Open Registration is here

21 FEBRUARY 2015



10:21

I just checked my email and I have a few messages from people who are complaining the link doesn't work. Did this happen to a lot of people?

One thing worth noting: 2-3 years ago I would get tons of outraged emails and comments on badge sale days. Now I barely get any. So I do think the process itself is smoother and less inclined to glitches, even though it still disappoints many people.

For those of you who didn't get any kind of badge today, I'll post some ideas later on. And again - I'm sorry.



10:00 a.m.


And it's over.

Sorry for disappearing. I ended up manning more devices than I anticipated.

Today was quite an ordeal.  SO competitive or maybe I just exist in an unlucky sphere; of 7 people I was working with, only 1 got in at the point where it was down to Friday, Thursday and Sunday; another 1 got in to nab Sunday.

I got Preview Night, for which I am inordinately grateful. But I'm still gutted that 2 of my first-timers got nothing. You always go into this day knowing it's a roll of the dice, but it's still hard to see your friends disappointed.

Today has convinced me that there are more people than ever in the mix. I'd say the expansion can't come soon enough, but we know that story.

How did everyone do?


8:45 a.m.

Everyone ready? I've already had 1 wonky device, which I swapped out for another, and locked up my treacherous cat who kept weaving in and out of my laptops and trying to walk across the keyboard. Open Registration: not cat-friendly.

I also got yelled at for manually refreshing a page, even though all I did was scroll. The EPIC waiting room is so sensitive.



7:50 a.m.

As we get ready to go into the waiting room, a few more reminders...

You can get back into the waiting room if you get booted for some reason - just re-input your registration code and you'll go back in.

If you freeze while you're in there, contact CCI immediately. @Comic_Con or cci-info@comic-con.org. Screenshot everything as evidence and timestamp it through Twitter, email, etc.


Because so many people are buying in groups today, it's highly possible you'll try to buy for a Member ID that doesn't validate as it's already been used. Just skip over it and buy for the others. There's really nothing else you can do, and it's pointless to waste time contacting that person - they can't do anything about in that narrow timeframe of badge-buying.

 

6:57 a.m.

Our day of reckoning is here. Just to be safe, I'll repeat the basics: remember to adjust your power save settings; remember to use different browsers or devices for each Member ID.

It's going to go fast today, so you'll know pretty quick how you're faring. Fast might sound better than slow, like ripping off a band-aid, but I actually think it's worse. A two-hour badge sale at least allows you to come to terms with your dwindling hopes. Finding out within minutes that Preview Night is already gone and oops, so is Saturday, can be a kick in the gut.

I'm handling a quartet of first-timers today, who are unrealistically confident. I'm in the mix too, looking to upgrade my Thursday/Sunday badge. I can't base this on anything but my own email and general intuition, but I feel that there's a greater number of combatants in the game this year. How many badges are in play? I'm guessing about half, since CCI is predicting the same one-hour timeframe that Pre-reg took. Maybe a 40/60 split between Pre-reg and Open Reg? I really don't know.

I'm going out for breakfast now but I'll be back here and on Twitter shortly. Again - I don't think there's going to be much to update this morning, since it's going to go swiftly, but I'll post any updates, problems or news that I hear.