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Re: Countdown to Origins 2018

PostPosted: Fri May 04, 2018 2:59 pm
by CaitlinCallahan
The survey was pretty short - only 3-4 questions, and were mostly multiple choice responses. It did let me select more than one issue from the list. The only pseudo-free form text was to answer the "how long did it take you" question.

In fairness, this is the first time I've gotten any kind of request for feedback about the registration process, so hopefully, this is a step in the right direction.

Re: Countdown to Origins 2018

PostPosted: Tue May 08, 2018 5:43 pm
by Lady Grace
Last week we opened our event registration portal for Origins 2018 and the system failed, causing many attendees setbacks in building their itinerary for the show.

What happened with event registration is inexcusable and we want to be transparent with what we saw:

Several website plug-ins broke, resulting in a 500 Server Error
Our website was not moved from a shared server, and it crashed
Events were dropped from the portal and had to be added again after registration went live
Our event registration portal was placed on a shared server and was not moved before it went live

Much like our hotel contracts, plans for the registration process are made one year or more in advance. Bottom line is, when we planned our contracts we did not predict the show would see this amount of growth. It has been amazing seeing the number of attendees increase each year at Origins, so we need systems in place to keep up with the growth.

We are committed to providing you with an all-around great experience while keeping cost down for attendees. So, where do we go from here?

Last year we invested in event registration on-site, incorporating more machines and cutting the registration line time to just 22 minutes! We are doing this again, giving you more time to play games and enjoy the show.

Website updates are in the works—server support, website design, and content development. Plans for modifying our registration system are happening based on the comments you shared online and through the survey sent out last week. As a nonprofit organization, we need to be fiscally conscientious of our investments—this means things may take more time, but the outcome will be worth it.

Now for some awesome news, our show co-sponsor, Wizards of the Coast, has added 366 additional tickets to their D&D events! Registration for the additional D&D event tickets will go live this Saturday, May 12, at 5 p.m. EDT. You can find a list of those events at the end of this email.

Our focus is on areas of improvement and creating smart solutions. We want you to know how much we appreciate your support for this show. We love putting on Origins for you every year and we only want it to keep getting better.


We can’t wait to see you in June!

Re: Countdown to Origins 2018

PostPosted: Tue May 08, 2018 6:47 pm
by salamanca
Sooooo...we have problems signing up for events we want, still have no club code and as compensation we get to play more D&D?

And they are baffled that numbers are increasing after two years of announcing record attendance?

Re: Countdown to Origins 2018

PostPosted: Tue May 08, 2018 6:52 pm
by CaitlinCallahan
I think the root cause is much more likely tied to the "as a non-profit organization, we need to be fiscally conscientious of our investments" statement.

All that being said, I will repeat my previous comment - this is the most pro-active response I've seen to the registration issues. While that gives me some degree of hope, I will not be holding my breath for a "smooth sailing" experience.

Re: Countdown to Origins 2018

PostPosted: Tue May 08, 2018 6:56 pm
by salamanca
naw, the onsite team with James Kirk and Vane Turchetta in charge is really up to speed. I expect minimal hassles unless a computer array crashes. (at least once we are in the building)

That said, the year it all went south, nothing printed right and GMs were simply walking into the hall declaring what they were running and letting people sit down and play was one of the best grassroots cons I have ever been at. So maybe I want some disaster.

Re: Countdown to Origins 2018

PostPosted: Wed May 09, 2018 1:55 pm
by Black Jack Rackham
Still no word about the extra GM tickets/Club Code. But my intention is to wait until next week before calling them (this week last year is when we heard from them).

Re: Countdown to Origins 2018

PostPosted: Thu May 10, 2018 11:24 am
by Lady Grace

Re: Countdown to Origins 2018

PostPosted: Thu May 10, 2018 7:46 pm
by salamanca
That is my friend Scott's webcomic. He is awesome.

Re: Countdown to Origins 2018

PostPosted: Thu May 10, 2018 8:42 pm
by Lady Grace
Yeah, you got me hooked on it. :)

Re: Countdown to Origins 2018

PostPosted: Fri May 11, 2018 3:23 pm
by Black Jack Rackham
YOU ALL WANT YOUR CLUB CODE? I KNOW YOU DO! HERE IT IS!!!

Club Coupon Code: B2SdqGma

Re: Countdown to Origins 2018

PostPosted: Fri May 11, 2018 4:32 pm
by Lady Grace
Annnnd...how do we add it in if we've already bought our badge?

Re: Countdown to Origins 2018

PostPosted: Fri May 11, 2018 4:51 pm
by Black Jack Rackham
His response about that on the email was, and I quote,

Paul McGraw wrote:If anyone already has a badge in your group, paid for or not, I can fix them for you


I assume that means to contact him....

Re: Countdown to Origins 2018

PostPosted: Fri May 11, 2018 4:55 pm
by CaitlinCallahan
Black Jack Rackham wrote:His response about that on the email was, and I quote,

Paul McGraw wrote:If anyone already has a badge in your group, paid for or not, I can fix them for you


I assume that means to contact him....


And how do we contact him?

Re: Countdown to Origins 2018

PostPosted: Fri May 11, 2018 5:17 pm
by Black Jack Rackham
DOH! Sorry Deb.

events@gama.org

Re: Countdown to Origins 2018

PostPosted: Fri May 11, 2018 7:47 pm
by Lady Grace
*sends e-mail & crosses fingers*

Re: Countdown to Origins 2018

PostPosted: Sun May 13, 2018 9:48 pm
by ZombieTonyBlair
I just bought my badge and will be at the LARP on Friday night.

Do I need to let someone know so they can have stuff prepped for Don Gallo or did I miss that deadline when I didn't check the site for half a year?

John

Re: Countdown to Origins 2018

PostPosted: Sun May 13, 2018 11:32 pm
by Black Jack Rackham
EDIT: DON GALLO!!!

John,
If you look back in this thread a bit (specifically page 2 about half way down) I give instructions for how to convert Don Gallo into a LARP character so you can do it all by yourself.

Re: Countdown to Origins 2018

PostPosted: Mon May 14, 2018 7:29 am
by salamanca
Bad form, Mark. You know you are supposed to respond to all posts from John with a specific shout.

Ahem..... "DON GALLO!"

I will pack a file of the old LARP stats so we can do this quicker onsite if needed.

Re: Countdown to Origins 2018

PostPosted: Mon May 14, 2018 9:41 am
by Black Jack Rackham
Ok... I fixed it.

Oh and btw we're under 30 days until Origins!

Re: Countdown to Origins 2018

PostPosted: Tue May 15, 2018 12:05 pm
by daundelyon
Apparently there's another meltdown in progress over GoHs.

Re: Countdown to Origins 2018

PostPosted: Tue May 15, 2018 1:08 pm
by Lady Grace
This time, I'm siding with Origins.

Re: Countdown to Origins 2018

PostPosted: Tue May 15, 2018 1:41 pm
by Black Jack Rackham
daundelyon wrote:Apparently there's another meltdown in progress over GoHs.

I read "GoHs" as "GoSM" and thought WHAT DID WE DO?!?!

Lady Grace wrote:This time, I'm siding with Origins.

Then read this and thought, "Harsh, LG, throwing me under the bus like that..."

But then I read it a bit more carefully, and remembered the thing about inviting and uninviting a writer. Anyone want to give me the TL;DR version?

Re: Countdown to Origins 2018

PostPosted: Tue May 15, 2018 1:53 pm
by Lady Grace
Correia was a member of the Sad Puppies jerk squad who were annoyed that SciFi/Fantasy was no longer a Manly Straight White Male market of Manly Straight White Males doing Manly Straight White Things and tried to rig the voting of the Hugo Awards a few years back to stick it to Teh Evul SJWs/women/gays/PoC writers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sad_Puppies

Re: Countdown to Origins 2018

PostPosted: Tue May 15, 2018 2:44 pm
by salamanca
So we are mad because someone set up an internet campaign to gather votes for a book award? In the 21st Century?

For the "most prestigious award in science fiction and fantasy" that was named after the publisher of a pulp magazine? THAT Hugo Award?

That is like a game winning the Speil...nobody knows what the hell that means outside the industry either.

As long as he didn't try and "bad touch" me or one of you, I don't care if he is there or not.

Folks need to find their thicker skins and start wearing them again if this is a major problem.

Re: Countdown to Origins 2018

PostPosted: Fri May 18, 2018 3:06 pm
by Lady Grace
Word of warning, Origins is now telling me I have to e-mail Event Ready to apply the discount code... :evil: