crazybobbles

Well that was a lovely morning of jamming in captcha codes and constantly refreshing for some ticket buying action. Hope most of you were able to get the tickets and all. I must say Ticketmaster and Seeticket really need to get their act together and improve the system they are using. It’s just far too messy. Most people were stuck with “server is busy screen” or were told that the tickets they requested weren’t available when in fact, a majority of users don’t realise that the websites use certain tricks to ensure that transactions go through, and that usually involves blocking out the people who constantly refresh and letting those who just popped in to buy them.

I’ve seen it done before, you go onto the page and bam, server is busy, but no matter how many times you refresh it’s the same screen whilst some people manage to get it first time. Once the board was given a tip to simply purchase the tickets through a proxy in order to bypass their sneaky system of directing people with a certain ip address to the busy page and letting the first timers get their way. I believe cookies might be involved too but who knows. It’s definitely not the best way of reducing load since the people who refresh a lot are the ones who want to get the tickets the most.

The next point is about the good old touts and all, after the sales of muse tickets people immediately looked at alternatives to buy the tickets, in comes eBay, our loveable auction site. When you look at the prices you’ll discover that tickets are going at £100 a ticket. That’s double the price you’d have to pay to say Muse, is it really worth it? Is it a good idea to buy these knowing that it will simply feed touters with more money so they can hire a “hot secretary” , is it right to become a vigilante and sabotage their auctions? Is a tout likely to sell more tickets dressed up as the guy from Monopoly than looking like a hobo with dirty fingernails?

I’ve seen a lot of people complain on the muse board about the fact that these people should be stopped and it’s come to a point where even a touter has stepped in to make a point about their “business”. It’s actually quite refreshing to hear it from their point of perspective and to summarise it all, this is simply life. A way of making money. It’s an industry in it’s own right and there are loads of “legit” companies who are doing it. There are obvious petitions and stuff going on but they’re not going to get any immediate result so what’s left for one to do to fight back touters? I appreciate people are trying their hardest to do something about these touts but the fact is, there are so many that you’ll most unlikely see any immediate effect. It may perhaps happen gradually but for now you have to accept that it’s going to be a while until something happens.

So what’s your thoughts on touting? Share your opinions here and all

Don’t forget to use MuseBay on the board where you can sell tickets at face value. Though be warned the board, warner brothers or muse aren’t responsible if things go tits up. Best to make sure the member has been about long enough and has enough credentials then some random muser who’s only posted once and joined quite recently, it’s not the best method but it’s better than eBay.