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i was going to type a big post among why they seem to not be able organize certain things, but I realized the answer is obvious...
Funpub is quite simply run by incompetent morons.
Is it true that there is still no shuttle to the venue??? So if you don't have a car you basically can't get there??
I was pretty easily able to find a shuttle service that would get you there. I posted about it right back at the start of the thread, so there is one, they just haven't' announced organising a discount with them or anyone else yet, through they did tweet at one point that they were going to announce something, eventually.
Well, it's about 7.50pm in Texas at the moment, so even if they manage to get it operational when they open at around 9-10am, that is from around midnight (East Australia) until mid-morning tomorrow.
Hmmm... it is probably best for me to stay up all night tonight, and contact others when it starts, like last year.
Quote:
Originally Posted by griffin
I'm busy until 0230, then I'll be right to takeover the watch until 0900
i'll keep an eye out on Twitter and let you know if I see anything.
Don't worry too much, I'm working tonight, I'll have Twitter updating every few minutes from midnightQuote:
Originally Posted by UltraMarginal
It's about 8.30am in Texas right now... so now the fun, uh wait, begins.
We could probably make a game out of how long it takes them to open up Registration today... if at all. :p
Okay... I'll keep this free of commentary posts, so that people don't see new posts and get excited.
TOO LATE!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by griffin
But are there any updates about non-attending go live? Other years it's been a few days later, but with this lateness, who knows if it's both.... (Any joe club members know what happened there?)
Last year attendees were 10th of May, and non-attendees were 16th of May.... but being so late this year, the delay could be shorter.Quote:
Originally Posted by Krayt
The JoeCon this year had attendee registration open March 25th, and non-attendees from March 31st - so the same 6 day delay of BotCon last year.
I think it will be about the same this year for non-attendees.
Looks like it won't be for another 3-4 days as it is apparently a long weekend over there this weekend. (so it won't be until about Wednesday morning our time)
From their twitter feed...
I don't like the sound of their "hopefully"... as it is not very inspiring coming from them.Quote:
We tested final Registration system yesterday. Couple minor issues need to be addressed, but no way to have ready by this afternoon.
Hopefully things should be ready to roll right after the Holiday.
That's going to bring it down to about 20 days before it starts... and little over 2 weeks before flying over there for most of us going.
At least they gave us early warning today, so people don't have to wait all day (or all night over here) to hear that it won't be starting today.
Now I'm off to see the fan rage on other fansites before I go to bed... :p
The final guest ...
http://i370.photobucket.com/albums/o...pskxtlxen6.png
Now if they would open registration, we'd be laughing
That's disappointing.
He's been a guest before and is already in the Hall of Fame... so why the need to keep him secret for so long. It's not like he's much of a talker to be able to do/say much at the convention, nor does he have a huge following as he is more of a hardcore-fan guest (he was a novelty to hear about his stories, but didn't have a huge audience).
Apparently he hasn't been a guest at BotCon... but I'm sure he's been before. :confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by griffin
Maybe he was just an attendee in the past then, or I'm thinking about the other Takara Designers who have been there (there have been a few).
Now I'm gonna have to go back through my BotCon reports to find out for sure which designers have been there before...
Instructional video for filling out this year's registration... which is good of them to have done, and suggests that it is ready to go.
(narrated by Brian)
For those planning to go, it is something to watch once or twice before they open up registration in a few days time.
It is also worth watching by those planning to get the non-attendee boxset, as that should be very similar.
ALSO - people planning to go, test out your log-in to the Club website and Store, as you don't want to be wasting time figuring it out when Registration opens up, as you need to log in to that first to get the member pricing.
So is Memorial Day a public holiday (no business trading, therefore not available for registration that day) or do you think Monday (their time) it will go live?
They mentioned a long weekend, so I guess they aren't open Monday.
Keep an eye out though, but I don't think it will be started until Tuesday (Wednesday morning our time).
I don't generally keep tabs on Botcon stuff, but is this normal behavior for their registration process? I mean it's only like 3 weeks away, and still they haven't opened up for registration yet.
It is getting normal for them, as each year is getting later and later ever since they set up this online version. The last two years have been terrible for the JoeCon, and this year it has affected BotCon as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by TAAUBlaster
They have all year to set up the order site, with generic items for all the things that don't change every year (it rarely changes)... items that they can then just re-title when the items are known at the time of the Brochure's release and open up the Registration.
It seems that they wait until they know what they are offering before they then update and test the system.
Before 2010 it was a fax in registration only, which was frustrating for different reasons (our different time-zone meant missing things that sold out fast like Custom Classes, if you had to go to the Post Office to fax in your form).
I think that they should have a back-up option of emailing and faxing in the old format forms, if they can't get the online system ready by a certain date before the convention (like 60 days). That way attendees (and dealers) can be reassured that they will be able to organise and plan properly with a minimum amount of time. Especially us long-distance attendees.
Looks like it might actually be today folks.
The FAQ says it should be today, and someone on TFW claims that they were told over the phone that it should be around 4pm Texas time (it's currently 2pm there)... and just a few minutes ago, a BotCon tweet was warning us that we really should watch the instructional video if we haven't already.
My credit card and phone are ready... but if it is anything like last year, the "soon" warning was still several hours before it started.
The link is up for registration, but isn't working for me yet.
Other people seem to be experiencing a really huge lag on the system... I'm still waiting for the second screen to appear. :(
Facebook post states: "We are turning the system off to address the issue and we will restart."
yeah... false alarm people. :(
After just half an hour and most people stuck on the second screen (I couldn't get past the registration screen), the system just seemed to fail under the weight of all the Americans trying to register... including non-attendees.
So if it comes back online today or soon, be aware that non-attendees might be able to order boxsets as well. (they might remove that option until later though, as a way of lightening the load on the system... but I don't think too many non-attendees would have been on there because they've always had a delay in the past)
Their facebook post that Jop quoted.
And now their twitter post... and they never ended up tweeting that it was online.
From their email as well, which gives a little more detail on how bad it was...
Sounds like only two people managed to complete their registrations... so maybe the server is only able to process one person at a time. :pQuote:
We have temporarily turned off the 2015 BotCon Registration due to the load issue.
We are working with the service company to correct this problem.
Everyone is in the same situation, only a couple went through,
so it will basically it will be a re-start when turned back on.
Very frustrating having it time out.... I'm going to wait for a few hours in case it comes up
Soooo tired.... and still another two hours before FunPub closes for the day, so it could be anytime until then for an announcement either way.
Hehehe... this is so sad because people were joking about it actually happening.
When you reload the eventman link it has the official closure notice that FunPub must have set up for the actual closure of Registrations on June 5th... but the notice is now ominous, yet humorous.
With only two getting through, I think there should be a few spare boxsets available at the Convention... :pQuote:
Registration is now closed.Late registration is available on-site at the Pheasant Run Resort.Please come by the registration booth Friday, June 19, 9:30 am.Available packages and booths will be sold on a first-come, first-served, basis.
Apparently they restarted it about 10 minutes ago, but had to shut it down again due to someone else this time...
Either they are really unlucky, or they are getting what they paid for if they went the cheap route.Quote:
The credit card company (Authorize.net) is experiencing an outage system wide which is causing a delay in the restart of BotCon registration. This is their issue and unrelated to our registration system.
It's now 4pm in Texas, and the credit card processor is still suffering a "major outage".
Email from FunPub...
That's in half an hour... if AuthorizeNet isn't back online by then, it's back to it tomorrow. And if that happens, hopefully it means first thing in the morning for them (which is midnight for us, and an "early" night).Quote:
We are watching AN's (credit card processor) status feed to see when they resolve their system wide outage. If they are not back online by 4:30 central time today. We will wait until tomorrow to start registration.
I'll advise when we have a status change.
No word on them splitting registration, so anyone wanting a non-attendee set, you'd better hop on as well when it starts.
AuthorizeNet is back online... dare they flick the switch to turn back on registration, or go home and just do it tomorrow?
Registration is back... but very slow again. :(
And AuthorizeNet is downgraded its status to limited... so the plug might be pulled again.
People wanting a boxset or attending should try anyway.
Sigh... crashed properly this time.
People are either ending up on the JoeCon registration page after filling out their details, or forwarded to an error page (like I did).
Quote:
Resource ID : 1. The request limit for the database is 180 and has been reached. See 'http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=267637' for assistance.
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.
Okay... they've called it a day.
Back again this time tomorrow then... :pQuote:
In fixing the scaling issue, the programmer broke the packages for the event so we have to try again tomorrow. We are very frustrated with the programming company too!
I'll post up a new News topic to get the attention of the non-attendees.
I'm sorry your being jerked around like this guy's. Hopefully tomorrow it goes smoothly at a reasonable time.
Agreed. With all the hassle I think this is the first time I'm not really lamenting not being able to attend (yet again)Quote:
Originally Posted by UltraMarginal
is FunPub an actual registered business wanting to make money or a pet project that they run for shiggles?
What a bunch of incompetent tools. There is no excuse for this level of stupidity. I feel sorry for the people like Griffin that pretty much sat up the whole night getting jerked around.
And no, I do not consider this bad luck. A string of events like this reeks of people either not knowing what they are doing or trying to do it as cheaply as possible.
I haven't had much sleep (every hour and then stayed awake at five onwards) and not relishing going without another night of sleep as I'm teaching. Grrrr.... A couple of people have offered to SMS, but I'd probably sleep through it if I weren't awake at that time. I'm just desperate to get into the customising class, but looks like it's only on for two sessions
That error message you posted is pretty ominous. A maximum load of 180 database connections is not a very good number, and won't stand up to the load. That's not just a bad programmer, it's a bad client who doesn't understand how much traffic he's going to get. I wish they'd put it up after business hours when the load will be lighter. Like our Timezone, lol
Didnt a similar issue happen with registrations last year... You would think that they would have learned their lesson. :rolleyes: