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NEWS: Anime Boston Apologizes for Registration Issues




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walw6pK4Alo



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 9322
PostPosted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 3:44 pm Reply with quote
Sucks that the line was so long, was it the convention's fault or the convention center's fault? Anyway, interesting pictures; seems like there were quite a lot of cosplayers there, Megacon didn't have as many as last year. Saved those two Yoko ones.
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Leebo



Joined: 14 Nov 2005
Posts: 660
Location: Somerville, MA
PostPosted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 4:40 pm Reply with quote
walw6pK4Alo wrote:
Sucks that the line was so long, was it the convention's fault or the convention center's fault?


There's nothing the convention center could have done differently, really. If you read the letter, the director of registration takes responsibility for it and explains why it happened.
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meregeeks



Joined: 23 Mar 2008
Posts: 3
PostPosted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 5:46 pm Reply with quote
It was their fault. They has "self service" kiosks where you were supposed to enter your own information. With a count of what, 14,000? people, they had 4 kiosks to use... Can we say bottleneck?

I waited in line for 5+ hours. no one told anyone there was a long wait. No one apologized when we got to registration. Beyond their excuses, it was extremely mismanaged on a diplomatic scale. At least they could have apologized when I got to the register. Instead the acted like nothing was happening.

Not getting my money again, ill find the dealers on line.
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blodz



Joined: 28 Jan 2008
Posts: 12
PostPosted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 8:27 pm Reply with quote
I must say this was terrible I read some people pre-registered and ended up leaving coz of the long waits. don't they have a pre-reg only day. I'm going to a con this weekend and they usually have a pre-registration only day which is before the convention so people can get their badges. which I think is awesome coz on the day of the con you can go anytime without having to wait in line.
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Leebo



Joined: 14 Nov 2005
Posts: 660
Location: Somerville, MA
PostPosted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:30 pm Reply with quote
blodz wrote:
I must say this was terrible I read some people pre-registered and ended up leaving coz of the long waits. don't they have a pre-reg only day. I'm going to a con this weekend and they usually have a pre-registration only day which is before the convention so people can get their badges. which I think is awesome coz on the day of the con you can go anytime without having to wait in line.


They did have a pre-reg only day. That was the Thursday before the con.
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GTO Neko



Joined: 11 Oct 2007
Posts: 94
PostPosted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 10:52 pm Reply with quote
Alot of cons will have a pre-reg day on Thur. but I guess with what happened with their systems and everything that they tried to do, at least they took fault on what happened.

This definitely shows that as long as you either A) Stick with what normally works or B) Try what works with one other place, then things should run smoothly.
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bayoab



Joined: 06 Oct 2004
Posts: 831
PostPosted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 11:09 am Reply with quote
meregeeks wrote:
It was their fault. They has "self service" kiosks where you were supposed to enter your own information. With a count of what, 14,000? people, they had 4 kiosks to use... Can we say bottleneck?
Only at-site reg people had to use those kiosks. From the badge number calculations, maybe 6k or so had to use those. Only around 2-3k ended up using them. (Note that in theory, self-service kiosks should be faster... if there are enough of them that is.)
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Faceman



Joined: 11 Jul 2005
Posts: 300
Location: Boston
PostPosted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 12:45 pm Reply with quote
bayoab wrote:
(Note that in theory, self-service kiosks should be faster... if there are enough of them that is.)


In theory, perhaps. But I personally take the stance that everyone is stupid until proven otherwise. There will be people who won't know what to put in each field, who aren't paying attention, who are chatting with friends instead of concentrating and doing it.

If you calculate that it'd take about 1 minute for each person to walk up to the kiosk and fill out their information, that's still only 60 people per kiosk in an hour. For 4 kiosks, it's 240 people per hour. Registration open for 10 hours, it's only 2,400 people. Now, I'm no registration math wiz, but considering the attendance numbers, that seems extremely low and slow. I'd rather have con-volunteers running the kiosks (once they've proven they're not stupid), as that alone would make things faster. And then increasing the staff and kiosks will help on top of that.
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The Xenos



Joined: 29 Mar 2004
Posts: 1519
Location: Boston
PostPosted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 3:49 pm Reply with quote
I lucked out and went Thursday night for the pre reg line. Though, as short as that wait was, even that was much much longer than last years. Last year there was almost no line. In hindsight, it was a sign of things to come once the real lines formed Friday and beyond. Plus not having regular registration on Thursday was a huge mistake too.

Of course the real problem seemed to be not enough equipment and staff, and therefore funds, relegated to registration. Hopefully next year the budget shifts more to that. No point spending money on guests if people can't get in to see them.
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marcyu



Joined: 01 Jan 2004
Posts: 28
Location: Destin, Florida
PostPosted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 9:49 pm Reply with quote
bayoab wrote:
meregeeks wrote:
It was their fault. They has "self service" kiosks where you were supposed to enter your own information. With a count of what, 14,000? people, they had 4 kiosks to use... Can we say bottleneck?
Only at-site reg people had to use those kiosks. From the badge number calculations, maybe 6k or so had to use those. Only around 2-3k ended up using them. (Note that in theory, self-service kiosks should be faster... if there are enough of them that is.)


"Self-serve registration in a mass operation is death on wheels. I'm frankly surprised that [Anime Boston 2008] only had ten-hour waits. They're lucky it didn't seize up entirely."

-Mitch Hagmaier
Otakon 2007 Registration Head
("Registration lines Friday, Saturday, blew threw those [at Otakon 2007]" -Jonathan Mays, ANN)
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