Registration Technical Issues? Post Here. Updated Sunday 11:30pm EST

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by brendar, Jan 30, 2016.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. brendar

    brendar Staff Member Staff Member

    This is why we still have registration down, so you all get a chance to assess where you are. We get a chance to assess what real problems still remain, and then we'll give ample warning before we re-open the gates and you can have at it again.
     
  2. jim skach

    jim skach Troubadour

    So, in effect, if one had 10 tickets in a first attempt, and received the dreaded Internal Server Error - if one pressed checkout again after that with say 5 tickets, the latter attempt overwrote the initial attempt. In fact, if one had simply left it alone, the 10-ticket order would have eventually gone through?
     
  3. Tink333

    Tink333 Footpad

    Brendan,
    I have two questions:
    1) if in actuality people registered multiple times for events with the Internal Server Error, and on the final try only got a couple, WHY aren't the transaction logs being rolled back to the first transaction? The database should be able to roll back, and does the team plan to roll mine back to the first transaction where I got everything?

    2) are we or are we not going to get confirmation emails? The previous update before the Sunday night one stated every single person should receive email. There are many of us who still have not received anything.
     
    Last edited: Feb 1, 2016
  4. digitalmystic

    digitalmystic Level 0 Character

    Wait... so when I got the Internal Server Error, and my initial checkout was rejected because 1 of the 9 events in my cart was sold out, I should have just left it alone in the face of no confirmation or change in coins? Was that a gamble to take on my end of things?

    My checkout cycled 6 times, with one to two events progressively being sold out in my cart each time through until only one remained. That one went through. Why was *everything* in my cart rejected at checkout, but reflected with an order number and event registrations on my account when only one or two events were genuinely sold out in each checkout attempt that I received the error?

    And in remediating accounts, why would the solution be to go with the latest checkout, rather than reconcile time stamps on the oldest orders in the system to verify registration? I subsequently registered for other events because I didn't want to miss out completely. All of those orders and events were on my account with my original 6 orders, but the last ones are what's been granted regardless of whether the first one had items with open seats that should have been fulfilled? That's disappointing.

    The con is going to be a blast either way, and I appreciate that this is all volunteer-driven. It just doesn't seem like the most equitable resolution, albeit perhaps the least messy one... between sorting out order numbers, time stamps, and tickets that have now been issued, to reconcile exactly who should have gotten what based on a broken checkout system.
     
  5. brendar

    brendar Staff Member Staff Member

    That is what we've observed to have happened in nearly every case of multiple submission attempts.
     
  6. brendar

    brendar Staff Member Staff Member

    1. Speaking not as a technical person, but having spent the last 48 hours with them understanding the problem and making decisions based on their guidance, the best answer I can give you is simply, "that's not the way it works". I'll do my best to explain this better in some other posts, but I want to make sure I'm being technically accurate when I do.

    2. As per the latest update, there were no emails sent- the solution we found bypassed the part of the software that generated emails and went straight to the database query. Once we reopen registration, email confirmations will be working again.

    On the confirmation emails, most people's lack of confirmation emails resulted from failure to complete any transaction at all, or the email is sent on our side and something on the user side is preventing receipt (incorrect email listed, spam filter, proxy settings blocking our domain, etc). There are many root causes here and no one easy fix. We're working on that, too. Email confirmations are not required for anything, however. You'll get paper tickets in your registration packet on arrival and your My Account Screen shows your Registered Events correctly now.
     
  7. Tink333

    Tink333 Footpad


    If they're restoring Erik Olsen's transaction to the first one per his post above, WHY are they not restoring mine? Based on the statement that Internal Server Error means that the transaction actually went through, my first six transactions showed four events each.
     
  8. brendar

    brendar Staff Member Staff Member

    This is something being reported by a lot of people. If you made different selections on event submissions after your first attempt based on your perception that the event was sold out, that perception was accurate. There are a handful of events that everyone wanted. Most of you didn't get them. In 95% of the cases where folks submitted multiple times, if theoretically everyone had just hit it once and then taken no further action, the system would have processed everything as is, even though many of you saw an error screen. When you refreshed and saw some events sold out- those events were actually sold out, and you wouldn't have gotten them anyway even if you didn't see that error screen.

    Edited: an important word for clarity.
     
  9. brendar

    brendar Staff Member Staff Member

    Erik's technical issues are different and a very isolated case.
     
  10. Tink333

    Tink333 Footpad

    Please officially register my complaint with staff. If, in fact, everyone who resubmitted after Internal Server Error overwrote all of their orders, then the system was not fair to anyone.
     
    digitalmystic likes this.
  11. brendar

    brendar Staff Member Staff Member

    The issue here is with some precise language I'm using to explain this from a technical perspective (I'm not a technical person). I will clarify with Thomas to sharpen the words I'm using.

    I know a lot of you are disappointed that you did not get the events you wanted, but that was going to happen anyway because that's a supply/demand issue not a technical one.

    We spent 48 solid hours in our database untangling what happened and are quite certain we have a clear picture of how things unfolded. Even though what you as a user saw was very confusing, on the back end our system was processing requests as intended. The result you see today in your My Account page- aside from a small number of you that had other root cause errors- is correct.
     
  12. osarious

    osarious Chevalier

    I have an event ticket (14765) in my Confirmation E-mail that does not show up in "My Registered Events".

    Will this be corrected? Or since I have the ticket in this e-mail, is that a moot point?

    upload_2016-2-1_13-49-26.png

    upload_2016-2-1_13-50-48.png
     
  13. brendar

    brendar Staff Member Staff Member

    If you have confirmation emails for events that no longer appear in your My Registered Events area, you are the lucky winner! You fall into the category of people that still have weird issues. This is a different root cause error that didn't affect the overwhelming majority of others. Please submit your info via the form on the registration page of the website and we'll take a look.
     
  14. tellion

    tellion Footpad

    I really don't understand the logic in the above statement. Was it the intention to give us a record that indicated we were registered for events that in actuality we were not? That appears to be what happened for most of us, and I, for one, never saw an internal error when I checked out on my initial order. The only thing I noticed was that my cart was not emptied and my coin was not decremented. That is why I hit checkout again, just once, with the same result. At that point, I manually cleared my cart of several events and checked out with a subset of my original requests. That order was apparently my first successful order, though I still have not received a confirmation e-mail with the QR codes (am I going to need that to prove I'm registered when I arrive at the table?) even though these items are still listed on my account page as my registered events. I then began checking the event listings to see what events from my original submission were not showing out of stock, and I was able to add one more event back into a new cart and successfully check out. That order also appeared to be successful, clearing my cart and charging me the proper coin, but was later cancelled by staff and noted as erroneous availability. None of this appears to be behavior that I would expect to be characterized as intended. What I suspect was intended was that upon checkout the cart would be cleared and any events with available tickets would be successfully processed and those without available tickets would be rejected with the coins and my registered events section reflecting the outcome.

    Now that I have vented and accepted things for what they are, I just really want to know if I will need the confirmation e-mail with the QR codes when I arrive at the table? If so, when do you anticipate we should have received those, as many of us still have not received any confirmation e-mail to this point?
     
  15. brendar

    brendar Staff Member Staff Member

    Replying to the second part of your post...

     
  16. osarious

    osarious Chevalier

    I already have. Just a bit impatient I guess......:D
     
  17. LastFighter

    LastFighter Level 0 Character

    I was one of those persons who got the dreaded internal error, after trying 5 times and still getting the error I started to put in smaller orders. Should I have just left it as is because my events showed registered ?

    I am confused now about whether my account is correct or not.
     
  18. brendar

    brendar Staff Member Staff Member

    First of all, your My Account page remains an accurate reflection of your real registration status. I'll have to digest and mentally process your actions stated above to see if that jives with the result. If not, you may also be in the 'still has problems' category.
     
  19. brendar

    brendar Staff Member Staff Member

    Just as a reminder our all-volunteer staff is all at their day jobs now, sneaking onto the forums or into the database between meetings to answer your questions. We won't be able to really get back under the hood until tonight.
     
  20. tellion

    tellion Footpad

    Thanks for sneaking in and responding so quickly. My anxiety is much relieved knowing I do not need the confirmation e-mails.

    All the time the volunteers are putting in is definitely appreciated and should not go unrecognized.
     
    Erik Garland likes this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page