BotCon 2013 Brochure released (events and guests)

[griffin]

A quick tip for those intending to register and go... perhaps try to be near your computer during the hours of 5am-11am (Eastern time) from this weekend and rechecking their site every half hour, as that seems to be the time they've been opening pre-registration.
Also, be on their twitter account, as I think they tweet it before they email it.

If you aren't aiming to get anything limited (custom classes, golden ticket, unpainted toy), don't stress, as you shouldn't have a problem getting basic registrations for at least 24 hours after it is open.

With all the Toyfair stuff in the last week, I totally forgot about this.
It's been a week, so any day now (if there aren't any delays), they should be opening up registration.

Anyone planning to go or to order a non-attendee pack, it is best to have your membership paid for beforehand, so get onto it now.
And join their twitter account.

For the next few days, it's up early for me.

[griffin]

so any day now (if there aren't any delays),

In the last day, this was added to the BotCon site (and apparently emailed* )...

An email has been sent to the current and former TCC members. We have decided to delay the BotCon registration start to the middle of March as we have discovered a flaw in the store software that has been deleting recently renewed memberships. This has only occurred to memberships that were declined two times (credit card not on file for the first two attempts or credit card declined). What it is has been doing is randomly deleting the approved memberships after the third attempt. We have the software company working on fixing this issue.

Thus, we are auditing the entire data file to find the accounts who had good transactions but their membership is missing. It's going to take about 20 man hours to finish this task and make sure everyone's log in works for BotCon registration.

After we finish our audit, another email will be sent to the entire group so that you can go test your account and make sure you see your membership. Your log in will then work correctly for BotCon registration. I apologize for the delay but this will make everything much smoother and everyone much happier. We don't want you have have any issues with your registration or miss out because items sell out quickly.

Meanwhile, make sure you have read all of the Information and FAQs before registration starts.

At least we should still end up with a bit of advance warning, as members will be contacted to check their membership log-in, just before registration is opened.

While you wait for this to start up, check out some of the merchandise for this year - guy's t-shirt, girl's t-shirt, hat, beenie).... which will be available on the pre-registration form, and at the Show if there are any left.
(the shirt is way too boring, having a B&W image on a grey t-shirt - the t-shirt should have been coloured if the image isn't)


**I didn't get the email because my membership had expired, and I've been having trouble renewing it. (not surprising)
Due to their "automated subscription renewal" feature, a subscription was automatically in my cart.... so yesterday I entered in my credit card details to see if that would convert it to being purchased. It didn't. It just sat there, with a billing date that was a couple days ago... so I figured that it was too late for the auto-renewal subscription, and decided to buy a new one manually.
Since BotCon registration could have been the next day, I didn't want to be waiting around for a reply to a query, I just wanted to get the membership organised and be done with it.
But I couldn't buy a new subscription because it said that there was an error, due to there already being one in my "cart" (which isn't actually in the cart itself... it just exists on my account as if it is in my cart for checkout).
So I deleted the one in my account, and then tried to purchase a subscription... but it was still saying that I had one in my account.
I left it, and hoped that maybe the auto-renewal one was just in a state of being processed, so would check it again today.
Logging in, I find that the auto-renewal subscription is now gone, and a subscription is currently sitting in my actual cart (the one I tried to manually purchase).
But before I go to check-out, I look to see if the auto-renewal one was processed... nope, nothing in the purchase history page. So I check out the subscription, and hopefully that is finally done.
(almost as much drama as last year, which required some over-the-phone purchasing while their site was down)

[Hursticon]

So FunPub's I.T. ineptitude continues? - Oh what a surprise...
I don't know why you put up with it Griffin.

[griffin]

Emails were sent out to members yesterday to say that the audit of memberships had finished, and to get people to test their accounts.

I'm thinking tomorrow morning (our time) or saturday morning (like last year), will have registrations open.
(which is kinda stupid, as they had it just before the weekend last year, and people couldn't ring up for answers/help for any glitches... they had to rely on email or twitter)

[griffin]

Just had a thought while reading about the Finale Movie to Beast Hunters being confirmed for "Fall 2013" as a wrap-up to the series... I wonder if it will be finished before BotCon, so that they can screen it. They often screen episodes that haven't yet aired, so this would be a good one to show if the season has finished by then.
At BotCon 99 they showed the first episode of Beast Hunters (which wasn't even finished yet), and BotCon 2001 they showed the first episode of Armada (only just finished the day they screened it). In 2011 and 2010 they showed an un-aired episode of TFPrime, and during Animated we had at least one un-aired episode.... it's one of the good unexpected things at BotCon.

[griffin]

A single page preview of this year's comic has been released, to show off the art style this year.

As with previous years, this will likely be released to comic shops near the end of the year, but for those who can't wait that long, they sell copies at the convention (with the program guide in it as well), if you know someone who can get one for you.

[griffin]

A rather vague and "empty" announcement from FunPub, saying that they will have the largest Artist Alley ever this year (official and fan artists hocking off their stuff in the Dealer Room), but don't say who or how many... as this is just another advertisement for the convention, with a claim they don't back up or detail at all.

[griffin]

Couple of creator credits have been released.
Jesse Wittenrich will be writing the BotCon Comic, while one of the eHobby staff is doing the artwork for this year's litho poster (apparently it is the same image as on the t-shirts, at the link in the post above... or could be the one behind the character art already released).

[griffin]

An interesting table was posted here, showing the prices of each boxset and at-show toys since FunPub took over. (for anyone interested)

[Trent]

Thus, we are auditing the entire data file to find the accounts who had good transactions but their membership is missing. It's going to take about 20 man hours to finish this task and make sure everyone's log in works for BotCon registration.

That ain't that long. I fail to see why it warrants pre registration being pushed back by about a full week.