger convention center. It's not like CCI will keep the number of the tickets the same in a bigger space. They will sell more tickets. There will even be more people fighting for a "Hall H" or that exclusive on the floor. Why do they think that will be better?

The one thing the San Diego convention center can do relatively easily to resolve a lot of congestion is to either build subways or another two pedestrians bridges from the convention center to the rest of downtown over the road and trolley tracks. Those crossings are a major source of the congestion in front of the convention center. When they jam up, the jam just spreads. Just something as simple as closing that road off in front of the convention center and making pedestrian only would help a lot. Move the shuttle bus stops somewhere close.

Offline chocolateshake

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That's definitely one possible reason why CCI would not make the change soon if at all. But I'm at a loss for how else to prevent the massive line explosion (including a not-insignificant percentage of line-cutters) just before wristbands are handed out.

I spelled it out earlier as an option. Scan people as they get into line before they hand out wristbands. If you don't have a scan or your timestamp is off too much from the people around you, you don't get another "wristband" scan. Much of this can be automated. The person giving out "wristbands" just gets a green or red on their handscanner. If they get red, they tell the person they won't get in. If that person chooses to stay in line or comes back, they get denied at the door. Either way, the "wristband" scanner moves on. No need to argue.

Offline dkd

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I'll bring a shadow over this idea... how much more crowded would SDCC be if the Hall H lines went away? Where would all of these people go?

Their hotel rooms?