Improvement in lines?

[blard1]

Pretty sure I've asked this before, and I keep hoping something will change, buuut...

Have there been any definite plans to improve the waiting times for at-con registration? I've gone the past two-three years, and endured the 2-3 hour wait, but I'm just not feelin' it, this year. I really enjoy the convention, but a solid 2 hours wasted, at a minimum, standing in line is just not going to fly again. I understand how much is volunteer-driven, really I do, but c'mon. Are there any solid plans to eliminate this unfortunate circumstance this year? Eliminating the half-dozen laptop policy in favor of something paper-driven would speed things up SO much. I love technology, really! Yet in this case, it's painfully clear that the situation just leads to aggravation for everybody. The con-goers get aggravated, the volunteers get aggravated, and by extension, you get aggravated by people such as me repeatedly asking these questions. I'd love to say nothing but good things about Fanimecon. I really would. But the wait time...   that's a dealbreaker, at this point. I've never seen anything like it. I'd really love to get some good news on this subject, and again, please please please, don't assume
I'm just attacking the staff/volunteers/everyone over one issue. There's just... really...  really better ways of handling this, than requiring registration on a few con-provided laptops. Thanks.

[ewu]

The short answer is that registration is a phenomenally complicated beast, but each year we redesign the system to speed it up and make it faster.

The long answer is that we are spending considerable amount of time and energy to tweek the system. There are lots of things we are doing, but there are also certain institutional limits that we are not going to circumvent. Additionally, we are reaching the capacity of both the location and the staff, and that is why we are focusing on the technical aspects to increase bandwidth. If you note that I have not actually answered your question. That is because I will not publicly disseminate our process as it may present certain security concerns with the integrity of our system and our badges. That said, we are working on it.

For you specifically and others reading this post, the best thing to do is to strategically time your arrival. Much of the con we had less than an hour wait. Even with the line outside the door and around the corner people were waiting less than an hour. So good luck, but with thousands of people coming through the door, some kind of line is inevitable, but we are making that line move as fast as possible.

And that laptop issue you mentioned was intentional. We bottlenecked it there purposefully because later down the line there was a slowdown. We are tackling that slowdown in our current design.

let us know if you have any questions. best is to email us.

Eric

Pretty sure I've asked this before, and I keep hoping something will change, buuut...

Have there been any definite plans to improve the waiting times for at-con registration? I've gone the past two-three years, and endured the 2-3 hour wait, but I'm just not feelin' it, this year. I really enjoy the convention, but a solid 2 hours wasted, at a minimum, standing in line is just not going to fly again. I understand how much is volunteer-driven, really I do, but c'mon. Are there any solid plans to eliminate this unfortunate circumstance this year? Eliminating the half-dozen laptop policy in favor of something paper-driven would speed things up SO much. I love technology, really! Yet in this case, it's painfully clear that the situation just leads to aggravation for everybody. The con-goers get aggravated, the volunteers get aggravated, and by extension, you get aggravated by people such as me repeatedly asking these questions. I'd love to say nothing but good things about Fanimecon. I really would. But the wait time...   that's a dealbreaker, at this point. I've never seen anything like it. I'd really love to get some good news on this subject, and again, please please please, don't assume
I'm just attacking the staff/volunteers/everyone over one issue. There's just... really...  really better ways of handling this, than requiring registration on a few con-provided laptops. Thanks.

[Edit by MPLe: fixing quote tag]

[blard1]

I see. While I'm sure you're doing everything in your power to try and tweak things, I think I'm going to give Fanimecon a miss, then. A wait of less than an hour would be nice, but realistically from what I've seen I'd have to be out the door at 6am to drive down there and get that far ahead in line, and that's not going to happen. Thanks for your reply, though. I appreciate it.

[SpiritOfKairi]

I see. While I'm sure you're doing everything in your power to try and tweak things, I think I'm going to give Fanimecon a miss, then. A wait of less than an hour would be nice, but realistically from what I've seen I'd have to be out the door at 6am to drive down there and get that far ahead in line, and that's not going to happen. Thanks for your reply, though. I appreciate it.

I hope you don't mind non-staff chiming in, but I have a question for you.  Given that you don't want to wait in the at-con line, why not register early online?  It's cheaper, and the wait isn't nearly as long.  Are you unable to do early registration?