Rolling Out the STEP System

The Urban Stoop by Craig Cooper and James Dufour, Photo by Jay Faulconer

Burning Man’s Secure Ticket Exchange Program (STEP) launches this week. STEP is an online system that facilitates the safe resale of tickets that have been purchased directly from Burning Man, and is designed to provide a hassle-free, secure way of buying and selling Burning Man tickets while avoiding scammers, counterfeits and scalpers.

We’ve created a comprehensive FAQ about STEP that will answer any questions you may have about the program … but we wanted to let you know how it’s going to roll out this week so you can plan accordingly. Here’s how it will go:

On Wednesday, February 29 at 12 noon PST, STEP will be opened to those who have tickets they want to sell. We’ll be emailing everybody who bought tickets through our Pre-Sale or Main Sale in the next two days, inviting you to sell your extra tickets into STEP. If you’re one of these people, watch your inbox for that email (if you don’t get an email by Thursday, visit http://tickets2.burningman.com/contact.php and select “Missing STEP email” from the drop down menu). People selling tickets into STEP will be credited the face value of the ticket and any delivery fees, but not the original service fees; Burning Man will cover the credit card merchant fees for the refund. You’ll be able to sell your tickets into STEP anytime until August 7, 2012 (if they are being held at Will Call), after which STEP will be closed.

On Friday, March 2 at 12 noon PST, we’ll open up STEP to those wanting tickets, inviting those who registered for the Pre-Sale and Main Sale but did not receive tickets to join the “want tickets” queue, on a first-come first-served basis. If you are one of those people, watch your inbox for an email containing sign up information in the next few days (if you don’t get an email by Thursday, visit http://tickets2.burningman.com/contact.php and select “Missing STEP email” from the drop down menu). When you opt to turn your original Pre-Sale or Main Sale registration into a sign up for the “want tickets” list, you will be signed up as requesting the same number of tickets through STEP as you originally requested.

When a ticket becomes available through STEP, the person at the front of the queue will be sent an email giving them an opportunity to purchase the ticket(s). Tickets will be sold at face value of the original ticket, plus service ($6/ticket + $1/order) and Will Call delivery fees ($12/order). You will only be offered the next ticket(s) available; unfortunately, we’re not able to maintain three queues for three separate ticket price points, so you will only have the option of whatever price point comes up next in the queue. If you decline the ticket(s) or don’t purchase them within 72 hours of their becoming available, the next person in the queue will be given the opportunity to purchase them. If you decline a ticket, you will lose your place in the queue and will not be able to sign up again.

All tickets purchased through STEP are non-transferable, and will be held at Will Call for pick up. If you purchase a ticket through STEP but then decide you cannot attend the event, you can sell it back into STEP for somebody else to purchase, as long as you do it before August 7, 2012.

If you have any questions, please review our FAQ.

About the author: Will Chase

Will Chase

Will Chase is Burning Man's former Minister of Propaganda, working on global communications strategy. He was the editor-in-chief for the Jackrabbit Speaks newsletter and the Burning Man Journal, and content manager for Burning Man’s web properties. He also oversaw the ePlaya BBS and Burning Man’s social media presence. Will first attended Burning Man in 2001. He volunteered as the Operations Manager for the ARTery (Black Rock City’s art HQ) and was on the Burning Man Art Council from 2003-2008. He was Web Team Project Manager and Webmaster from 2004 until he transitioned to the Communications Department in 2009.

400 Comments on “Rolling Out the STEP System

  • Jonny says:

    Why would you not allow people to know their place in the queue and how many tickets are currently available? Its the only way people will be able to estimate if there is any chance of getting a ticket or if new plans should be made.

    You will just end up having to add this information later due to mass request for it, so why not (for a change) do it before the outcry!!!

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  • Nilo says:

    So tickets are $19 more through STEP? Is this for the privilege of going through burning man vs. craigslist/ebay and informal burner network?

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  • Droidle says:

    Yeah, this process stinks on ice. You know full well that the system will not, under any concievable circumstances be able to hold the volume that is going to occur on March 2nd at noon.

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  • iklantry says:

    Good luck. We’re all going to need it.

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  • CubCub says:

    I must agree with Jonny (above). PLEASE consider letting us know our place in the queue and how many tickets are currently available. If not, please provide your reason for not doing so. Also, I have been wondering the same as Droidle: what steps are being taken to avoid a system crash at noon on Friday?

    Many thanks!!
    xoxo

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  • Mutant vehicle owners of America says:

    Oh sure……no anxiety here. The emotional roller coaster ride brought to you by the Borg.

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  • oracle of the man says:

    yeah, i got the email … which said ” If the list for people seeking tickets becomes untenably long, we will pause sign ups.”
    ummm, what do you expect? of course it will be untenably long. the exodus is untenably long and that is all people with tickets. For all the “we are worried about you” emails from BM leadership, seems one bad decision follows another.

    my suggestion, circulate ideas for feedback! the whole bm community is the resource to tap into!!

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  • Gray says:

    The last STEP update read “These tickets should be for you (or you and an identified guest.)” I’m curious, will tickets sold through STEP need to be tied to a name? (I imagine the answer is yes, but I’d love to know for sure. Thank you!

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  • Scyntt says:

    It seems like the only people who can buy a ticket on STEP are people who registered for the lottery. What about the people who planned on buying a ticket during the open sale? Will we ever be able to buy a ticket on STEP?

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  • Dog Rancher says:

    This will not work again another BMorg screw up

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  • Robert says:

    As a lucky ticket owner who has had life complications I appreciate the the structured approach but I do not appreciate having to pay to afford others an opportunity to obtain my ticket.

    I humbly suggest that BM reconsiders the structure and approach to shift all costs to the Burners who wish to obtain tickets. If BM wants participation from ticket owners, and they want to increase the number of tickets available in the STEP program, they will want to make it easier and less painful for the ticket owners. Forcing owners who have already given hundreds of dollars up front to pay to not go to Burning Man seems very likely to reduce participation in the STEP program. With Burners who have a long history and much goodwill regarding BM there may be more willing to pay for this, but consider that the majority of the ticket owners being asked to participate in the STEP program will be first timers.

    In my specific case my wife is attending but I am unable to. My spare ticket will be going directly to a friend and not be going into the STEP program, because I cannot afford to pay for someone I do not know to use my ticket.

    Respectfully yours,

    Robert

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  • Milt says:

    If a person originally requested two tickets in the main sale, might they be offered only one ticket through STEP if/when one becomes available, or will you wait until two are available before offering the tickets?

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  • Brad says:

    Wait wait.. so let me get this straight… you’re gonna have everybody get into a queue for tickets being sold…. huh, that kinda sounds familiar. Kinda like the way we normally bought tickets EVERY YEAR UNTIL THIS YEAR. Except this time, instead of having 50,000 tickets to line up in the queue for, we’ll have a random amount of tix that the Borg is not going to let us know how many there are. Can’t wait for the crush at noon on friday.

    brilliant.

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  • Gonyo says:

    How many essential participants are still without tickets??? The brilliance of Burningman is the community and without the great contributing burners it will be a very different festival… 30,000 spectators in the desert??? I hope not.

    First timers think twice, make sure you contribute or get your tickets to a veteran now!!!

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  • burnersxxx says:

    There’s only 1 queue. If you get an email that says you’re first in line, you have 72 hours to respond. This means potentially very small numbers of tickets purchased through STEP, if Burners don’t read their emails quickly. Any leftovers will be sold at the gate. Further commentary and analysis over at the Burners.Me blog http://burners.me/2012/02/28/breaking-news-burning-man-launches-step-at-high-noon-wednesday-feb-29-runs-until-august/

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  • mtn scientist says:

    This reminds me of a quote I read recently from an old timer in the SFG, that these people could not figure out how to run a coin laundromat.

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  • mtn scientist says:

    I like the part about how they say they are giving the info so we “can plan accordingly”. To the contrary, based on the fact that no one knows if they can go or who else will be going (like their family, friends, camps), I think there will be very little room for planning this year.

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  • Erik says:

    well i gotta say I’m glad to see that the STEP program is kicking off and it looks like they’ve got some good ideas to make it fair for everyone as well.
    BUT.
    Since I will not be getting my tickets in my hand and they will be held at will call I WILL NOT go through with step.
    I’m sorry but getting the physical tickets is just as important to us as going to the event.
    I’m not going to wait at the office all day for them to find tickets for me that i paid for months ago.
    thanks BM but Ill just try my luck next year. speaking of next year, lets just sell the damn tickets this i hope you see how much harder you made it on yourself and i hope you learned a very valuable lesson this year. :D

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  • U2pilot says:

    Comments on previous blog postings have run about 10,000:1 in favor of identity-based-ticketing, and the predicted the inflow of tickets to STEP would run in the low dozens if STEP did nothing to pull in the tickets from scalpers and first-timers who might pick a big cash reward over a vacation to what is predicted to be the worst burn ever.

    And so, the decision to apparently take identity off the table for the lottery tickets doesn’t even warrant a mention in the STEP rollout, beyond the FAQ that says it would get in the way of gifting? (As if STEP’s non-assignability doesn’t?).

    And just to guarantee failure, the Borg won’t even eat the $7 in fees to make people whole, or pass those fees onto the new buyers? So if I held a couple of tickets, my choice is to sell at a loss through STEP, or sell at $1000 on Stubhub (the price where tickets are selling almost as quickly as being listed). Yeah, that’s going to be a tough decision for someone who has never attended and has no loyalty to Burning Man. If 5000 tickets came into STEP (and that’s probably 100x as much as will actually be the case), the Borg couldn’t find $35,000 to help make that a reality?

    And it keeps getting better. As a potential buyer in the lottery, I had a choice of the price I was willing to pay. Let’s say $320 max was it. STEP can’t provide a max? My choice could be $420 or nothing?

    It’s obvious that each STEP entry has to be assigned a sequential queue-position number, and they have to track the number that’s next up for a ticket-offer. Would it really be that hard to show “Your are number ___, Currently serving ___” ?? That would be really useful information to someone trying to make some plans to know if they have a shot at tickets. But then it would reveal the actual success of STEP, or lack of, wouldn’t it? The Borg’s not going for a lot of transparency these days, are they?

    If scalpers were designed the system with a goal of helping scalpers, I can’t think of much that would be changed.

    Unfuckingbelievable.

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  • Dog Rancher says:

    BMorg keeps changing the rules and BM principles.
    Excluding those not with a major theme camp.
    First the “leave no trace” now” radical inclusion”
    It has become such a circus of hypocrisy and elitisem.
    A venue for voyeurism, frat boys and sepectators who give up all their constitutional rights,provide slave labor behind BM fences,4th amendment and a long list of what you can and cannot do like taking pictures of each other or of the event.
    You cannot even get the complete disclosure on the back of the tickets its so long.
    This is the End of BM. A room full of monkeys would be able to do a better job than BMorg. There will be some very unhappy folks at the gate this year. That means a heavy local law enforcement presence in riot gear will be required lots more than the prevoius years.
    The front gate will be over whelmed by Occupiers and frustrated ticket holders at the will call lines.
    Another fine mess BMorg has created.

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  • mtn scientist says:

    Yes, in agreement with most posters here, I don’t think its possible for Borg to do a WORSE job of this “ticket sale”. In fact, it is SO incompetent, I wonder if it is intentional (a girl scout troup could plan better), or some strange psychological experiment to see how much baloney people will take and still buy into something.

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  • Baba O'Baba says:

    It does seem that those selling through STEP should get ALL their money back.

    Whenever I have bought tickets in the past from people, I paid the full costs, including all fees and hidden charges.

    If I was lucky, I got the Atomic Fire ball too.

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  • mtn scientist says:

    And yes, in agreement with dog rancher, I expect that things could get quite heated at the will call window. Make people wait hours in the heat for something they already bought several months prior for several hundred dollars. What if something goes wrong, what if they can’t find the evidence that you bought your step ticket? Given the insane amount of confusion and mismanagement already, I wouldn’t trust them. Drive all the way with all your stuff and a week off work, only to find there is some “mixup”?

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  • zawb says:

    This will be almost as big of a cluster fuck as the line to get in Monday 2010.

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  • Dog Rancher says:

    I am sure there will be some civil and possible criminal law suits.
    The California State Attorney office will looking at this in regards to fraud and misrepresentation. BMorg keeps painting themselves in a corner.
    BMorg has no permit to date to even have the event.
    What a racket!

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  • Remi says:

    STEP will probably get a dozen or two tickets into the hands of burners… make sure your one of the lucky first 15ish people to register for STEP!

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  • lilrvrgrl says:

    Yeah, sounds like a bunch of crap! I guess I’ll just got on a cruise this summer instead of BRC. :(

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  • If you (BMorg) do only one thing right, just make sure the artists/participants that make the event so incredibly special get to attend – by hook or by crook – and do it SOON! The longer this uncertainty prevails, the more creative energy hemorrhages away, and then all you have left is a miserable dust bowl of fond memories. We are only going if we feel like enough of us are in (and when I mean us, I mean those of us who spend hundreds of hours building some shit that will blow peoples minds) Passive participants (even dyed in the wool BM veterans) who really want them will get tickets for sure, because there will be an AVALANCHE of them in the weeks before the event. Those tickets just won’t help us who need more production time. Believe this

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  • Jim Lucas says:

    I refuse to attend burning man this year, which was to be my 8th, under any circumstances. You have taken the experience in a direction that I can not and will not be a part of. It’s our event–you’ve forgotten that we just let you host it. And, this year, as you’ve learned too late, you failed. Own that. Maybe your arrogance and hubris will have passed by next year. I will reevaluate at that point.

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  • Disco Mike says:

    Ah, I’m glad to see all the comments on here are pretty spot on. I agree folks.

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  • iBoy says:

    I want to go Home, but will not submit to an hours-long, chaotic Will Call line that could/would/most probably end with someone saying there are no tickets for me – try again next year. I want to be optimistic, but after everything that’s happened, why would I trust BM to get Will Call STEP tickets right? EVERYONE should have tickets in hand before they make the long journey Home.

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  • Tori Myrmel says:

    I think it is ridiculous that now all of the people who buy through the step program will have to wait in will call….obviously Burning man has not thought ahead on how they will accommodate so many people trying to pick up their tickets by the gate. I have had to wait in will call before and it was so time consuming because it is too small. I cant imagine how they plan on accommodating even more people now that we are not given a choice if we didnt get a ticket in the lottery. This will be my 8th year and it makes me so sad that burning man has seemed to go off the deep end. I know this is the first year it is for profit and to me it seems like greed and stupidity ruined the event for everyone. Burning man will not be the same with out all of the people who have made it such a great festival in the past. hopefully they learn that priority should not have gone to %40 virgin burners but to the people who make it possible.

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  • Enough says:

    So the BMorg has made it clear, Burning man is the property of 6 people. The idea that Burning Man is a community is a myth. Despite any protestations or empty “apologies” the folks at BMorg have made, they never had any respect for the “community” or the people who have given year after year to the event. Someone wrote something about the poor PR effort the BMorg had made and for a couple of minutes they tried to quell the criticism by acknowledging their error and apologizing. But they never intended to actually listen to the “community” or sacrifice their intentions to the desires of the burners. We aren’t a community, we are simply customers for the BMorg and if we don’t like the way they choose to do things, too bad. Suck it up or go away. They don’t need you anymore. They’ve already sold out, so who cares if the event becomes empty and meaningless. You are nothing to them. Your opinions mean nothing to them. Since the BMorg refuses to do anything about scalpers, (to protect a few Burners who can afford extra tickets to gift) why don’t we head them off at the pass. If you were intending to sell extra tickets through STEP, why not just sell them for face value on Stubhub. That way you are supporting the community without supporting this farce.

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  • Dog Rancher says:

    BMorg such arragonce. A bird in hand is better than two in the bush. Show us the tickets!!
    Drive hours to get to the playa then more hours than it took to drive in line at will call. When you get to the will call window. Get interrogated your ID is suspect or oops!! your name is not on the list or misspelled. GRRR!!
    Security!! Security

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  • Dennis says:

    this evolutionary system stinks bollocks – so complicated, so unfair sooo unnecessary. Its not about the experience is about the money now. just change the BM managing group.

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  • robin says:

    So, as it looks to me, in order to register, you have to already struck out in the lotto? What about those that didnt have an extra few hundred dollars just sitting around with the chance of “winning” a ticket? I was planning on buying one in the general sale, but had that ability taken away by BMorg when suddenly I became less important than other people. (Ie theme camps and artists) suddenly there is a social hierachey at BM!? I think the majority of the community are not theme camps or artists, but people who attend year after year, and actually make the good vibes and atmosphere that you are trying to preserve. I feel really put off by this whole situation. apparentley im not allowed to buy a ticket. Looks like im not a first class citezen in Black Rock City any more, or second, or third, or even a citezen at all. I guess most of us have been banished. Guess were just not “cool enough” anymore. BMorg… You have really dropped the ball.

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  • tomwaits says:

    So I’m wondering… Could we see the price of the ticket we are buying from who ever in this “step program” because i am not trying to spend like 400 and if someone is selling one for 240 ill be right on that. Also my friend that im going traveling with this summer got his ticket during the main sale but i wasnt picked so im stuck without one but we’re going a bunch of places and i would love to attend burning man for my first time this year especially. So, if i cant get one for cheaper since i barely have money to begin with… he’ll probably be selling his and we will go else where. i think this ticket system is rediculous… at least ill have rainbow to look forward to if i cant get in

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  • mtn scientist says:

    maybe those of you going to will call for your ticket can dress up like hungry tigers

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  • mtn scientist says:

    However, the people manning the gates and will call for the borg should be dressed up like bank robbers, cuz they are robbing us blind!

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  • IDJoe says:

    From BMorg on Jan 27:

    “BUT DO NOT FEAR!! Because this means that there will be a large number of tickets in circulation within the existing community, tickets that simply need to be redistributed to those who need them.”

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  • Dog Rancher says:

    Letting one know where they are in the queue of the STEP and how many tickets there are in STEP.
    Would make to much sense for BMorg. Take our credit card #’s and names wait in lines but do not let us know what our chances are of getting a ticket or how many are available through STEP. We are not that important to them any more
    Unless you a in the “elite class” or know a board member you are treated like sh_t and at the back of a very long line with little hope of getting in.
    BMorg is all about money and who you know. BMorg has sold out to the elitest’s and forsaken the Principles
    This will be a souless BM and the last one for sure

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  • jdee says:

    I was one of about 7 of our “would be” theme camp of 50+ burners that got a ticket. This was to be my 3rd burn, in which I planned to really step up my contribution to the community this year. But doesnt look like that will happen given that our camp is no longer able go ahead with plans, and most campmates have given up hope. And now you want me to pay 19 bucks to give my ticket back? Anyone who has an extra ticket, more than likely has 20 friends that all need one. Doubt that the STEP program is going to generate many tickets. Good luck, and good riddence.

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  • scott says:

    Let me put on my cynic hat and translate what The Man is saying:

    Sell your unused ticket to STEP, but we promised our friends they would make money on you so you have to eat the service fees (but what service was actually provided?). Oh, and we get to let our friends charge service fees on that same ticket again! That is great for our vendor! Thanks for supporting the “community”.

    Sign up for STEP. Start your planning now! You must be checking your email at least every 72 hours from now till August 7th, just in case your number came up in the STEP line. What, you want to know your place in line? Sorry, we know your place in line but can not tell you. We also have no idea how many tickets will be available through this program, but we hope it is a lot so we can score more of those service fees. We are really encouraging people to use this system by requiring them to eat partial ticket costs.

    Yay! Your number came up in STEP! Oh, you only signed up for the lowest tier of tickets because you could not afford the additional $150 of the upper tier. No worries! You got an offer to purchase a ticket from someone in the presale at $420! Only $180 over the low tier price, what a bargain. Act now, because if you pass on this “opportunity” you will not be able to sign up for another.

    Yea, another fail for The Man. I do have to give some credit though. I can not dream up a way to alienate your “community” faster and more completely than this entire ticketing mess.

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  • Jack C says:

    I oppose forcing ticket owners to take a loss in order to sell ticket back to STEP. It’s not unreasonable to ask buyers to pay an extra 12 dollars or whatever it is to cover transaction charges. We are looking to fight scalpers, not drive people to them.

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  • David says:

    I was going to buy a ticket in the OPEN SALE…
    But then the org took that away.

    Now I can’t even buy a ticket on STEP!!!!!

    So now my only option is to buy a ticket from Scalpers.
    If this wasn’t going to be my tenth year, I wouldn’t even consider it.

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  • Dog Rancher says:

    BMorg
    Better get it right and soon.
    BLM will not tolerate having security issues created by this debacle. These ticket issues and BMorg inadeqacies to resolve these matters. It will be another consideration in regards to permitting this event any more or for even this year. It will need to be addressed in the Impact Statement for this years event. To much confusion and security issues with lost souls trying to get in to the event out in the playa is a public safety issue for all involved.
    It would be irresponible for BLM to allow this chaos to happen or continue.
    BMorg credibility is at great risk and shows lack of leader ship and very poor planning.
    BLM will not want to partnership with organization that is so irresponsible and has such poor planning.

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  • ebene says:

    “Oh my God, I immediately thought of 9 problems with this. You guys are idiots. Burning Man is going to suck this year and nobody is going to have a good time.”

    Please, people.

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  • mtn scientist says:

    Im planning to go to an out of state regional and call it the end after that

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  • gardarob says:

    I need to stop reading these blog comments. Some people are hell-bent on harshing the shit out of everybody’s Burn.

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  • m.rich says:

    I agree that it’s probably better to reimburse the FULL amount that people paid for their tickets if you actually want them to use the STEP program. It’s laughable that you think people would go through the hassle of selling their tickets back through STEP when they could EASILY sell them on Craigslist or just about anywhere else for the full amount. That is assuming that they don’t already know someone who they are planning on selling their ticket to.

    Our camp of 25 only got 8 tickets between us all. I was hoping my husband and I would get ours through STEP, but I doubt that anyone selling tickets will even go that route, since they’d be losing money. Why doesn’t BMOrg have to take the loss, but the burners who have extra tickets to sell do? I don’t know about you guys, but I’m pretty sure BMOrg has a lot more money to dish out than 95% of people trying to go to Burning Man. Especially when it was the org’s (ADMITTED) mistakes that caused this whole problem in the first place?

    I love Burning Man. I love the feeling of community that it gives me every year while I’m there and throughout the year between burns. I always believed that the members of BMOrg felt the same way, and cared about us the way I care about all of you that I have met, seen and been around in BRC, but my belief is shaken. Maybe even crushed. I’m holding out hope for some sort of sign that they actually do care about us or if it’s all about the money to them. Starting to look like the latter.

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  • Jonny says:

    A comment I forgot to mension in my previous post (and just adding it to many other votes):

    people selling tickets should get EVERY dollar back they paid!!! If I were buying from a friend I would have no doubt that is what I would pay, so obvious when buying from a stranger. If BMorg is willing to wave fees that would be great (and appropriate), but the seller should get EVERY dollar from buyer if necessary (and BTW, I’m a hopeful buyer).

    BMorg, anger is building up over the situation, some just and some not, but you have missed so many opportunities to correct issues that its hard even for the few who are trying to give you the benefit of the doubt to maintain good will.

    PLEASE: READ, LISTEN AND….. RESPOND!!!! (without response to suggestions we can only assume you aren’t bothering even reading them)

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  • Betty Von Blavk says:

    It seems to me that the only way to save this event is to get the veterans together and take the event elsewhere. Remove Bmorg from the process, it appears that greed and pride has destroyed a legacy and that the only chance to save it is for those who make it what it is to take it back, forcibly.

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  • Pigtails and Pockets says:

    To Betty Von Black,
    Say when and where…I need relief from BORG stress.

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  • Dog Rancher says:

    Jonny and Betty you all are so,so right!! You both nailed it. Right on!
    Dog Rancher

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  • FD in SC says:

    I will be there and will try stay positive.

    I notice that this post is accompanied by a photo of a Door to Nowhere.

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  • dingdong says:

    Know what…
    I’m sick of all the shit storm.
    I say thank you for at least trying to fix it and all the effort you put in. Maybe its not the best way but I wish every event ticket seller would act the same.

    Once again…. THANK YOU!

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  • Kali says:

    Thank you, BMorg!!! Way to make an impossible situation even worse. First of all, I now have to purchase two tickets through STEP – I can’t just purchase one if the ticket made available to me is $390. Plus, if I decline the two $390 tickets – and I would have signed up for that priced ticket as well originally if it was in my budget, but it isn’t – I can’t sign up for STEP again.

    You make me sad, and a little sick to my stomach.

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  • StillGrumpy says:

    Having been extremely grumpy about this over the last weeks myself (10 yrs; no tix), I’m kinda done hating on the subject of Going To The Playa This Year.

    Can I suggest that we agree that things have hit bottom now, and can start getting better?

    I’ve given up [planning for/hoping to attend] this year as it’s all a class-10 clusterfuck, but the last decade of BM has been so marvellous EVERY year it’s hard to believe it can all just blow away like this.

    I’ll be back… maybe

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  • StillGrumpy says:

    Also I think anyone who talks about Borg “greed” screwing up this year is completely getting the wrong end of the stick.
    I’ve met/casually know a bunch of borg and while this year is a fuckstorm, I can’t for the life of me assign “greed” as a possible reason.

    You could more reasonably say “naivity”, “inability to adapt” etc and these are all human traits and they’d prolly hold their hands up high right now, but I personally cannot at all believe it’s about personal money-grubbing.

    Shit at BMORG HQ is not so cynical or amateurish that anyone has their hand in the till.

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  • Two Events one Theme says:

    Here’s what should have happened:

    Two events with a Mayan Calendar theme:

    Aug 13 – Aug 20: The End
    Aug 27 – Sep 3 : Of The World

    All 100,000 tickets sold for $325 each, released all at once to avoid the frenzy.

    The week gap would help clear people out and give a needed rest for those working there. You could buy tickets for both events if you wanted to also.

    Or, better yet, maybe I’ll just hold my own BM event just up the road on Aug 13th and pay my own staff $7 million to run it like the BMorg does. Anyone know how to throw a dust bowl party? ;-)

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  • Sippy Cup says:

    This would have been my 7th year but I have no ticket and have no desire to jump through any more hoops to try to get one. We wait for hours to get onto the playa in three phases: ticket checker, ticket taker and car searcher, and then the greeters. Now yet another line to wait in at will call? I can’t even imagine.

    Buying a ticket should have been the same process as years before and, lo and behold, it’s what they have come full circle to in the STEP process – first come, first served. Brilliant. Except now they created an elitist class of “preferred burners” with the selling off of the main sale tickets to theme camps. I just hope that when I want to return for BM 2013 they won’t give preferential treatment to those who bought tickets in 2012 or anyone else for that matter.

    Unbelievable buzz kill. I am so pissed off, sad and depressed by this whole process. I adore BM and couldn’t ever imagine NOT going after I first stepped onto the playa in 2006 but I’m going to stay away this year. 2011 was so perfect, wonderful weather, playa conditions, the most amazing temple – this will have to sustain me for another year. Good Burn to all who get to go home this year!

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  • loco says:

    if its not broken dont try to fix it. hay BM you broke it fix it and dont ask us to pay to fix it do the wright thing.

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  • Playa Friend says:

    I think the whole point of STEP is being missed by most posting here. BM highly encourages those with extra tickets to sell directly to friends/camp mates/etc, and expect that many with extra tix will do this. Most Burners know someone looking for a ticket, so this will be easy enough for a seller. And most sellers will probably add their fees into the cost of the ticket they’re selling, so they won’t lose out on any fees they’ve paid.

    However, for those with extra tickets that don’t know anyone looking, but want to be sure they don’t unknowingly sell their ticket to a scalper, then this is where STEP comes in. Is it a perfect system? Maybe not. But I have to credit BM with trying their hardest to fix this rough situation.

    There are still 6 months before the event and tickets will become available through the community, Craig’s list, etc.

    This probably won’t change the minds of all the ranters and haters out there, but Burning Man *does* care about all of us and have been losing much sleep over this! There’s no easy fix, no way to make everyone happy.

    And regarding all the comments about BM’s greed: I don’t doubt BM’s intentions at all, and do think they were trying to make positive changes with the ticket system that very unfortunately ended up backfiring big time. Greed was not the reason for this.

    And they DID listen to lots of advice and suggestions from many in the community, and people had the chance to have their voices heard by BM. If you took the time to rant here, hopefully you *also* took the time to write BM and let your constructive suggestions be heard.

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  • Playa Friend says:

    Regarding comments about Burning Man ruining the event: Take a deep breath, step back, and take a good hard look at things. The whole reason this became such a fiasco in the first place is because the event got so popular! Remember? Last year the event sold out!… So, is it any surprise that there’d be more people wanting tickets this year?

    Who are you gonna blame for all the popularity?… Blame your friends/family/co-workers/strangers?… Blame yourself for telling your friends about this awesome event year after year and trying to get them to go??? How dare they be SO interested in this event that they dare try to attend one year?!… We all were newbies at some point who heard about BM, but never went until that one fateful year… The event has been riding the maximum for the last couple-few years and we all knew this day was coming.

    Well, I guess you CAN blame Burning Man for this… They (and us, too!) created such an awesome event that we just have to attend year after year! How dare they?!

    And yes, if you feel so inclined, go create your own event. We’re now all ticket experts, aren’t we?…

    And BM regional events are awesome! So please consider attending one of those, coming soon to a region near you…

    http://regionals.burningman.com/

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  • AV says:

    Whoever come up with the new way to purchase ticket this year should be burned with the man. If the organization wants to make more money from selling ticket then just increase the price. There is no need of inventing a bogus system as a cover up for the greed. Now, inventing another bogus system to cover up the failed cover up is just lol.

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  • ViennaCodex says:

    AND what is this bullshit about art car sound systems? Seriously, we should not be considering the needs of people who want to sleep at burning man over the needs of people who want to put fucking awesome sound systems on vehicles.

    It’s like those people who buy a house over a bar and then get pissed off that drunkards are milling outside their door at 2am.

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  • ApolloShiva says:

    14 years, no lapses. The venting of spleens here seems very much like Home to me-
    a bad enough dust storm makes even the most seasoned of us mean & frustrated. Been bringing an artcar about ten years, gonna pass this time, as 15 pages of questions really took all the fun out of bringing an artcar at all. Virgin Burners maybe just what we need to remember how to have fun this year. I’m sitting at home, in the dark with my cat, and I don’t want to face the very real fact that I might miss a year for the first time since I came Home. I’m a weary exile, singin’ my song of loneliness, as the song goes. I’m not angry at BM HQ- it’s the nature of science to run experiments, and the most instructive results are often our most frustrating failures. I use magic to construct my art projections -nothing placed or official, mind you, just furtive bits of kindness to make participants question the limits of their local realities. When I threw my imagination out to the Black Rock before this year, I found myself greeted by a shining host of dreams and visions, of possible artforms, and improbable machines all of which flickered like will-o-whisps of passion & desire. Beautiful as soap bubbles, more fragile than peace. What I saw this year in my vision was frustrated desires, a seething mass of despair & uncertainty. It hurt.
    I shall find my way to the playa this year by whatever means I may, only to prevent that baleful vision from becoming manifest. I have seen to much love shared from too many human heart in that place to see this poison stewing even here on this very board materialize on Earth. The experimental lottery has failed; forgive and more forward. Many New Ones come to the festival. What will you show them? Remember when there were merely two dozen themecamps around the playa? I do, and it was glorious. Remember the 2 hour lines to the Porta-potties? I do, and we met many more neighbors there each morning. We are Burners, all of us, even those who are not wholly human, but even such as those make mistakes. It was not hatred that brought our hearts to this circle. Release your pains here, that you need to carry a burden. Be well.

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  • Aib says:

    The theme of these blog comments should be called “Sterility 2.0”. Seriously, it’s like you guys are trying to ejaculate something meaningful into the conversation but can’t; so instead you just swim in the same filth – other people’s filth – that’s already been posted a hundred times beforehand. Get off the internet, go for a walk, read a book, and then try jacking off – you’ll find it much more enjoyable :)

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  • Valorie says:

    Picking up your tickets at WILL CALL? Beware. Last year, we were told by an asshole named MOTHERHEN our tickets had been picked up the day before which we knew they had not-we had proof we were on the road. It was their error-no one seemed to give a shit. We were forced to wait over a day to get in! It RUINED BM for us-really broke my heart. There is NOTHING worse than saving all year, finally getting there and then basically getting treated like scum for over a day by people who could care less. NOTHING!!

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  • Valorie says:

    …And that was last year. DO NOT TRUST WILL CALL-AT ALL!!!!

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  • pinkus // prentice steffen says:

    i suppose you’ve heard this suggestion for solving ticket supply/demand problem… please give serious consideration to forbidding rv’s or at least limiting the size of rv’s allowed into brc. i believe they defeat part of the purpose of bm. thanks.

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  • Lucky says:

    Read the E Mail about Step I recieved the other day. Decide not to even try getting a ticket. Just another E Mail and another nail in the coffin that will exclude me and my friend from attending this year. You basically tell us few ticket will be available. WELL HELLO what a statement. Then you insult me by saying go withing the community in your area to secure a ticket. I do not live in CA or an area with a large population of Burners so my options here are limited. if non exisitant. It seems to me that you keep compounding your mistakes and have elected to serve a certain population of people form certain areas and reward those by giving them added opportunities for ticket many of us will not have available.

    Looking forward to see what will happend next year.

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  • Seriously says:

    I was one of the lucky ones that got my 2 tickets in the lottery, what now? The folks I want to see there are pissed off and scrambling, so if I decide this year is not worth it, then you want ME to eat the cost of handling and shipping, when I can craigslist to a local burner, or ebay or call a friend in need. At least they will by me dinner and a drink to cover handling charges AND they will do it with a smile and a THANK YOU. BORG if you want me to use STEP, BORG – STEP UP AND EAT THE COST. You guys caused this mess.

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  • StillGrumpy says:

    ApolloShiva – well said.

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  • Katie says:

    ‘The theme of these blog comments should be called “Sterility 2.0″.’

    I was going to go with “Stillbirth,” but that works, too.

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  • Katie says:

    For the record, I think that ought to be the theme of the event, too. And if those commenting had some other outlet for their feedback and suggestions that was more likely to improve the general direction of this process, I’m sure many of them would be using it.

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  • A says:

    I’m officially joining the “let it be” crowd. I think our voices have been heard, even if they weren’t listened to. I wish the BMorg had been more forthcomming, but we’re past that now. I’m done spewing any more negativity on this situation. I’m not a raver, I go to Burning Man to celebrate human creativity. Well from destruction springs creation. Something got broke here, but not by the BMorg. The destructive force was simply the number of people who want to attend. Practicality smashed headlong into principle and the result is a bloody mess. We can argue about the choices that were made to deal with that, but we don’t actually know what the result of any single decsion would have been and I think it’s time to stop arguing about it. 50K+ humans are going to be on the Playa for a happening called Burning Man this year. The potential for something beautiful and amazing occuring is enourmous and I’m going to work extra hard from here on in to make that happen. I’ve put in my two-cents and now I’m taking what I’m given and creating. LET’S DO THIS!

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  • A says:

    From decay and destruction comes…FERTILITY…what do you know….approppriate theme afterall.

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  • TomCat says:

    @oracale of the man:
    Do you really think Burningman has made all these decisions in a vacuum, without calling for participation, feedback and criticisms? this entire process has been guided by community and participant input. It might not be your perfect solution, but there has been an overwhelming range of opinion (and invective) from everyone. Some people will get screwed and will be bitter. Some people have tickets. More people will get tickets by August. It will happen. It just may not be you through STEP.

    If you really want to go, you’ll go- you will be on playa in some capacity. And if you don’t, there are so many more opportunities to participate in your local community in a gracious and significant way.

    And all: a will call ticket means there is a hard ticket waiting for you at the box office on Playa. YOU WILL HAVE A HARD COPY TICKET WHICH GETS TORN BY GATE. You will have that bit of ephemera. It’s not an electronic copy or an email with a barcode on it.

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  • Gbc says:

    Apollo Shiva, you are a beautiful and insightful soul. Thank you. BORG, please consider refunding 100% to those putting tickets in to step. It will encourage more people to use it. I am hoping for a STEP ticket. While I don’t have a lot of money to spend, I would be willing to have the actual cost of extra processing added on to my STEP ticket if it would increase the chances that more tickets would go to STEP. I am not seeing or hearing of any extra tickets in my community, & I won’t go to scalpers out of principle. I am concerned about eBay and other sources, as it is too costly a mistake to discover upon arriving at the playa that I have purchased a bogus ticket at face value. Having lost before on eBay with something that was supposed to be real, there is little recourse. More importantly, even if you had legal recourse, no one wants to remember BM as the event they didnt get to attend and the thing that stole months or years of life in litigation to break even. Please do anything you can to foster, promote, & encourage people to put their tickets in STEP.

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  • Zandar says:

    This is starting to sound like a bullhorn battle at 7am. Alternately hilarious, cathartic, scary, annoying. I suppose misery loves company, I know I do. But I am still not able to imagine that the Borg is half as evil as you guys are making it sound. If your past burns were glorious– and you know they were– I think you have to give those Elders the benefit of the doubt. Also +1 to AppolloShiva in principle, though I am not even trying for tickets. Oh heck, at this point I guess I should admit it– my fiancee has pale skin and a low pain threshold, so why would I want to take the risk of scrambling my cosmic memories with a week of sitting in my tent massaging her feet with lotion? And, while the exact motives may differ, there are a lot of people that don’t want to go this year because they are afraid it won’t live up to their memories. Keeping the spirit alive for 2013 and beyond– that should be our main goal.

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  • simoneski says:

    Everything that can be said of this mess has been said…this is my hope.

    What I noticed last year was; the friendliest people were the virgins. They did not have that “I am too cool attitude I saw in many vets.

    I am not going to count out the first timers, they just may surprize you. I wish my partner and I had been lucky enough to get tickets, will just have to wait and hear our friends tales of the playa.

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  • James says:

    Despite the outcry for tickets being individually assigned to eliminate scalpers and Burning Man refusing to do so, it appears you will HAVE TO SHOW YOUR ID ANYWAY to pick up any tickets at will call if you go through the STEP program. Why not implement it all the way?

    I think the issue might be that Burning Man already has all the money from 100% (or close to) of the tickets and they don’t really care about the fallout this year. If Burning Man is really for the people, they should listen to the people that make this event great.

    I fear if they don’t straighten this year out, BM will devolve into something that is unrecognizable from what it was before.

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  • Sunny says:

    Hi Will, I’m anxiously awaiting the next blog post that addresses the details of how BMorg is going to wisely and courageously:

    1. Implement ID-BASED TICKETING for all tickets, after having worked out the considerable logistics of such a change (and finding it not so daunting after all, given the crowd-sourced ideas you’ve received and are no doubt fleshing out right now), and

    2. INCENTIVIZE STEP by removing fees and other disincentives.

    So Will, you, BMorg, and all burners new and old can sleep better when you make that post, knowing that all that CAN be done HAS BEEN done to balance supply and demand in the fairest possible way.

    Hugs and ass grabs to all ya’ll.

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  • Maggie Read says:

    Hi,
    In the Feb 28, 2012 Jack Rabbit Speaks newsletter it states, “if you don’t get an email by Thursday, visit http://tickets2.burningman.com/contact.php and select “Missing STEP email” from the drop down menu)”.

    I have checked the drop down menu NUMEROUS times but NEVER saw the “Missing STEP email” on the drop down menu.

    I still sent a message but choose another item from the drop down menu relating to STEP. I did get an email response back from BMorg. They are responding and are doing the best they can to accommodate everyone. OK, I am off to perform my STEP ticket ‘rain dance’.

    Cheers,
    Maggie

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  • U2pilot says:

    @Sunny

    All I can say is, “Amen.” Hope they are listening, but fear they are not.

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  • Tripod says:

    @ Dog Rancher:

    You have no idea what you are talking about in regards to BLM, or in regard to potential legal action. You are simply confused, and scared, and angry. That’s OK. Most of us are right now. Our favorite toy is in danger of being taken away from us. This is definitely frustrating, and frightening, and icky – but no reason to attack other Burners who help us put on the event.

    BORG is now painfully aware that they can’t put on Burning Man without us. You need to be aware that we won’t have a place to go without the BORG.

    We will find out just how strong our Burner ideals are over the next few months. I’m sticking to mine.

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  • joebob says:

    again the pink elephant remains on the playa. the future looks to all us angry souls that being shut out for 2012 is and will be forever. with more demand and directed tickets and very little growth our chances were good compared to 2013 and with dimminishing odds thereafter. no more hope that a group as big as 3 can plan to ever go together again. While not emphasizing their goals bmorg plans to grow to 70000 in 4-5 years there will be no other location no great incresae in #s. BM will change and go in the direction bmorg chooses and for those that liked it the old way well too bad. When I learn the themecamps that made the cut I will apply for tickets through them hoping as death takes some burners homes it will open some slots like for Packer ticket. ashes to ashes playa dust to playa dust. the man is dead for many – memories will have to suffice

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  • mtn scientist says:

    I particularly appreciate the fact that among all the confusion and mess, the BM faq webpage still finds time to tell people how they deserve (??) their favorite cookies from attendees. *you.have.got.to.be.kidding.me*
    Hey, can I have a raise for a job that I suck at and can’t manage to complete in a reasonable fashion??
    (Don’t believe me? Go to the very bottom of the mega-document that is the faq.)

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  • Under Rocker says:

    Okay, I put one ticket into STEP today at the $390 price. You kidz be nice and don’t fight over it.

    And remember, if you buy from scalpers to get into TTITD, they’ll be back next year, too.

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  • Catharticus says:

    I think people who have been complaining that this is their nth straight burn and now they can’t get a ticket ought to consider that, at some point, it might be time to get off the Ferris Wheel and let somebody else have a ride.

    “Each alone, they go west or north, towards the mountains. They
    go on. They leave Omelas, they walk ahead into the darkness, and they
    do not come back. The place they go towards is a place even less
    imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness. I cannot describe
    it at all. It is possible that it does not exist. But they seem to
    know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.” -Ursula LeGuin

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  • Gninja says:

    If there are only going to be a few dozen (or a hundred…..whatever y’all guess) tickets available through STEP, then the number of people picking up STEP tickets at will call shouldn’t have a significant effect on the will call line.

    I picked up tickets at will call in’10, after waiting in the car for 3 hours to get to the gate . It took less than 10 minutes, including a refreshing walk across the parking area. The person at the window was super awesome, made me feel welcome and it was a generally warm and fuzzy experience. Thank you (again) awesome ticket window guy, whoever you were!

    Remember that the folks working at will call are volunteers, (not the fat cat borg heads you are mad at), spending their hard earned vacation in public service to YOU! Please be kind to them, they want to do the best they can to get you home.

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  • magikone says:

    Just one thought I had that I haven’t seen before. If I was a scalper all I have to do now is wait until August 8, when everyone registered for STEP knows they will not be getting tickets and I can sell mine for a hugely inflated price. I don’t even have to be a scalper, maybe I just got two extra tickets in the lottery and I can double my money instead of losing money if I put my tickets into STEP.

    My understanding is anyone who applied for tickets but didn’t get them has another chance now. How does this process prevent scalpers from getting additional tickets in STEP?

    I’m not even planning to go this year for reasons unrelated to this ticketing thing. But my ever expanding camp group has been planning for 2013. But I’m becoming frightened that there will be no way for all of us to get tickets for the event any time in the next few years.

    I also don’t believe there is any great Borg conspiracy to prevent people from getting tickets or even that they are being particularly greedy this year. Just some very poor decisions made out of fear and panic.

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  • Holder says:

    My wife and I got a single ticket between the two of us. We have decided that we won’t be going this year because the controversy has changed how we feel about the whole festival. We won’t be looking to buy another ticket through STEP, and we may not even be selling our ticket through STEP.
    If we’ve learned anything this year, it’s that even a community as close-knit and idealistic as Burning Man will follow traditional economic patterns based on incentives.
    My wife and I are now faced with an ethical decision. We have a ticket that we paid $360 for, and we can either sell it back to the BMorg now for $340, or hold on to it until August and see what it is worth on the secondary market. We can either take a $20 loss so that someone who we hope is a deserving person can go to Burning Man, or we can wait 5 months and maybe make hundreds of dollars.
    It’s actually more likely that someone willing to pay double the original price of a ticket in August is a “real burner” than an anonymous buyer on STEP who may be a scalper. We have a strong incentive to hold on to our ticket wait to see what it is worth.
    We’ve inadvertently been put in the position of being scalpers, and whatever choice we make personally, you can be sure that the majority of people in our situation will do what makes sense economically.

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  • Jim Firewalker says:

    Wow… would have figured that things would have died down… apparently not so.

    No burning man this year… the borg took care of it… maybe never again——-

    I suggest alternative events where the borg is not present and has no authority… like 4th of JuPlaya.

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  • Dog Rancher says:

    Since I am already “home” I was riding my paint along the eastern boundry of my ranch looking down on the playa and noticed that the jackrabbits are fat and sassy.
    I am glad I was on my horse.
    Come August I will watch this debacle unfold and LMAO.
    Burners do not follow but lead forget the herd mentality.
    BMorg will lead you all off the cliff to your demise. Stop following the piper. Oh I see another BMorg “princaple” has been abandon “radical self expresion”
    I had to “hack” my way in to get back to this blog. BMorg suck and are bunch of LOSER’S. Pull your heads out of the sand and protect your ass.
    I hope your credit card accounts are secured

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  • Dog Rancher says:

    Jim you got the right idea. I am going to ride down to the BLM office here in town and have some coffee and a few chuckles about BMorg

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  • mtn scientist says:

    dog rancher, you aren’t by any chance the la contessa arsonist are you? sound disgruntled enough to be

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  • Dog Rancher says:

    My horse Willy (named after Willy Nelson) Is not to keen on my whistling “Don’t fence me in”
    Oh well can’t please every one I guess.

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  • U2pilot says:

    @ Dog Rancher

    Damn, you are an impressive son of a bitch, aren’t you? Now I’ve got a few hacker friends, but I’m not sure many of them would be able to hack their way into the blog comments. Takes, what, going to the Burning Man site and clicking on the big Blog thing near the top of the home page. Not a lot of people have the skills to do that.

    I feel sorry for you. Going to be pretty lonely sitting out there on your horse, looking in at 50,000 people enjoying the greatest party on earth, isn’t it?

    Yup, there are some problems. Pretty much, not enough room for everyone who wants to go. Hope you and your horse have a wonderful time.

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  • gotta swim says:

    Is there a place to read about the upcoming 4th of Juplaya?
    I am gun shy and understand lots of guns present. (took a bullet already in my life)
    Is there a specific area for ammo off leading? A gun free zone?

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  • Dog Rancher says:

    I’m not the guy who set the boat of fire, but I know him. He’s local and a good friend of mine. His name is Mike Stewart. I agree with what he did. Stupid artist should have paid him rent.

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  • U2pilot says:

    @ gotta swim:

    4th of Juplaya is very unofficial. There is no leadership, nor dues, nor significant law enforcement, nor porta-potties. Do a Bing search on:

    4th of Juplaya

    And you’ll get 2900 hits. (Or use Google for the search, if you don’t mind them knowing even more about you.)

    In short, the Black Rock Desert is open land where anyone can camp (unless subjected to a BLM closure notice, as is the case for a small part used for Burning Man). Only requirement to avoid permits and fees is to camp in groups of 50 or less.

    I don’t believe guns will be a significant problem. The area where everyone shoots is at the very eastern edge, up against the foothills, and shooting towards the foothills. The most direct route to the shooting range is over the railroad tracks, through the swamp, past Frog Pond (named for all of the frogs that live on the critters in the swamp) and across Jungo road. Or you can take a car on a road that bypasses the swamp.

    Camps can be 5-10 miles apart, so driving isn’t just permitted, it’s necessary. There’s a free fireworks show on the 4th for all of the locals.

    It’s different from Burning Man, both in ways that are good and ways that are not.

    Last year was my first time going. I will probably go again this year.

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  • U2pilot says:

    Dog Rancher is a bit of a troll. The story of the Contessa is fairly well documented. The owners had permission from the previous property owner to leave their creation with her over the winter, and the lady thought she still had rights to the property on which it was stored, even after her house burned down. Stewart had a $1,000,000 lawsuit filed against him, and no where in what I’ve read did he assert that he asked for rent and it was denied. Fucker should be in jail for arson.

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  • mtn scientist says:

    dog rancher: take your criminal advocation elsewhere. I’ve also read about this crime for years. The owners of La Contessa as well as the pickup truck that happened to be parked beside it had been in visual contact with the arsonist recently before the crime was committed. The arsonist made no effort to talk to them about moving the property or the pickup truck during those times of personal contact. He made no other attempts to contact the property owners at any other time through any other means. He committed multiple crimes and should be in prison.

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  • mtn scientist says:

    dog rancher: also, I see that I called it fairly well. You must be him. I dont think Stewart has any friends.

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  • Dog Rancher says:

    You mean that gay guy with the alfalfa ranch he lives in Hilo now. I was in Vegas when that happened.
    These unusually large jackrabbits are spooking my Willy. The best party was at Woodstock there is no comparisons. I just remembers parts of it though the music was awesome the mud wrestling fun to watch

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  • Dog Rancher says:

    gottaswim
    This is Nevada every one has guns out here it is expected. Kdog I got your number lol…

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  • Dog Rancher says:

    gottaswim
    Ask a real local and gun expert those are county roads along Frog Pond they may be dirt roads but still county. NSR 50.092( Nevada State Regulation). It is illegal to discharge any firearm with in 5000′ of a dwelling or county or state road. Exceptions are shot guns or BB guns 1000″.
    The 4th of July is the best out here for a small town feel. God Bless America

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  • Dog Rancher says:

    Well I gotta go up to my gold mine for a few days folks no internet but if you all come out on the 4th of July. I am the guy with the black hat and the flame thrower.
    Happy Trails to all and Peace

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  • kay says:

    One word:

    Ticketmaster

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  • Ace says:

    I’m sorry Borg. I am one of the many burners who have attended more than once and can’t help but understand what Burning Man was in the beginning. The themes have a seemingly solid story, which I think everyone should focus on. Fertility – spread out!! It’s time we all brought the playa back with us to our home towns, and communities. Tell everyone around how the world really should be. REGIONAL BURNS! If you can’t find ’em, create ’em! Burners will come, no doubt about that. We need to do the same thing you did in ’86 brothah. Light and Love!

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  • A says:

    Okay, lets everyone send positive energy into the STEP program. Tickets would be good too. Go baby go.

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  • Sparkle Pony says:

    FOR ANYONE WHO STILL THINKS THAT THE ORIGNAL TICKET SALE WAS NOT TAINTED THEN GO TO THE STUBHUB.COM AND LOOK AT THE TICKETS FOR SALE THERE. ONE PERSON, YES ONE PERSON, HAS 15 TICKETS FOR SALE AT $1,399 EACH. HOW BORG COULD EVER BELIEVE THAT 100,000 WANTED TO ATTEND THIS YEAR IS JUST UNBELIEVEABLE !!! SO MUCH FOR THE WAY BURNINGMAN USE TO BE.

    Report comment

  • Burger Flipper says:

    @Sparkle Pony

    Go to StubHub and sell your ticket for $1,399. It’s easy! You don’t even have to have a ticket. But if you sell one, you have a few months to find one for even less than that. Heck, sell 10! What are they gonna do if you don’t provide the ticket but provide a refund for half of them?

    Report comment

  • A says:

    Hopefully BMorg will give us regular updates on how STEP is going. It would go a long way to calming the community.

    Report comment

  • Bunney says:

    I’m glad they really listened to everyone and came up with a solution for the ticket sales. A little story of my First time going. I had a ticket and was going alone to Burning Man Right of Passage. One day before I left my roommate decided he wanted join in on a sold out journey. So we ran around town and on creigslist enetually finding someone three hours before i was going to leave selling their extra ticket for face value and wanted a bike as well. So we did the trade and headed out of town. :) Life is beautiful.

    Report comment

  • MarAna says:

    Less than a hour to check how the STEP registration link works …

    Good luck to all for the STEP registration and let´s hope for a rael ticket-rain.
    Sometimes dreams come true, even in a hopeless situation.;)

    Report comment

  • Time says:

    eplayas down :(

    Report comment

  • alan says:

    it’s not connecting

    Report comment

  • liz says:

    my link is totally not working

    Report comment

  • Matt says:

    Way to anticipate the load on the server guys!

    Too bad there aren’t hundreds if not thousands of burners who have connections to companies that could provide robust hosting that could handle the traffic. O wait…

    Report comment

  • BullNasty says:

    server crash!

    Report comment

  • FD in SC says:

    Wow, I got to the sign up page and it crashed ! 20 tries and cannot get back

    Report comment

  • FD in SC says:

    Notice the blog works though

    Report comment

  • brennon says:

    tickets-secure.com < amazon elastic cloud =p

    Report comment

  • DG says:

    Back to the drawing board…

    Report comment

  • alan says:

    still not working

    is this some sign that after very happy years
    it might be time to take a year off?

    should be buy 1,000 acres in the Indian Lands and hold our own event

    Report comment

  • Time says:

    got to ticket save then nothing

    Report comment

  • m.rich says:

    The connection was reset

    The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.

    The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few
    moments.
    If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer’s network
    connection.
    If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure
    that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.

    SHOCKING!

    Report comment

  • Celine says:

    And it’s crashing! Right now! Ugh. Help?

    Report comment

  • brennon says:

    is this all part of the game? i like feel as though im in an alternate universe here, can i buy tickets to the party at the end of the univerze pls?

    Report comment

  • Roxycurl says:

    i’m going to the link right now to put my name on the list and the link isn’t working. neitheer is the link on the page above.

    Report comment

  • liz says:

    same thing…go the sign up, click and nothing. oh boy :(

    Report comment

  • Yan Pritzker says:

    What I’d like to know is who is behind the technology design for these programs? While I won’t pretend that I’ve built a high-availability ticketing server before, it seems to me all you should be doing is collecting info in a form and saving it in a database. Here’s a simple design that won’t fail out from massive traffic:

    1 EC2 load balancer
    20-50 EC2 machines booted for the hour or so that you need this open
    each machine running a dead simple app that just saves the form to the database

    Deal with ticket processing later. the first step is to figure out who came first and save their info in a queue. that should be very easy to implement. Stop trying to tie the queue to to the purchasing process

    Report comment

  • Following the rules. . . says:

    Thanks so much for this amazing second chance for all of us who have followed you faithful to this point . . . a CLIFF :( Spiraling down out of control now . . . got a rope?

    Report comment

  • Alexa says:

    I got in once and clicked sign up and got nothing too… The server obviously can’t handle this. But I feel like this should have been covered when they knew how many people would be signing up!

    Report comment

  • simoneski says:

    Link did not work…got an email from Will Chase saying that the line would be cut off after 2000 people signed up. I wonder if anyone got to sign up?

    Report comment

  • cabeal says:

    12:13 – still down.

    Report comment

  • West says:

    annnd its down. I even got a blank white page instead of page not loading. OOO update! I got a page with a link…to dead air again. I even replied to my STEP email in frustration.
    Fools.

    Report comment

  • Time says:

    SECURE TICKET EXCHANGE PROGRAM (STEP)
    2012 BURNING MAN WANT LIST

    Thank you, your request to be added to the WANT List was successful! Being added to this list does not guarantee you a chance to buy tickets.

    If tickets do become available, you will receive an email with a link to purchase tickets. You will have 72 hours to buy tickets using your unique link – nobody else can use it.

    Please do not contact customer support asking about your status.

    Report comment

  • scott _ )'( _ K says:

    i’ve been trying since 11:55 I can’t can’t even get the page to load. I have the fastest internet connection money can buy too…. bummer.

    Report comment

  • brennon says:

    maybe its only working for people who are selling tickets and failing for us as a sort of ruse?

    Report comment

  • liz says:

    lucky you Time! :) i’ve gotten a successful link twice and had it crash both times. make that three times!

    Report comment

  • Daniel says:

    Wow, I totally expected a crash. It always seems to happen. Finally got through after 9 minutes. Gratz to those who got right in. I hope to join you all on the playa

    Report comment

  • Purple Cutie says:

    Trying to have faith and not fall into the vortex of anxiety. Still make my costumes and help with theme camps and art installations and see what happens come August. Good luck to everyone <3

    Report comment

  • dorian says:

    I made it to the first page, clicked on the 1 ticket link made it to the part where i submit to enter into the want list and was then booted. do i still get my spot or have i lost it to error page?

    Report comment

  • This AGAIN!?!?! says:

    In-Ticketing fails again. After a few timeouts I got to the page with the “Save” button and then it blew up. Now I don’t know if I’m in or not, so what to do- retry?

    Report comment

  • Bunny says:

    So I finally registered for STEP. I waited by my computer and clicked the link at the stroke of noon. AND OF COURSE! All I get are error messages, page not found server time outs etc. Took 15 minutes for one of my browsers to finally get thru. So much for my place in line.

    Report comment

  • sadie says:

    alright i got in at 12:17… so could be anywhere on a waiting list of 2000? let’s pray 2000 scalpers found a moral compass and put the tickets where they belong.. to the people who played the game fairly

    Report comment

  • cath says:

    Several time outs. Many refused connections. Lots of blank pages. Once got through to the first page, then clicked on the “confirm” button (or whatever it said), then more white pages, timeouts, and refused connections. Eventually got to a page on the hosting website with an error message written in code. Now can’t refresh that secondary link anymore, so back to using my unique link. Hopefully it won’t count as used, due to the first connection having been made once.

    I am way too stressed about this. Breathe…..

    Report comment

  • Jim says:

    Dear whatever committee approved the lottery this year… You all suck at your jobs. The end.

    Report comment

  • DG says:

    Just signed up. Keep trying…

    Report comment

  • alan says:

    do we let stay on “connecting” or try reloading ?

    Report comment

  • liz says:

    finally. think i got in eight times before it worked :(

    Report comment

  • Rutrow says:

    First page finally loaded, hit the submit button, then received a blank page. Did I get signed up? Anyone who had success, let me know what happened after the “sign up” button.

    Thanks,

    Report comment

  • AL says:

    Got the sign-up page twice and both times failed upon clicking. Now I get a message that the queue is full. Sorry BMORG but you fucked this up big time, yet again.

    Report comment

  • simoneski says:

    Yes, just got through, just keep refreshing. Good luck!

    Report comment

  • Nicole says:

    We’re sorry, but the STEP queue is now closed. You should have received an email from Burning Man with information about the limitations of the queue including if and/or when it will be reopened.

    Well…shit.

    Report comment

  • scotty says:

    I am in, I guess, just sit and wait for email to puchase ?? right ?

    Report comment

  • DJ says:

    WOW!!!!!!! Why am I not surprised the link is not working?

    Report comment

  • Teresa says:

    Wondering if ANYONE has been to get “link” to work??

    very sad.

    Report comment

  • cath says:

    The power of whining! Immediately after that post, I got through. Good Luck, everyone! :)

    Report comment

  • cath says:

    @Rutrow: Start again with your “unique link.” That worked for me when I was in your exact situation.

    Report comment

  • Hotspringswizard says:

    The STEP program is a Fail, as expected. Its been a great ten year ride but Burning Man will never be the same IMHO. Reaching critical mass last year was the Omen of things to come. BM is transitioning for sure, into something less. Time to move on to other things, like regional events creating their own magic :-)

    Report comment

  • shwazam says:

    got the message just now that STEP is now closed…. must have hit the 2000 registrants limit that jackrabbit mentioned very recently

    Report comment

  • Erica says:

    The STEP sucks it. I got to the page where I submit that I want tickets NINE times! I was booted each time. Now the STEP is closed. Out of EVERYONE I know who has attended BM for years and years NOT A SINGLE PERSON has a ticket. Have fun on the Playa with folks who have ZERO institutional memory…

    Report comment

  • This AGAIN- again. says:

    OK, it finally worked! There is still hope, although I probably lost my place in line like last year. If you are still trying don’t give up. If you clicked the “Click here to complete your signup on the want list [Click Here], and then got am In Ticketing php error page (what happened to me)- it looks like you didn’t get registered. Try again.

    Report comment

  • Tony gladden says:

    After several tries we got on list at 12:22 , I think. Needed to wait for page to load before hitting link. Good luck all. Thanks to all working on this for all their blood sweat and teats. ..
    Tony&judy

    Report comment

  • Teresa says:

    Wow- it must have been open for half of a second. So what are we suppose to do? go to our email randomly and see if the “link” works?????

    Report comment

  • Martin says:

    I got to the screen where you click a button to register for your desired amount of tickets three times… first time it gave me an error… 10 minutes later I got it again, also an error… third time was the charm. You know it goes through because it gives you a confirmation message, and you get an email right away. Good luck STEPpers! At least this will be a year to remember, whatever the reasons may be… :)

    Report comment

  • Rachael Black says:

    Clicked the Add to Step button -when the site finally let me in. Looked as if the site accepted it…then got a blank screen with no ‘confirmation’ page or anything else. Next time I got through -about a minute later, got the ‘STEP Queue is Now Closed’. so did I or didn’t I get a ticket? Also, no email. WTF

    Report comment

  • Tony gladden says:

    Oppps… Tears..lol

    Report comment

  • Hotspringswizard says:

    Got in at 12:26, and greeted by, ” We’re sorry, but the STEP queue is now closed “.

    Report comment

  • Madeleine says:

    to all of those getting halfway through and then ending up on the white screen of death, you are not done until it says

    “Thank you, your request to be added to the WANT List was successful! Being added to this list does not guarantee you a chance to buy tickets. ”

    keep refreshing, resending, repasting link in until you get this. best of luck

    Report comment

  • MarAna says:

    So sad, now dream come true

    Report comment

  • Danger Muffin says:

    My email says, “Your link will not be active until 12 noon (PST) Friday, March 2”. I go to click on it at noon and it’s still closed. I go to click on it at 12:20 PM today and this is the message I get!?

    “We’re sorry, but the STEP queue is now closed. You should have received an email from Burning Man with information about the limitations of the queue including if and/or when it will be reopened.”

    Are you f-ing serious!?

    Report comment

  • Shorty says:

    Trying to get into the STEP program just another fiasco – link doesn’t work, then does but kicks you out & you have to start over, etc, etc, etc. Spent over 20 min just trying to “get a place in line”…….these hurdles are becoming all too familiar, as in the default world.

    Report comment

  • Rachael Black says:

    Well, judging from the above comment I guess I didn’t. It must have been closed JUST as I was trying to get MY ticket :(
    ~sadness from an eight year Burner and proud member of The Burning Man Marching Band

    Report comment

  • Precious says:

    So I just refreshed hundreds of times on the step page and of course the stuid page won’ open. then once it did open I pressed the “I want” button and it sent me to a blank page. So you know what I think about STEP….it SUCKS. If you know thousands of people are going to log on then why doesn’t the page have the capacity to open. I have officially lost me faith in the burning man system. Non of the Whiskey Bar at 3:30 and C got tickets, so I guess that’s the end to our camp. I am so sad that I have lost hope, because while others were bitter I held in there, but today I can hold on anymore. I can’t keep telling people that this year is going to be great because it seems like being a non-profit means voting and leaving the BRC community out of the decision making. the Jack rabbit speaks isn’t helping either, instead it is acting as a reminder that things still haven’t worked out and the plan isn’t really working. Good luck to those who have tickets.

    Report comment

  • alan says:

    any idea here
    do we wait and watch “connecting” and wait do we re-load ?

    Report comment

  • laura fairy says:

    I did everything they told me to do to get a ticket. I arrived on site ear;y just to be sure but my link wouldn’t work. By the time it did it said the thing was closed. This has been a frustering and tear-inducing procedure. I have heard such great things about burning man but this sucks. This was to be my first burn but my fires been extinguished before I even got a chance.

    Report comment

  • alan says:

    any comment
    I have been “connected” for 30 minutes with a blank screen’does anyone out there
    know what to expect?

    Report comment

  • dorian says:

    Step = Fail

    Report comment

  • MarAna says:

    17 tickets, seems to me like not even a drop of rain :(

    Report comment

  • Camille says:

    So I got through several times and was able to click the WANT button but then immediatley got bumped….How will I know if it worked and all. Finally I got through and it said the STEP has been closed…so Frustrated.

    Report comment

  • alan says:

    Marion

    Are you saying STEP is over for now!

    Report comment

  • Uncle Sam says:

    If you got through then you should have received an email saying so…

    I am sure the demand is way high, so try again soon to see if the queue is open again!

    Report comment

  • James 3 says:

    17 tickets? what a FAIL. no incentive to put tickets in STEP clearly, and poor web infrastructure backing up a huge demand. noone in our local community has tickets to spread around, but clearly thats how most tickets from the lottery will be distributed. ive had tickets for 8 years running and plan my year around the event, and following instructions and only asking for what I needed has left me holding the bag. I know im in good company…but ugh. Relax? sounds like its worse than we’d hoped…

    Report comment

  • GBC says:

    BORG, what happened? I started trying to get through at 2:00 p.m. At 2:02 p.m. I connected but only to a blank screen that didn’t ever load. By 2:06 p.m. and after receiving the server is busy note, I got to that beautiful want page. Excitedly, I hit “want”. I got back that Safari note that the server had disconnected me. This happened countless times until 2:21 p.m. when I was finally able to get the want to go through. I am lucky enough to be standing in line now, despite my utter frustration. Based on the problems created by your server, this is not a first come, first serve line. If it were, my “want” (and probably lots of others) would have been registered fifteen minutes and countless applications earlier than it was. I think that most of our communal frustration is because we all want to enjoy our great playa together, and we keep hitting road blocks that are out of our control. This experience was better than past years’ queues that took hours, so bravo on making it a little better. Unfortunately, the stakes feel a lot higher in this queue than the original one where you knew that your perseverance would result in your golden ticket.

    Report comment

  • Juice says:

    You have got to be kidding me, what a joke. Way to really put the taste of shit in my mouth about this whole experience. Not sure if I should continue working on my art project for this years burn or just say fuck it and not go home this year. You guys really shit the bed this year. Well i guess I could buy a ticket from stub hub, there seems to be a bunch available on there. Good work team.

    Report comment

  • alan says:

    Why are you deleting the latest comment?
    I have been “connected for 45 Minutes”
    is the process till working ??
    Someone please advise
    notice that all comments past 12:01 have been taken down

    Report comment

  • LookingAndLookingStill says:

    Oh -oh. Maybe the strategy to hit refresh over and over was bad. I have six e-mails saying I’ve been added. I wonder if they are going to dedupe me. . .

    Report comment

  • ChillPill says:

    Everyone the BMorg is attempting to the best of their ability to resolve this issue! I think the STEP program is a step in the right direction.

    Let’s be honest they are taking on something they have no experience of dealing with first hand (seriously just look at their background experience). Besides it’s much easier to reinvent the wheel then to contact someone with the resources/skills to put in place a system that works!

    Don’t get me wrong, the Bmorg have BIG hearts and are doing the best that they can . . . seriously I know they are losing sleep over this . . . but biting off more than you can chew appears to be doing more harm than good . . . it takes more courage to admit when something is our of your scope then to keep chipping away at something you don’t know how to resolve . . .

    Report comment

  • Cyan says:

    Dang. STEP closed within minutes. At 1220, I got my message … “Sorry STEP is closed.”

    Report comment

  • blech says:

    annnnnd I cant even connect to the server.

    what more can be expected but more bumbling from this point.

    Im really glad I cant get in because honestly, at this point, I would probably still buy a ticket against my better judgement.

    WE are the people that made BRC what it is, not BMORG and none of US can buy a ticket to attend. The few true burners who were unfortunate enough to get tickets this year now have the unruly responsibility of entertaining the SEA of spectators this year and have to somehow figure out a way to manage the heartbreak of listening to a desert full of first timers extolling the wonder of BRC when they know in their hearts that the thing that we all worked so hard to build was shattered into a million pieces by the most visionless of visionless leaders.

    what a tragic, tragic, tragic end to something that was so close to my heart it took the circus ripping it away from me to realize how truly important it was. I feel like someone stole my family dog. And there are thousands of me right now.

    Report comment

  • StormyWeather says:

    “We must now attend to preserving the fabric of our culture” ….
    “… core contributors — art teams, theme camp creators, mutant vehicle builders, performers…”

    … tickets redistributed to “core” groups…

    So I guess now it’s just a private party. A very large private party, but a private party nevertheless.

    I don’t much like how this feels and I think I will withdraw my name from the 21,000 – give someone else a shot.

    Report comment

  • Cyan says:

    Did I mention that there are 36 Tickets on Ebay, all over $1,100.00? Bummer.

    Report comment

  • joe says:

    So I guess this is a precursor to 2013 when tix sales goes back to first come first serve?

    Report comment

  • Will says:

    The STEP program is a joke. I got in line, but that’s irrelevant, just like it is for 99.9% of the people in line (no exaggeration: 17 / 21,000 ~ 0.1% of people in line are getting tickets).

    To make it not a joke, you have to give *serious incentive* to people to sell on STEP. How do you give scalpers incentive to sell here? Simple: pay them. I’m dead serious. Rather than just refunding the ticket price to people who sell here, actually pay them more than they spent on the ticket. Give people the incentive to sell on STEP.

    Right now, regular burners with extra tickets are just going to sell to their friends, and scalpers are looking to turn a profit. Neither of these groups has any reason to use STEP. *Make a reason*.

    Report comment

  • stech says:

    I clicked at 12 noon. this is what I got

    Secure Ticket Exchange Program (STEP)

    We’re sorry, but the STEP queue is now closed. You should have received an email from Burning Man with information about the limitations of the queue including if and/or when it will be reopened.

    fuck you with clown shoes.

    Report comment

  • Gordon S. says:

    Wow, 1 hour and eighteen minutes in and STEP is closed, no way for me to enter. Wish I would have got all theses prepaid credit cards our camp was going to game the system with. We followed the rules for some reason, I only registered for one ticket. The Ten principles have died. Thank you bmorg, best of luck in the future. Electric daisy burn, enjoy.

    Report comment

  • Freeman Michaels (Dodgeball Addiction) says:

    so much negativity… i mean, who had that much faith in STEP? we KNEW the site was going to be balls slow and we KNEW that not too many tickets would be added b/c you couldn’t get a full refund. what do you all expect?

    Report comment

  • magdelyn says:

    My queue opened at 12pm. I tried in at 1:24pm. Here is the screen I got:

    Secure Ticket Exchange Program (STEP)
    We’re sorry, but the STEP queue is now closed. You should have received an email from Burning Man with information about the limitations of the queue including if and/or when it will be reopened.

    Hey burning man, fuck you. Actually, maybe I’ll come down to your headquarters to tell you personally, since I live in San Francisco.

    Report comment

  • CampMaster says:

    The Maid Marian post is an obvious hoax.

    The Step email said “There are a few hundred tickets in the HAVE queue awaiting the start of STEP” (not 17) and “we will need to pause the sign ups when the WANT list reaches 2000” (not 21,000).

    I had the same time out problems and being kicked off the page when I tried to hit the “click here” button. But there were probably 10,000+ burners hitting the ticket site at exactly 12:00 and no server will handle that – at that point it acts like a “Denial of Service” attack.

    Frustrating but not Evil…..

    Report comment

  • flash says:

    Burning Man tickets are available at StubHub starting at $1,000. One person has 15 available at $1,300+ each. 15??????? Glad the anti-scalping system worked so well! Burning Man, brought to its knees by its own leadership. Who’da thunk it?

    Report comment

  • Hotspringswizard says:

    Fae I was wondering about that to, that being the last BMORG e-mail talking about step starting out with a couple or few hundred tickets and now they say only 17. Where did those other tickets go all of a sudden? Also that e-mail said the que would be ” paused ” when it reached 2000, so whats up with Marian saying there are now 21,000 in the que. Like blech above said ” Im really glad I cant get in because honestly, at this point, I would probably still buy a ticket against my better judgement “, I concur with that sentiment since I wouldn’t want my great memories of BM 2002 thru 2011 tainted. I have a friend who went to BM first time last year who did get a ticket in the lottery. So he got to experience what some would say was the best ever BM year in 2011, and will get to see the demise of Burning Man this year. What a let down for him :-(

    Report comment

  • stech says:

    7 outta 10. newbies vs vets. one big sandstorm.buh bye, wanna see the PR spin on that.

    Report comment

  • skyhawk says:

    well congrads BMOrg, at least you did not surprise us!!!!!

    Take a bad situation, and make it worse…and worse… and worse… by not seeing the freight train heading your way, even when your half under it!

    GUESS WHAT GUYS. SOME OF US WORK FOR A LIVING and NOT JUST SCRATCHING OUR BUTTS ALL DAY AT THE BMORG OFFICES. Maybe we can’t be on line at 12:00 exactly.

    NO fear though, because due to the yet another policy change, unless you have email access 24/7 to respond to an invite to buy within 72 hrs, you lose your chance forever. As I was going to be out of the country for a while, I would not have been able to respond anyway. NOOOO, could not have had an auto purchase- guess that only works for the first 40,000. Or the 10,000 best friends of the inner clan.

    Well at least I still have a chance at a scalp ticket on CL like last year. That way I can spend every day for weeks responding to adds, and thus exhaust the time and money I was going to use getting ready to contribute to the actual BURN. There is a good chance I will get a last minute ticket. It will just be too late to have new costumes, get in a camp, or sign up for my chosen volunteering which has an early deadline. At least I can than sit back and enjoy the show, knowing I paid extra so I don’t need to contribute, even if i had wanted too. Oops that’s right, the camp was cancelled for lack of tickets. Never mind.

    Thanks guys n gals!

    Good thing the ORG is going nonprofit, ie accountable. It will be interesting to see if any of these dedicated fools are left once (IF) the masses have a say.

    Report comment

  • Beach Bum says:

    BRUUUUCE!

    Springsteen just announced that for his huge tour this year, he got Live Nation (a TicketBastard company) to do paperless tickets, just like the airlines!!!! It’s so cool of him to do whatever is necessary to get the tickets directly in the hands of his fans, without subjecting them to being screwed over by the *#@&# scalpers at StubHub and others!

    BMOrg, please learn from this, his tour will have a million+ tickets sold through this model, far bigger than BM! And the venues need to process 50K+ attendees within only an hour or two, a far more concentrated a time period than the 50K people entering BRC.

    BMOrg, thank you for doing whatever you can to get the tickets to us who really care about TTITD. It must be a very difficult time now, thank you for fighting through this and for everything you have done through the years in shepherding such a wonderful event!

    Report comment

  • IamAloha says:

    It would have been nice if you had put the link to the STEP program in the e-mail about the step program being open… Also if you had sent the e-mail about it being open before 12 noon would have also been nice… Anyway by the time I found the old e-mail the cue was closed. Ah my hopes are dwindling. I still do not blame you BMorg. Just ya know, ya could have been a little more helpful. Anyway I suppose I am not supposed to go home this year. Thailand and Laos are looking good though.

    Report comment

  • Hotspringswizard says:

    I see in my crystal ball that Burning Man 2012 will see three days of solid white out conditions! The Ball has never been wrong!

    Report comment

  • Beach Bum says:

    Trilobyte (ePlaya moderator/lead) wrote at Fri Mar 02, 2012 2:59 pm on the thread “So there are only 17 tickets? Or a couple hundred” referring to the post supposedly by Maid Marian at 12:27pm today that mentioned only 17 tickets in STEP:

    “I’ve checked with BMHQ, and that was not posted by Maid Marian (blog comments don’t require creating accounts/logins). The numbers that poster quoted are not accurate.”

    Report comment

  • magdelyn says:

    Looks like the people didn’t want to post my link of them pictured as clowns.

    Report comment

  • Trilogyte says:

    There are actually 18 tickets.

    Report comment

  • MarAna says:

    Well, I think it´s time to say goodbye to a dream for this year and i hope we can try next year if we can.

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  • mtn scientist says:

    @ beach bum:
    Yes, Iron Maiden is doing the same thing as springsteen through LiveNation: paperless tickets, id required at gate, same person who bought the ticket must attend.
    It is NOT ROCKET SCIENCE.

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  • Jeanette Mustacich says:

    PUT ID ON TICKETS=
    TICKETS CAN’T BE TRANSFERRED=
    SCALPERS CAN’T SELL TICKETS=
    SCALPERS WILL RETURN TICKETS TO STEP=
    TICKET PROBLEM SOLVED

    Simple formula, lots of us have suggested it.
    PLEASE LISTEN, BMOrg!!!

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  • Nippler says:

    So, once again, those with too small of a bank account at the beginning of the year will still not be able to purchase tickets, even if we’ve been saving up for the past 3 months to try our luck in the open sale? Awesome, elitism at its finest. Thanks a million!

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  • Muffy says:

    So, I got the email with the link. Said it would open at noon PST. I logged in at 12:24 and it said it was closed and that I should check my email. This soooo sucks!!!

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  • blech says:

    If I read one more person high fiving BMORG for trying Im going to puke.

    We didnt fuck this up, BMORG and ONLY BMORG ruined it. THE END.

    From the instant that the lottery was introduced, handfuls to tons of people commented on how it would be a bad idea and predicted the exact situation we are in now.

    In a true self reliant moment, the community stepped forward after BMORG failed us and made the best fucking lemonade ever and offered tons of constructive solutions.

    BMORG listen to that? No.

    The people at the helm are responsible for running this off the rails and still the lemmings come to support BMORG for trying.

    This isnt Woodstock. There is no angelic Lang nor Kornfeld guiding us with grace through the innocence. This is 2012. Orgainzing an event this size in 2012 is about as hard as baking bread was in 1200. If it’s difficult, it’s because you have the wrong people. If it’s really difficult it’s because you have the TRAGICALLY wrong people running the show. This shit actually is EASY.

    The part that brings tears is that we are all right here. So many of us are production and management people from the motion picture industry and entertainment. We deal with contracts, liability and insurance that far exceeds anything the blm is going to throw at this situation and we do it all year long day in and day out. The people were right here in the community, right in front of your face and we were all screaming to help to make this work.

    I hope the big dust storm comes on wednesday so at least 30,000 or so people will leave so that the few burners that actually got in dont have to deal with the inner turmoil of listening to 30,000 first timers extolling the awesomeness of burning man with wide eyes when the whole experience out there is just going to be a parody of some video someone saw on the internet.

    Anyone that is surprised shouldnt be. We didnt get a theme for what six months? And when we did the amazing art was a screen cap of an iphone app? We all should have seen every step of this coming. Enough of applauding the people that took this from us. Enough.

    BMORG, you ruined everything. And there is just no excuse. None.

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  • Dust Lover says:

    7 out of 30 in our camp got tickets in the lottery, so that is sticking with the 20% i’ve seen posted here. Noone that didn’t get tickets could even get on the site, let alone get in line. The worst part about it is who is going to speand hard earned money on things that would only be used at burningman if one only has a 1 in 5 chance of going. I don’t see where the need for the whole lottery came from. I have gone every year since 1998, and this is the first that I am ticketless. If people are stupid enought to wait until July, and the event sells out, that’s on them. There was no need to go to the lottery. All it did was create a false sense of scarcity. As the event nears, I’m sure we will see all of those extra tickets start showing up on CL and Stub hub at hugely inflated prices. To this that they would go to STEP was naive at best.

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  • oZZ says:

    Thanks for blowing out our theme camp and now your S T E P

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  • Janelle gibson says:

    I couldn’t even get to the want ticket request.
    Were you suppose to get an email prompt.
    Directions were not Clear.
    Sooo sad

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  • T Jax says:

    The continuing dissension on this thread is sickening!! Pull it together people. We all know that it didn’t work out the way we had hoped and your camp is in danger or was forced to throw in the towel. No need to repeat the same things over and over. BMORG knows it and they have said it and are doing what they can. At this point more complaining will serve only to weaken the resolve of people who might be on the fence about their involvement for this year.

    THIS TO PEOPLE THAT HAVE A TICKET AND ARE STILL COMPLAINING THAT THEIR CAMP IS FALLING APART>>> There are camps lots of them that are still going. If you are a creative, productive and or gifting type person find one and join up. Or start finding fragments of other camps and put them together. Make some new connections and new ideas.

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  • T Jax says:

    Someone above mentioned three days of whiteout…. Almost no precip so far this winter. I’m thinking a lot of these new participants if their interest is based largely on sunny day youtube videos are in for a surprise. Everyone will survive, but only the strong and crazy ones will return!! Muahahahahah!

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  • Jim Firewalker says:

    I appreciate what both blech and T Jax have said and would only add the die has been cast for this year. Investigate fellow burners whom might have a ticket if presence is required to exist or find an alternative event like I plan to.

    Hopefully, there is a next year event and the lotto is discarded, names with tickets implemented, first come first sold tickets (with allocations made for local communities that helped Burning Man grow for 20+ years — say 2000 tickets for a local like Reno) at the following tiers: low income — $160, general — $320, advance –$420 (no more than 6 per individual buyer), art & theme camps — $280, volunteer — $240 (3ea. 8 hour shifts).

    I hope that all of the virgins are prepared and that this year turns out on a positive note for all of those going. Wish I was!

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  • Mitzi N Topper says:

    I am tired of BM’s compound ignorance concerning tix. I may end up with an extra ticket in the future (I was lucky enough to get four) but there is no way I would participate in STEP to release it to another burner. I cannot control BM but I can control the tickets I was so lucky to win – and keep their perpetual ineptitude away from it. Arf.

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  • peter rabbit says:

    Fail for the 3rd time bmorg. You “tried” to listen to the community, but you half assed it. The only reason you gave to not implement identity based ticketing was gifting of tickets within the community. However this could easily have been handled by STEP.

    There is no reason for anyone to use step other than morality, and you will see how far that goes given people will lose money to use STEP.

    The only reasons why i might still try to come are to try to bring a pure veteran vibe to the newbs…and then perhaps i might be able to say with veracity this truly was the year where it was better last year.

    I really would like to stay positive, but given the gaping holes in leadership and resultant ticket fiasco, there will be a massive brain drain from the playa.

    Again, as well, i repeat why is there no talk of getting off of federal land and thus the 50k attendee limit? This would be the true (r)evolution we need for future sustainability. I know there is massive sentimentality to the black rock desert, but once upon a time long long ago wasnt the event moved to a better location to handle capacity?

    Perhaps, as others have suggested, since this is a participant driven event , its time for participants to take the reins.

    Viva la revolucion.

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  • U2pilot says:

    @T Jax Says:

    “BMORG … are doing what they can.”

    Bullshit. From the outset they have ignored the one and only solution that would have worked, despite virtually unanimous support from the community: identity-based ticketing.

    Perhaps the lawyers said that would be crazy for the tickets already sold, but the Borg hasn’t suggested that. Rather, they talk about the impact on gifting (as if anyone would put that ahead of getting tickets back from scalpers), the intrusion of showing ID at the gate (the same ID required at the city’s bars), and something about disrupting or inconveniencing people. Those are all bullshit reasons, and if there’s a valid reason they aren’t saying.

    I had my hopes up that they would announce it in conjunction with STEP, but that was a ridiculous dream. I should have known better.

    No, T Jax, the BMorg definitely is NOT doing what they can. They aren’t even revealing “Now Serving ____, Your number is ____” to people who did get into STEP. I got in, with the confirmation screen and e-mail. So will I get a ticket? How the fuck should I know since the Borg is withholding the information that would give me some indication. That would be the same information they are using to determine who gets the next they have to be using to pick who gets tickets. Should I start planning if I have a very low number, or if I’m #1998, should I just give up?

    Hell, just to help increase the number of tickets coming into STEP, they aren’t even refunding the full amount paid. So people with tickets to sell have a choice of selling to STEP at a loss, or selling on StubHub (currently just under $1200 / ticket). When it comes to ticketing, it’s hard to identify one thing they did right and which produced the results they predicted.

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  • U2pilot says:

    @ peter rabbit asks: “why is there no talk of getting off of federal land?”

    At a meeting for Theme Camp Organizers on 2/15, Maid Marian was asked this exact question. She replied that they have been looking for an alternative location for 10 years and have not been able to find anything suitable. I don’t cut her much slack in terms of ignoring the community and completely fucking up ticket sales as a result, but I will give her the benefit of the doubt on this point — I believe she was telling the truth.

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  • Dirt Wheel says:

    Keep in mind that everyhting is still working in it’s most perfect order. Even with Burning Man. What? How? Why? Well, some of the base for me about Burning Man is the ‘create & destroy’. I’ve always loved cycles. We are being “destroyed” right now. New, will be created from this though. Wait out the strom. Just like everything else in life. In the mean time ‘Be Positive’ If only for yourself’s well being. It’s all you will EVER have. When you get your ticket, go out there and teach and learn and create. GIVE the drive in others to do the same, even during the bad. Now is the time to show your self reliance like you never had. Stand behind something that has given you so much pleasure and now pain. Family always hurts and it’s always complicated. So be it. Veterans who have given SO much over the years (MONEY, TIME, ENERGY) have WAY more mental stress than a 4 year burner. DON’T buckle though. Stay true to what is YOURS. Wait out the storm. The only good thing about most bad things, is that it could always be worse…………….. What if a giant sinkhole was discovered and it was unsafe and there was no time to plan a new. The only good thing would be, that we didn’t fall and get covered up all those years. (although that’s the way most feel in this moment). Even if it we did though. We’d have to create and start a new. I know tickets and politickets and money drag all this down SO LOW. But when I daydream about Burning Man all I can think is ‘Man, I gotta get me some!’ Because it’s a NOW in life felt at a different level, not normally felt day to day. By the way can you still get in free if walk in naked with no possesions?

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  • BryanCarter says:

    One word; Fatigued!

    The beaches in either Pattaya or Phuket are looking mighty fine at this point.

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  • Kat says:

    Right now…what can be found….Wonder how more tickets they have and how many are in the closet until the tickets are sent?

    Stubhub, ….151 tickets listings offered from $1,193.39 to $4,200.00 the 1 is $100,000.00
    TicketsNow….18 ticket listings offered from $1525 to $1527 each
    Vivid Seats…16 ticket listings offered from $1099 to 1375 each
    Great Tickets….7 ticket listings offered from 1777
    Go.tickets.com….7 ticket listings offered 1475

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  • IDJoe says:

    Email from BMorg yesterday: IMPORTANT INFO – STEP SIGN UP

    The only thing missing was,

    HAVE A NICE DAY!

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  • Mutant vehicle owners of America says:

    Got my email last night from DMV stating that my MV crew will not have the opportunity to purchase any of the last 10,000 tickets. Nice. We have had our flaming stagecoach on the playa for the past 4 years hauling burners asses around BRC day and night. ” you need to go where?” “Let’s ride!”…..it’s beginning to feel like the past 7 years of participating has been a fraud. The playa is full of posers and we are one of them…..

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  • DawnL says:

    To Mutant vehicle owners of America;

    I can’t imagine what the Playa will look like without sites such as you brought to it. I wish I could say I will miss you greatly out there, but without a ticket I wont know what I am missing.

    Regardless, my heart goes out to you and thank you for the gift you DID give for 4 years, so sad to see BMorg lost focus of this so fast. So easy to fix to but requiring all lottery winners to claim one ticket per ID with ID within 2 weeks to be verified upon arrival too, and remove those that lay in the hand of scalpers and give us back our city.

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  • Superman says:

    I’m soooooo frustrated! What BS. For eight prior years I’ve never had an issue with getting tickets. Even last year, after hearing that tickets may sell out I got myself into the Berkeley Hat store early and bought what I needed. This year, my sister, who has never been at BM, got a ticket, but myself and my wife who have the experience (and camp gear) to show my sister the ropes? No go. I have followed all the BMORG instructions, first with the (painfully obvious) broken Main Sale. Then after dutifully attempting to log onto the STEP…. endless server busy errors…. then “sorry but STEP queue is closed” after only 20 minutes?. What BULLSHIT! Ticket sales by lottery was disaster. Verify the ID of the ticket buyer and tie this to the ticket #.

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  • Numb Nuts says:

    I sold my ticket on STEP. I seriously lost my incentive to go this year since none of my family or friends got tix. Our theme camp is over, for now at least.

    It’s been fun and I do hope we get back to having fun again someday at TTITD.

    Cheers, beers, and jeers!

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  • Boxer The Horse says:

    Check your junk mail, that’s where I received my confirmation…..

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  • bobalish says:

    Demand BMORG Board of Directors resignations now!

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  • bobalish says:

    No wonder BMORG has ‘playa names’; this way we don’t know the real identity of the people that screwed up BM 2012, InFertility.

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  • u2pilot says:

    bobalish Says: “Demand BMORG Board of Directors resignations”

    They are also the owners, so “resignation” doesn’t apply.

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  • u2pilot says:

    bobalish Says: this way we don’t know the real identity of the people that screwed up BM 2012.

    The board members names are easily located on the Burning Man site. Just do a search for “afterburn” and then pick “llc & staff overview” under Organization. There’s lots and lots of interesting stuff in the various afterburn reports. The one for this year should be fascinating, but it won’t be out for another 12-14 months.

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  • Donovan says:

    The really interesting thing is … BM org advertised 10k tickets to be sold after lottery, leaving a lot of people to simply wait until that time to bother trying to get a ticket.

    Those 10k are now earmarked … ok .. fine … save the core of the community is important, but then …

    They lock STEP purchases to only those that had registered via the lottery … leaving all the people who made plans to wait until the 10k sale completely and utterly locked out of any chance to get tickets via official channels.

    What the hell!?!?!? It isn’t my fault BM org did such a crappy job with tickets this year, but I am now forced to either buy a ticket via a non-official channels or simply not go, thus not bringing my mutant vehicle and part of a theme camp. About a third of the burners I know are stuck in the same boat … figured the lottery would be a joke, hoped to get in on the 10k open sale, and now have lost all paths to try and get one other than scalpers and craigslist.

    Bravo!!! Again.

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  • Electric Jed says:

    This is for me an example of just how much this Burning Man thing means to so many of us. It is like going to that beautiful spot in the world you always went to when you needed to recharge and re- (fill in the blank) your life only to find it was just buried in a volcanic ash flow. I am one of those who was looking for someone to blame for ruining this Burning Man thing that meant so much to me.

    One could easily ask: Don’t you have your priorities a little backwards?
    It’s just a vacation, a camping trip, in the grand scheme of things aren’t you over reacting just a bit? Fair question. When I attempt to answer, what I come up with is that comparing it to “other aspects of life that may be important” isn’t a reasonable perspective to take. Of course family, health, the environment and numerous other things in life are is more important. That’s not the point. We don’t usually feel our emotions in a total sum of our entire life context. We feel them on a case by case basis.
    Regardless of how important anything else might be, Burning Man is important to us in its own right.

    If your mom is sick, you are worried about your mom, you don’t say: ah well, my sisters and nieces and nephews are all fine so I should be grateful about that and quit complaining about my mom. You’re worried about your mom!

    So the passion we feel for BRC has great depth and breadth. That depth with which we feel about it is the wellspring for the anger, frustration, fear, sadness and exhaustion many of us are going through. For those of us who have been at this for a while, it’s more than a party, it’s a reuniting of friends, a re-igniting of a spirit. It’s hard to describe, but you see it on our faces as each of us arrives on the patch of dust we call the Black Rock City.

    So when we wake up one day and read that the organization that has facilitated this experience was planning a catastrophic change that so many knew would fail, and that they we ignoring all the warnings, we began to feel as fearful and frustrated with all the depth and power that we use to feel excited and energized. They were messing with a very powerful force that they had in fact help to create.

    Now, all of our worst predictions have come to pass. I have also been personally affected. For the last nine years, when my great friend and campmate and I climb into the truck to start the two day journey to Black Rock City, I turn to him and say “Where going back to Burning Man!” We hi five and hit the gas. I also remind him that it wouldn’t be the same without my longtime friend and how much it means to me to do this trek with him each year. My friend didn’t get a ticket this year. As with many of you, we don’t know if he will, even though we try to be optimistic.

    This time of year used to be filled with excitement, planning and building. What improvement will we make to the camp? How can we make our margarita bar more fun? How many more blinky, glowing things can I attach to my bike.
    The list is long and it’s something I really looked forward to. And that’s the core issue right there.

    A big part of happiness is having something or many things to look forward to. To be excited about what life will bring and Burning Man always delivered – big time. But what do we have to look forward to now? Mainly, it’s uncertainty. It’s hard to read the recent blog posts and feel optimistic. The apologies was nice, but it would never have been necessary if they had listened to the hurricane of opposition.

    So, what to do? Clearly Bmorg doesn’t know and that’s not very encouraging. As much as I am upset at what they have done, they are all we have. They say they’re listening now. I certainly hope so.

    I have read many posts on several forums and it seems to me the only solution is a re-birth. The Burning Man we all knew has been irreparably damaged for this year. If for no other reason than the massive bad feeling they filled everyone with. The way I think we can restore the villages, the camps, art cars and large projects is to sell as many tickets as it takes.
    Since there is a limitation on the number of tickets allowed for the Playa, the solution is a “New Playa”. A new location without the constraints of the BLM. Where you ask? That’s for Bmorg to figure out. They know what they need. No size limit, no bugs, good access, good climate. This is a big country and there are probably a hundred small communities out there that would love the economic impact of this event. Hell, I bet some would pay Bmorg for the privilege. They could open ticket sales again, 1st come 1st served with no limit so scalpers would have no incentive to buy up tickets, just like the old days.

    I don’t want to miss the MV’s, the art, the walking around with my mind in a constant state of blown. I don’t want to miss a single one of you.

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  • Leeloo says:

    Just wondering if there is anyway that bmorg could try and figure out who the single person who has the 48 tickets for sale on stubhub?? Even if that requires buying one of those tickets to figure out the general vicinity that the person is in and doing a little research like to check if those “people” on the creditcards used are real people in that area. Then also with the individuals who have 8 and 13. For the lesser ones I guess it could be a camp that has already put a lot of money into it but then not everyone got a ticket and so they are all deciding as a group not to go. And even the people who are selling 1 or 2 who may already be trying to recoup some of their costs, but, 48?! Omg!
    All
    This being said I kind of applaud the people listing theirs for 100,000 and 250,000… I am just waiting to see one with 6 zeros!

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  • Leeloo says:

    Also I would check high volumes of sales in the $240 category in an unusual area or dense geographical area since that is most likely the price point where scalpers would more likely have been trying to acquire tickets.

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  • U2pilot says:

    @ Leeloo

    If the Borg isn’t willing to eat the minor fees for tickets coming into STEP, they sure aren’t going to spend $2400 for one ticket. They don’t care about scalping or they would have done something to stop it.

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  • mtn scientist says:

    My great news: I just recieved acceptance into a PhD program. APrior to this acceptance, after years of full time work plus full time student in a masters program, I was going to take a break and have some fun (including possibly returning to bman after these long years away), only to find this ticket mess. This is yet another good reminder that there are much better things to do with time and money than bman. I hope people do NOT buy tickets at those high scalping prices and do something useful with those large sums of money, like education. (Or charitable causes, or many other actually useful things.)
    It is also amusing that I was been immensely worried about the PhD program acceptance, since the acceptance rate for applications was around 20%. Strangely enough, those odds turned out to be better than getting ticket to bman. So, stop trying to get a bman ticket and go to school instead, your chances are better.

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  • mtn scientist says:

    Yeah, I know my spelling is bad, I was up all night studying for a class (currently taking classes as non-degree status that will apply to the phd program). No sleep.

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  • Madge the Manicurist says:

    GBC wrote (with times changed to reflect my situation): “BORG, what happened? I started trying to get through at 12:00 p.m. At 12:02 p.m. I connected but only to a blank screen that didn’t ever load. By 12:06 p.m. and after receiving the server is busy note, I got to that beautiful want page. Excitedly, I hit “want”. I got back that Safari note that the server had disconnected me. This happened countless times until 12:21 p.m. when I was finally able to get the want to go through.”

    THIS is exactly what happened to me. I was all lined up with TWO computers, my STEP email link, and a super-fast connection. Exactly at noon, I started clicking/refreshing. At 12:02, I got the page saying, (WANT). I clicked WANT, and was immediately bounced out by the server. This happened at least 6-7 times on both computers (one using Firefox, the other Chrome)…clicked WANT (for my TWO tickets because I didn’t try to game the system at the beginning with multiple credit cards)…and then the server(s) kicked me out. Over and over and over.

    Surely yo MUST have anticipated the number of Burners who didn’t get tickets in the first round were going to be clicking “refresh” madly until they got a SEND page, like I did?

    Surely you MUST have made sure that the servers could handle the thousands of people who had the special STEP email link without causing delays and drop-offs? Surely you KNEW what was going to happen?

    Surely you MUST have checked and re-checked the server(s) status early on by sending thousands of incoming test STEP links prior to initiating the real thing? Shoot, I have a T1 connection and it was useless!

    Surely you MUST have worked out the bugs prior to going operational on the STEP process?

    Surely you MUST have known that, within minutes (or even seconds), those of us with the special STEP email link were going to be trying to be first on queue?

    Surely you MUST have known? And prepared for it?

    I think you didn’t. I think you made the least amount of effort because, in the real world, it was no skin off your teeth. You all will say to yourselves, “We did the best we could.”

    But you didn’t. In a situation like this, you all should have been prepared for the numbers of Burners who had the special STEP email link and they were going to use as many computers, with as many people to operate them, to get their spot on queue. And the system was completely overloaded.

    So instead of getting successfully into the queue at 12:02 (or 12:04, or 12:07, or 12:whatever), I finally ended up getting the WANT page and made it all the way through…at 12:17…probably just before the queue closed.

    Also, please see the message above where someone received SIX (6) CONFIRMATION emails that he/she is in the queue. If this is true, he’s/she’s in line for 12 (TWELVE) tickets.

    Man, what a cluster-fluck this is!

    I guess I won’t be opening the MANicure shoppe this year at BM. :-(

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  • bred on Suess says:

    Such a collection of sniveling ninnies. 2012 will likely be the best burn ever, great way to weed out the downer droners. Real burners are not whinging whinos, remember in the Grinch that stole xmas, how the spirit remained despite the presents taken away…

    A sure indicator that burning man is alive and well is how great art stirs up passions, such a doozey hullabaloo we have here.

    @Dirt Wheel. You! are a true burner. Even if you don’t get in buck-ticket-ass-less naked, you will have a unique burn-ass experience and I commend you!

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  • Madge the Manicurist says:

    PS: Please don’t go all Spelling/Grammar Nazi on my post. I’m angry and when I’m angry I make mistakes.

    BTW, I did email the BMORG stating everything above. Got an email back saying yes, they know there was a problem with the servers and they would get back to me. Not a form letter, either…a real human. So we’ll see what happens next.

    Thank you for “listening” to my rant above.

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  • Madge the Manicurist says:

    @Suess: Lemme guess, you’ve got YOUR tickets. Any leftovers you scammed out of the process by using multiple credit cards are, most likely, on StubHub or CL. A nice little windfall for you, isn’t it? You get to go to BM AND you’ll have lots of extra money to create something wonderful for all of us, amirite? :-/

    If I happen to get my TWO tickets (from playing fair and square), PLEASE don’t come to my salon for a MANicure.

    (Yes I know I shouldn’t feed the trolls.)

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  • healers? says:

    Any word from Heebeegeebee Healers out there? Did you guys and gals get tickets to come this year? You provide a wonderful service with your camp, excellent people all of you.

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  • bred on Suess.. Grinch grows heart says:

    Dearest Madge, I’m sorry to mock your bummerness, just attempting to add a little humorous balance to this discourse. I don’t yet have tickets and have no idea if I’m going this year either, though I’m not going to put on a big Grinchy face if I get to recalculate my wide-eyed wonderness somehow else. Hoping the best for you and me!

    Also, I have to point out that all these high price tickets on StubHub say they’ll deliver their tickets way late in the game. Makes me wonder if they actually have tickets, or they figure they can procure some for less in the months between (scam antenna up! …bmorg says tickets get sent out early June and StubHubers say they’ll send “theirs” out as late as August 24th). I call ScamHub (not even ScalpHub)! Didn’t find any tickies on CL at all, cool.

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  • Jonny says:

    To answer many of the complaints:

    I have posted a few concerns/suggestions/gripes before and have heard nothing from BMorg (which is actually my main complaint), but reading all the rest of the posts, I see why they are not reading this any more – people are complaining without even trying to think for themselves.

    So I decided to do what I think BMorg should have done: answer some of the common complaints:

    “the lottery sucked”: The lottery had NOTHING to do with the problem!!! Actually, it was a decent idea and would have worked quite well had the demand not been SOOO much higher than the supply. There is no good solution to demand outstripping supply by so much. Yes, there are pros and cons for every system, but having the sale the old way would not have created any more tickets, it would only have required EVERY person to spend hours of frustration in frunt of the computer just to be told they don’t have a ticket. I, for one, am glad that I didn’t wast my time and effort just to get the message I got in the end – “sorry, no luck”.

    “the system was better in the good old days”: Of course it was! but ONLY because there was less demand.

    “STEP suck”: There IS NO solution to 100,000 people clicking a link at the same second and giving them an answer that same second without some delay and timeouts (at least not a solution with reasonable cost). A reasonable solution would have been a lottery, but with all the (unjust) complaints about the previous lottery, BMorg obviously would not go for that. Essentially it come out a lottery with who’s browser gets the request in the correct millisecond. In any case, putting too much effort into STEP is probably not that beneficial given how few tickets are expected to be there.

    “I didn’t register for round one so I’m left out”. There are SOOO many more requests for tickets than actual tickets. So some means needs to be given to decide who gets the tickets. Ideally, I would say they should go to the most motivated, but there is little way of deciding that on round one. But there is s decent way of deciding that on round 2 (STEP). Those who registered on round one are (as a whole, although with exceptions) the ones who were more motivated. Just like in any line, you don’t shuffle it up after serving the first 10, just because the ones at the back complain that they didn’t know they had to get there early (even if they bring a doctors note).

    “BMorg is not putting any effort into the matter”: As any computer programmer would know, building a new system that will have to deal with massive input and having it fully tested in such a short time is almost unheard of (both with and without financial incentive). Doing it while everyone is saying bad things about you makes it that much more impressive.

    “I am more deserving because I…[fill in the blank]”: Yes, I agree that there probably are some criteria that would make some more deserving than others, but deciding on the criteria, implementing that criteria fairly and dealing with the mistakes and complaints is practically a no win situation. Every single decision BMorg would have done would have brought a ton of complaints. That, by definition means that most of the complaints are unreasonable.

    “BMorg is too greedy”: I have no idea if BMorg people are there for ideology of to make money. I assume there are some of each. I also assume that its not always one or the other – you can do something for ideology, but also want to get paid for your effort and rewarded for its success. But whatever the actual case – it is acceptable to want to make money!!! Most of us work that way at least 51 weeks of the year, so even in the worst case scenario where they are all there for a profit, who are we to judge – especially when it is obvious how much joy and benefit it has brought so many people in the past (and of course I expect there is a lot of ideology there).

    “I will never go to BM again”: well…. I guess the short answer is “I don’t believe you”.

    The problem is that all these unrealistic complaints fill the blog with so much noise that there is no way to actually read the few good suggestion. It also would make it so painful for anyone in charge who has any emotional involvement to read through it.

    So, in short (well, short may be slightly incorrect…:-)), most of the problems this year are no ones fault, except maybe the success of burning man in previous years. I hope some solutions can be found – I have mentioned my ideas for solutions in previous posts, feel free to look them up. They even have some frustration in them at hearing no feedback from BMorg, but reading all the posts I start to understand why this might be.

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  • CapnJoe says:

    YOU HAVE NO CLUE!!!

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  • u2pilot says:

    @ Jonny

    You didn’t address the most common suggestion — no identity-based ticketing, after being recommended by the vast majority of people suggesting fixes. You know it would be a bitch at this point, but it could still be implemented. That would pull back the tickets from the scalpers (professional and amateur).

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  • Albert Einstein said says:

    “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servants and has forgotten the gift” BMorg PLEASE be intuitive now use your gift and do not become a faithful servant and create a playa from rational minds!!

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  • Jonny says:

    @u2pilot

    In a previous post I said that I think identity based tickets are essential to implement, and didn’t mention it here because I have no idea why it is not done.

    Report comment

  • IDJoe says:

    @ Jonny

    We agree the core problem is demand outstripping supply.

    That demand may be umpteen thousand newbies who are thinking about it. It may be enterprising individuals and/or ticket broker companies. It may be a wealthy PAC contributor who plans to gift 10,000 tickets at the Republican National Convention. I don’t know.

    Time will tell.

    But why not mitigate unnecessary demand by using identity-based ticketing?

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  • Jonny says:

    @IDJoe

    Preaching to the choir… :-)
    (I was just trying to also give the things that BMorg is not at fault for, but not say I agree with every decision)

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  • IDJoe says:

    @ Jonny

    Just saw your response above.

    I’m glad we agree on that, as well.

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  • Ozone says:

    I’m tired of jumping through hoops… I’m tired of “quick fixes” and I’m tired of excuses. I should just take my business elsewhere.

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  • Transparency says:

    The 2 REAL reason the BMorg won’t implement identity based tickets is greed and fla out laziness. Although the implementation of identity based tickets is quite simple due to:

    1) their database had the identity of each ticket purchaser via the ticket registration
    2) physical tickets have not yet been printed or distributed (they don’t even have approval from the BLM yet)
    3) InTicketing, the ticketing agency in bed with BMorg, has identity based ticketing capabilities as advertised on their website

    So, why not do identity based tickets? Because there’s a cost associated with that. And for the BMorg to take a smaller profit margin from the ticket sales would throw off their pensions that we, the community, are funding.

    It’s a classic case of greed and laziness. The show will go on, the BMorg will make their millions, and we, the community will make the event what it is, as we have always done. BMorg basically brokers the land use agreement with the BLM, recruits a few thousand volunteers, and takes a percentage of the ticket sales and hands it over to the Temple crew, Flaming Lotus Girls and a few other art projects to create their spectacles. But remember this people, it is us, the community that makes this event what it is.

    Maybe we should all just sell our tickets back to STEP and create our own gig in protest of the terrible mismanagement of the BMorg and them not listening to our pleas. We asked for no lottery – they didn’t listen, we ask for identity based tickets – and they’re not listening. They dictate the rules of the game and constantly change them midstream. They’re good at one thing…. Turning this years event into a huge clusterfuck!

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  • 666isMONEY says:

    The reason BMorg doesn’t implement ID-based tickets is because during the Lottery they weeded out most scalpers (prolly weeded out many theme-camps too) . . . there are only 150-tickets on stubhub (I wonder if the person with 48-tickets is fake). There are almost 1000-tickets on stubhub for Bonnaroo.

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  • Biscuit says:

    sorry playa, i have suspended work on my artcar and camp for this years playa and will not be coming to this years event, the ticket program has been a disaster..starting to realize how much much i spent preparing these last few years..nuff said

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  • t groan says:

    @666isMONEY now if only they weeded out the people that gamed the system by having non-Burner friends and family make orders. I also suspect we’ll seeing a lot more scalper tickets available as the year moves on.

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  • blech says:

    Just remember people, if you buy a ticket at this point, you are supporting the ineptitude and arrogance we have received from BMORG. Vote with your dollars and do not support being treated like this.

    For all the real burners going, take a second to consider what it is you are supporting by actually attending the event, because bmorg NEEDS you to make the event cool for 30,000 spectators. They are DEPENDING upon you to volunteer since no newb is doing that shit. They need this so much they took 10k tickets and earmarked them in the name of the “core community” but in the end its just saving face in hopes of maintaining some volunteer labor force.

    Lets get real here. I know a few people that got an earmarked 10K ticket, or at least thats the way it seems as they all had either really heavy huge theme camps, art project or mutant vehicles. So far, out of the small handful of “elite” friends given tickets, NOT ONE of the them can move forward with their big camp/art/car because while the borg gave them the chance to buy a ticket, the rest of their crew didnt have such luck and none of these guys are doing big projects. They are just going. Just like all the spectators. And it couldnt be more obvious that this was going to happen.

    If you got a ticket, and you go, please dont volunteer for anything official. There is no other effective way to express your disdain, if you have some. It’s a vote with action and thats the only vote that counts.

    When I look at the money I put into this, it truly is amazing. Rent an RV in LA. Gas and food all through california and NV. Big shopping in Truckee and Reno, drop cash in gerlach just to support on the way in and out, its thousands and thousands of dollars I put into the economy before I even get to the playa. This is so much larger than I dont get (or at this point want) to hang out with my friends on the playa. All the small business I support via my burner lifestyle are all effected by the ineptitude of BMORG. The gas stations and markets are PISSED I didnt get a ticket this year.

    When I look back to what I spent the first year I went versus last year, my spending on BM is easily 30 times what I spent my first year. Dont think for a second that 30,000 newbs are going to put nearly the money into the local economy that experienced burners normally would. Shit, it took me at least 3 burns to even figure out what to spend money ON. Its super easy to do BRC cheap, I did for a few years. It’s super fun to put money into the thing and that takes some experience.

    We can bitch and moan but it really has no impact, bmorg knows they fucked up, they know we are pissed and they clearly could give a shit as the revenue for the org is there. mission accomplished. Because of the mockery they have made of the event however, the money going back into the community will not be present because the overwhelming majority of the people going dont even know what the community is. Congratulations. This is exactly how I hoped BRC would change the world.

    If you dont have a ticket, dont get one. There is no other vote.

    Dont write me off as bitter either, just because I can see the forest through the trees. Some very short sighted people completely destroyed our families and from a situation that was entirely not even remotely close to being broken, its absolutely unforgivable.

    There is no other vote. Express your opinion.

    This isnt dissention. This is a broken heart. A broken heart for all we’ve given.

    There is no other vote.

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  • citizen006 says:

    So how many people have STEPped in it so far?
    If you haven’t already the you will need to find a way to be ASSIMILATED by the BORG.
    The individual has little chance of finding a ticket on your own.
    Burned for 12yrs, had to scramble but found love in theme camp who I’ve always supported.
    Bringing my knowledge and love back HOME where I will feel blessed I think

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  • CleverFred says:

    all 20,000+ of us who didnt get tickets should charter planes and skydive in, be alot cheaper and bmorg wouldnt get the $..im sure some pilots out there could use the money..not to mention skydiving lessons..lol

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  • Liam Be'em says:

    If limited capacity colliding with exploding demand caused this, doesn’t it make sense to increase capacity, since the demand isn’t within your control but the capacity is? And if that is a correct conclusion, isn’t one of the best ways to increase capacity by ditching the BLM land five-year-agreement (which only maxes out at 70,000 headcount in year five anyway)? And if that is a correct assumption in turn, isn’t PRIVATE land one workable way to accomodate any level of high demand? I can’t believe it would all that expensive to purchase some playa land somewhere… we could pull a one-time fundraiser together and get the land for four or five million, then have a secure HOME in perpetuity! Funding could be gotten, for sure: you cobble together some from the attendees, some from the private foundations like Hewlett or Pew, and even some from the local county government which is trying to stimulate its economy by being friendly to tourism… people, we could absolutely get this done! For example, we could buy the new ghost town Empire, just before Gerlach, from the defunt mining company at pennies on the dollar. Presto! 100,000 attendees? No problem…

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  • Hippopotami says:

    I got stepped in. Used my phone to access the cue, but all this nay saying has made me wonder whether or not to sell my tickets back or try to just burn even hotter.

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  • Chaiverson says:

    hey Blech…

    It is comments and an attitude like yours that have absolutely no place in the community. You are a self centered jerk!
    Do you think you have some kind of given right to a ticket?? You didn’t get one and for that I am really grateful, you are not the kind of person I want to interact with on the playa!
    You have so many poor suggestions that I am not even going to bother trying to comment on them individually.
    How presumtuous to think that newbies need your guidance… I will be just perfect without you there… and the local economy will still benefit from 60,000 visitors… without your crappy bitter dough too!!

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  • Jim Moto says:

    Just a note from a One time burner–yes, only made it out there once, but did enjoy the week. Everyone is speaking of the culture and life of burning man to those that attend…which in fact its different for everyone.

    But one thing that is obvious to BM–Burning man is a business…Yes, I said it.
    I am sure in the first few years, maybe even the first decade there was a different
    vision of what Burning Man is…now it has grown so large–its a business.

    Every other event or gathering starts with the greatest of intentions, but when it grows past a certain point and people realize how much money it brings in, it swiftly becomes a business.

    Those in power don’t really listen to any burners, they make the best decision that brings in the most money….i.e. charge those that want to use STEP a fee–plus a fee to those buying a ticket–brings in more revenue.

    Burning man tickets this year…57K of them, in various ticket amounts will bring into the coffers $ 18,850,000. That is $18 Million dollars plus. I have been in events and know from my attending BM, that it does not cost near that much to put on the event. Who is taking home the largest share? (just a curious question)

    Yes, they will show you facts and numbers, but as an accountant friend said, just tell me how you want your financials to look and an good accountant can do that.

    One ticket per person will not be done, with your name on the ticket, because those that are connected and get large blocks of tickets to scalp will be out in the cold. That won’t happen.

    Already there are thousands of tickets being offered for sale with prices triple the “normal” cost and up. Just a sad situation that those in power are going out of their way to make worse.

    A ramblin rant, for sure…I certainly dont expect everyone to agree, but just my observations…Best of luck to those who got tickets, and those still trying.

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  • Sunny says:

    Still waiting for ID BASED TICKETING and an INCENTIVIZED STEP program.

    Neither of these are rocket science. Maybe more troublesome and costly to implement, but would go a long way to repairing everyone’s trust that this has been handled as well as possible. If these steps don’t happen, my partner and I have decided to not participate this year despite having tickets.

    Burners new and old will no doubt still do their best to delight each other and have a great time, but we won’t be a part of it. We’ll miss volunteering as Temple Guardians and tending fires and all the rest, but this energy-sucking mess has soured our vibe beyond repair for 2012.

    So we’re waiting to see BMorg announce ID BASED TICKETING and INCENTIVIZED STEP. If not, we’ll just sell our tickets to the highest bidder (yay for unfettered capitalism!) and see all you sexy bitches in 2013.

    Much love.

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  • Gideon says:

    Been watching this unfold from a distance.

    Attended the last 5 years.

    Moved last year from Sacramento to Singapore, and still made it to the Burn.

    This year, I was on the fence, but a beach on Bintan is looking more and more likely.

    It’s easy to sit and hate on the Borg. It’s easy to armchair QB this stuff, and even I totally agree that some easy-to-fix mistakes have been made, and I don’t think there’s ever going back to “the way it was.”

    May I suggest an alternative to hate?

    Channel this energy into your regional. Don’t say, “Fcuk it, I’m not going.” Get in contact with your regional event and commit to that.

    Google “Permaburn” and check out some of the events happening there.

    I am seeing alternate events popping up everywhere. I admit that Black Rock is something special, but there are other special places in the world, and anyone can put up a trash fence and call it home. This “scarceness” is artificially generated. There are other dry lake beds in Nevada.

    Let’s show the Borg that we’re not just whiny bitches and put their “event” to shame.

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  • gotta swim says:

    took away our self reliance to get a ticket at 10am in mid February.
    We are dependent on “you” to point out who does and does not get a ticket.
    We applied to the DVM and were again rejected.

    Reminds me or the Future Government mandated health that shoved down our throat
    You know, governmental death panel who will decide your relivence.
    I pick you, and you, NOT you…..and you, NOt you.

    Icky, icky icky. Run Logan! Run!

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  • Brandon Beene says:

    Wow burning man, you r so corrupt for your outrageous ticket prices and unjustified ticket sale system. I will not attend this year for the birth of my child and because you are so inconsiderate and self absorbed. Hope and fear 4 next year. When your out there think of the others if your not too fucked up… Wait… Not possible, u will be to fucked up. The definition of fucked… Really fucked up… True…

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  • James says:

    ———-> The prevailing attitude of: is growing rather tiresome, to say the least.

    I know it sucks to not have a ticket. I was part of an art car last year and didn’t buy a ticket before they sold out and traveled 2,500 miles, not securing one till the morning my group was driving to the playa from our last stop in Reno. If everybody would just take a breath and let the toxic fumes dissapate from their thoughts and just have some faith and know that if you’re meant to be on the playa, you’ll be on the playa and if you don’t end up there, it’s not going to suck because you or any other person is not there.

    The experience that I will create for myself at BM this year will be pure bliss. It’s 2012 and it will be magical. If you’re supposed to be there, you’ll manifest a ticket but it won’t happen by throwing an indignant shit fit on the blogs.

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  • baloney says:

    @James: “if youre meant to be there, you’ll manifest a ticket”
    Hooey. Some things in life are luck, but generally you have to work at everything. And outcomes are affected by multiple actors, decisions, and behaviors. Such as BMorg/LLC deciding to go the way of profit. Your thinking translates into a lack of responsibility or recognition of real-world factors: “I don’t have to try hard at anything, it’ll just happen”, or “something bad happened to you?, I guess you deserved it with your bad attitude”
    ?
    I don’t think so.

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  • A says:

    @baloney

    Please explain the “way of profit” thing. The BMorg is going to sell about 50K tickets. They primarily use volunteers. So how is the way they choose to sell them going to effect profit. I think the BMorg is trying to stay as close the the principles as possible given the circumstances. I personally think STEP would be more effective if they went to ID based tickets. Aparently they prefer keeping the possiblity of gifting tickets alive. I don’t agree with that choice, but I don’t understand how profit becomes the issue.

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  • Silver Cowboy says:

    Hey, y’all, don’t harsh my burn! I was lucky enough to get tix, not my fault nothing I did just worked out. I’m volunteering this year, too, for the first time. I’ve been going since 2000. I had to miss last year. SO looking forward to this year. Im heart-broken some fellow burners are ticketless, but don’t give up yet! Out of our camp of 15 only two are without tickets. They will come. Don’t assume that new burners are helpless babies with no idea about weather, nature, and surviving. We were all new at one time. When I couldn’t go last year I was deeply saddened but I survived, you will too. Keep the hope alive that tickets will come. I’m wishing tickets for all of you! This year is going to be groundbreaking and novel and I can’t wait!

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  • Blue says:

    I just got this in my la regional email. They have a bunch of volunteers trying to fix this particular issue…. of the many issues they have created. They have made such a mess of everything and keep compounding problem after problem. My girlfriend and I are not coming this year. This would have been our third and feel like we got to the party too late. The thing that really pisses me off is that all of this was completely unnecessary and there are plenty of people here that could have come up with something great to handle ticketing… oh wait.. people did come up with solutions and offered them up. I wish this fiasco hadn’t happened and that we could attend again. I want to feel positive and not bummed I can’t come but thats just the way I feel and a lot of others do too.

    Burning Man would like to remind everyone of this very important
    deadline. You have *TWO DAYS* to register your theme camps and mutant
    vehicles.

    THEME CAMPS AND MUTANT VEHICLES:*REGISTER BY 3/8* TO FIND OUT ABOUT
    DIRECTED TIX ACCESS

    On February 15th we announced the cancellation of the scheduled open
    sale to direct all 10,000 remaining event
    tickets first to volunteers, and then to some of the legacy theme camp
    and mutant vehicle projects: http://tinyurl.com/73dn3wb

    Projects must register via http://forms.burningman.com/ BY THIS THURSDAY
    MARCH 8th to discover if
    they have been preselected to have access to purchase the remaining $390
    tickets. It is taking longer than
    estimated to notify projects that have filed their questionnaires, but
    our volunteers are doing their best
    to notify projects as soon as humanly possible, while still working
    their default world 9 to 5 jobs.

    Aside from the directed ticket program, theme camp placement requests
    can be filed until April 26th,
    Mutant Vehicles until May 15th. Details here: http://forms.burningman.com/

    You may have access to directed tickets, apply for a low income, or the
    STEP program, but a single individual
    can only acquire one ticket from one of these three opportunities.

    THIS JUST IN: Technical difficulties — forms cannot be filed via mobile
    device smart phones or tablets.
    Also, please be sure you are using the most current version of your web
    browser to file.

    Theme camp placement questions should be sent to
    placement@burningman.com

    Mutant vehicle questions should be sent to dmv@burningman.com

    Thank you!

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  • free spirit says:

    @A, as someone else somewhere in these pages has pointed out, the total sum from tickets should be around 18 million. There is no way on this planet that they are spending 18 million on the event, as you pointed out there is alot of volunteer labor involved prior to/during/at the event. Based on poor porta-potty coverage for population and emptying rates, I can guarantee they are not spending all 18 million, or close.
    But that wasn’t really the point of my original post. I don’t think the “hey man, if youre meant to go you will” attitude is based in reality, or is very respectful of others. Its basically telling all those who don’t get tickets, “hey man, no prob man, guess you weren’t really meant to go man”. Nice.

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  • free spirit says:

    yes, free spirit and baloney are the same, title reflects point of my post! In this case, nothing free spirit about any of this, just:
    “frustrated ridiculousness”

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  • TMP hooray! says:

    STEP only works if people are trying to sell tickets NOW.
    Well, that is, if it was actually open.

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  • A says:

    @ Free Spirit

    I never said the BMorg didn’t make any money off the event. I’m simply stating the current ticket system isn’t generating any MORE money, so it doesn’t make sense that “greed” is the reason for choices made about ticketing.

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  • Scout says:

    @ Free Spirt: Yeah, they easily spend 18 million dollars. In fact they are really, really open about exactly where it goes.
    http://afterburn.burningman.com/10/financial_chart.html

    Granted, spending 67,000 on internet fees show me either they are getting royally screwed, or they are paying for on playa internet. 61,000 in phone bills? holy shit. 877,000 in food? Jesus fuck thats enough food to feed 80 people 3 meals a day every day for a year at 10$ a meal. WTF are they eating? Carmelized Manatee with spotted owl souflee?

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  • Kat says:

    I was so hoping to experienc BMan this year with our son whose own son is terminally ill. It would have been amazing to share his first burn with him. I’ve had 12 great years there, even painted a mural about our grandson, last year. After this last attempt at the STEP program, I’ve decided it’s not our time. I’m looking forward to new traditions. This could possibly be the best year at Burning Man but again, the word brings a smile and it’s something I can always practice, remember and share.

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  • )*( says:

    I’ve gone elitist and mainstream this year! Watch me burn all you bitches with me! Welcome spectators! Don’t forget to purchase your art car passes if you want to ride this year! Port-o-potties will not be cleaned this year, we’re going retro, back to the days of true radical self reliance. Yeehaw!

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  • This would have been my 5th year coming, but no luck in the lottery. I understand your concerns about allowing new participants to come, but the process appears flawed. Here is my suggestion;

    1) since demand exceeds supply, allow previous participants to register and reserve tickets to come every 2yrs (or 3, 4 depending on demand). This let’s people know that if you don’t win the Lottery, at least you can plan on coming on alternate years (BurningMan Olympics, hopefully not every 4 years). You can provide a Lottery for (say) 20% new participants every year while having the experienced core get some sense of certainty so that they can plan for the event.

    My plan “B” for next year is to get 100 of my friends to register in the Lottery and hope to get 2 tickets out of it. It will complicate your process, but I don’t want to be cut off from BM.

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  • Mutant vehicle owners of America says:

    Has anyone out in etherland received a ticket through the step system yet? Or do I hear nothing but crickets chirping?

    BTW….went to Titanium Sporkestra’s Big Fucking Party Saturday night in Seattle. I had as much fun and inspiration as my first time on the playa. One doesn’t need to travel to Nevada to find like minded people and creative outlets. It’s in our own backyards. Look for it.

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  • 666isMONEY says:

    WORTHY BURNER wrote: “My plan “B” for next year is to get 100 of my friends to register in the Lottery and hope to get 2 tickets out of it.”

    I’ll bet next year will be crazy — ppl realize they can make a lot of money reselling the tickets on stubhub.

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  • U2pilot says:

    @ 666isMONEY

    The reason it was crazy this year was that after the sell-out last year, tickets were changing hands on Ebay for more than $10,000.

    Identity-based ticketing will fix the problems.

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  • Jonny says:

    I was lucky enough to get my registration into STEP. Or maybe that wasn’t so lucky…

    Now I have no way of knowing if I have a chance of getting a ticket or not. I may be number 1500 on the list, with 150 tickets available, or I may be number 233, when 232 has just been sold.

    Yet I need to wait with all my plans (that include buying a plane ticket from the other side of the world) without even being treated with the decency of letting me know my number in the queue.

    And what is the cost of letting me know the numbers? technically it is a no brainer. So what is it? Maybe the transparency is a problem for BMorg? Maybe ‘placing’ is dynamic? maybe leaving people with some hope (however unrealistic) will quiet them down? Maybe its a reason I can’t think of that is perfectly valid, but then why not just come out and say it?

    BMorg, have you given up? I can understand your frustration with so many unreasonable complaints (see my previous long post), but it really seems like you simply gave up even the appearance of trying to answer people’s concerns. Is that true?

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  • Mutant vehicle owners of America says:

    Any step recipients….yet?

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  • hunny bear says:

    @MVOoA and others. I thought I would pass along some info which I hope will be informative/helpful for others. We had 3 members of our camp who were successful in joining the STEP wait list.
    One member received an email from Borg. time stamped 12:02 pm with notification that he was added to the wait list. Later that evening (3/2) he was notified that he could purchase 2 tix through STEP.
    I was successful in getting on the STEP list, too. The time stamp on my email from Borg. is 12:10 pm. Will Chase says that they closed STEP at 12:15pm. 2000 STEP’ers spread equally over 15 minutes puts me at approximately 1333/2000. I don’t really expect to be offered any tickets through STEP until sometime in the summer. If at all.
    A third friend was successful in getting on the STEP list, too. His time stamp was 12:15pm.
    If there are any other STEP recipients out there, it would be helpful for others to know when you received your email notification that you were added to STEP and when you were offered tickets.
    And I’m still hoping for identity based tickets this year.

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  • Jonny says:

    @hunny bear

    I have a great idea: instead of using time stamps, wouldn’t it be nice if there was some way of having each STEP entry given a number in order, then having the number of tickets soled, we could quite easily work out the chances…. oh, wait, BMorg has exactly those numbers… wouldn’t it be nice of them to give it to us… oh, but BMorg said: “We don’t have that capability built into the current STEP system” – I guess its too technically complicated… it must have to do with some complicated number theory…

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  • Martin says:

    Yes, we got news today, we did receive an offer to buy two tickets through step and, despite all the negativity on here, so we did.
    We pressed the button at 12:00 on Friday, got stuck for a short while, but got through, and received a confirmation email from BM at 12:03.
    So, there are tickets out there, and I’m hoping you’ll all get lucky in the end like we did.
    Of course, there would be a better chance for that to happen with identity based tickets…

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  • Mutant vehicle owners of America says:

    Thanks hunny bear and Martin.

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  • Kevin says:

    STEP report: one of my campmates with a 12:08 email timestamp just got a ticket.

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  • Freeman Michaels (Dodgeball Addiction) says:

    i wonder if there’s a correlation between the email timestamp and position in line… i got through on the site before 12:15 but email was at 12:23…

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  • Jim Firewalker says:

    What is the name of the temple this year? Is it being built again in Reno this year? Whom do we contact in order to volunteer?

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  • Aron says:

    We got a time stamp of 12:07 and did not get any tickets yet. Weird that someone with 12:08 did get a ticket. It would be nice if they posted what time stamp they were up to.

    What if the email got messed up? Dang. I’ll only figure it out in October when I realize BM came and went and I’m still sitting on the sofa eating cheezy poofs.

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  • Rob says:

    YAY!

    12:07 here. just paid for my ticket. See y’all on the playa!

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  • Mutant vehicle owners of America says:

    Hey Rob….sweet!

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  • U2pilot says:

    Cool that STEP tix are starting to roll out. What are the prices coming up?

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  • dave says:

    One good thing It seems E bay is refusing to allow the sale of BM tix there are NONE up for bid on there site !! YAY

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  • Ghost says:

    Counterpoint to Dave:
    Ebay/Stub Hub have around 90-100 tickets for sale, you have to take a slightly arcane route to them but they are still there; typical range 1200-1800 with a handful at price ranges in 6 digits.
    The resale issue will come to a head in June when the lottery acquired tickets are issued.
    The practical issue is going to be the number of camps and mutant vehicle registrations.
    The only YAY is a hollow one, too many people have decided not to go, including many ticket holders. The issue remains is whether the BORG have lost their integrity along with their credibility.
    Ghost

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  • Liam Be'em says:

    I’ve been thinking a lot about what this all means to BRC, this collision between a fixed capacity and exploding demand… and conclude that there isn’t anything we can do about exploding demand. Therefore, all we can do is increase the size of the fixed capacity, and I wonder if regional burns are the answer to that – over a period of years they just grow gradually in a normal fashion, but absorb most of the future increases in demand? If that turns out to be how things play out over the next decade or so, does that not give meaning to the theme “Fertility 2.0?” Ironic if it turns out that way, but things have a way of sorting themselves out after a messy birth.

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  • Abel says:

    MOOP, meet VOOP (Vitriol Out Of Place).

    I’m just going to assume that the senseless anger on display here is just an unfortunate behavioral fart analogous to road-rage.
    I’d like to think that once these people step (pun accepted) away from the screen and their disappointment is digested, they feel a healthy amount of shame for unloading their pain on others when the cause is ultimately blameless math.

    Comments need a flagging system for the benefit of both the reading public and BMorg. It would be useful (or at least gratifying) to be able vote comments up as ‘helpful.’

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  • Hippopotami says:

    I got 2 STEP tix for $240 each.

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  • MissAyme says:

    I was one of the last of the fortunate 2k to get in the STEP queue (time stamp 3/2/12 at 12:21:10), but it remains my last hope of getting a ticket at face value. This was to be my first burn, but without knowing my place in line, it’s hard to maintain any hope. Lots of conflicting emotions, no ground to stand on in terms of making alternate plans – hurry up and wait!

    Should a ticket materialize from somewhere, you better believe I’m bringing my A-game. Done the homework, evaporation pond, solar and marine battery gear, lights, music, costumes, my gifting project, the works. Sparkle Pony? I don’t think so!

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  • Burnie Appleseed says:

    From whine/whine to WIN/WIN!

    This is all about good times, right?… let’s think on the positive…

    I’m sure we can conjure up a solution to allow everyone to get their burn on (tin foil hat off, thinking cap on!).

    Here’s one idea for the brain storm…

    Of course the regionals are a big part of spreading the love… but how bout a Burning Man Art Park campground. Think of all the amazing past bm installations that are languishing in storage, put a collection of them on display and charge a small admission plus art car tours to cover expenses and fund future art. Maybe this could be at the old Empire mine or the DPW ranch. Basically a burning man roadside attraction all year around to spread-out the love. Ten principles apply, pay per night of camping, LNT, burn a webber size man every Saturday night in the barby. AND, Free ticket vouchers to anyone who puts their tickets back into the STEP pool.

    Toiling with the DPW, I always thought of us as imagination farmers, looks to be a brimming over, fertile crop as ever this year…

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  • JohnsonVonVohnson says:

    Let me make sure I understand. Last year the tickets sold out by July. The present system was set up to do what? Because here it is only March and pretty much there are no tickets left – accept for the connected. What exactly was the lottery supposed to accomplish?

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  • JohnsonVonVohnson says:

    “…when the cause is ultimately blameless math…”

    Bullshit

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  • Mark Lindsell says:

    I just don’t get it. I’m still waiting for tickets through step. I have no idea what tickets are left if any. I see many tickets on sale through other ticket services at $1400.00 each. Why can’t ticket sales to the purchaser be final? Another words, if you can’t prove the tickets were sold from Burning Man then there is no entry to the event. Stop this scalping. I’m from Canada, this was our first Burning Man. The principals on what Burning Man is about have been seriously changed. I’m sure many people going are to be disappointed. Is Burning Man is the same event as previous years?

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  • U2pilot says:

    @ JohnsonVonVohnson Says:

    “…when the cause is ultimately blameless math…”

    Bullshit

    —————–

    Agree completely. It was a Borg that didn’t listen when this EXACT outcome was predicted for the lottery and for STEP, who didn’t implement identity-based ticketing when that would have been easy and painless, who knew the lottery had been massively over-subscribed before announcing the results and went ahead with it anyway, who continue to refuse to take steps to pull tickets back from scalpers (pro and amateur) into STEP, who continue to act with almost no transparency and release vague and conflicting numbers, and who refuse to disclose a person’s position within STEP to let them gauge whether or not to buy a ticket outside of STEP at a higher price.

    “Blameless” ??? You sound like a politician.

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  • U2pilot says:

    And may I add, who has not provided any updates on this blog in 2 weeks, leaving people to dangle in the wind with no idea what’s happening.

    Also, there were a fixed number of tickets preallocated to specific theme camps. There has been no disclosure as to what will happen to the tickets set aside for camps that aren’t coming back.

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  • Miss_GO says:

    What a mess..
    I’ve been watching other members of my camp scramble unsuccessfully to get tickets and now since 3 out of 15 of us got tickets we are not only disheartened, but extremely sad. We feel cheated. You’re trying to stop scalping, I get it. But there has to be another solution. Did you not take into account that the lottery would only allow a fraction of the members of major theme camps to purchase tickets? Not to mention volunteers and people who keep it going. How the hell are we supposed to have fire/medical staff if they aren’t included in the lottery to begin with?

    This is a disaster.

    If the lottery system is in place next year, I am done. 10 years might have been enough.

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  • Scalpers Delight says:

    Yay, still no anti-scalping policy. Hurry up and print my tickets so I can put them on Ebay.

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  • STEP Participant says:

    I’m one of the lucky 2000. What time stamp are they currently serving??? This week, I have to decide if I should buy one from the 10K pool or stay on STEP. Are the warrants for the 10K pool transferable? If so, I’ll stay on STEP and give my warrant to a needy camp mate.

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  • Peace says:

    @Abel…

    Blameless math is the cause of the original problem. The vitriol is comming from the BMorgs refusal to listen to or communicate with the, now aparently mythical, community. There is nothing more frustraiting than when you are waiting on information that effects your life and the party that has that information witholds it from you. The frustration you see is primarily the BMorgs’ doing. They have the opportunity to be transparent and, thus far, they have refused by virtue of their silence. Burners may be a higher form of intellegent life, but they still have human emotions and the BMorgs handling of this situation has been psychologically inept.

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  • Freeman Michaels (Dodgeball Addiction) says:

    oh man people! lay off the hatred & negativity of BMorg! we sound like a bunch of ungrateful children!

    BMorg has made mistakes and caused problems, but this was the first year after a sell out. cut them some slack. it won’t be the same next year. if you really wanted to go this year, you can make it happen. BM has always been what you made of it.

    it’s so sad to see all the negativity here. some scalpers got tickets, but most of the shortage seems to be due to a bunch of virgins getting tickets. it’s not like that’s horrible & evil.

    anyway, thank you will chase for that update and i’m even more hopeful that all in my camp will be able to go.

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  • Peace says:

    Thanks Will. Please keep the updates comming.

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  • CharlieX says:

    I have no idea why everyone who has got a ticket (about 20 people) are so happy.

    Getting a ticket for yourself is not the point, it is about who else has tickets – i.e. whether the people who create and build BM each year can go.

    Answer = most can’t/

    Result = underwhelming Burn.

    I am a 9yr Burner, have 2 tix, but have sold them (at face value) as I don’t want to go on a 30,000 virgin cycling holiday, looking at the few theme camps that have been made whole as ‘entertainment’, and wondering what the fuss is about.

    Roll on 2013…if Bmorg get it right.

    Otherwise, it was amazing while it lasted, and thank you.

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  • CharlieX says:

    I have no idea why everyone who has got a ticket via STEP (about 20 people – not a serious number but an expression) are so happy.

    Getting a ticket for yourself is not the point, it is about who else has tickets – i.e. whether the people who create and build BM each year can go.

    Answer = most can’t.

    Result = hugely underwhelming Burn.

    I am a 9yr Burner, have 2 tix, but have sold them (at face value) as I don’t want to go on a 30,000 virgin cycling holiday, looking at the few theme camps that have been made whole as ‘entertainment’, and wondering what the fuss is about.

    Roll on 2013…if Bmorg get it right.

    Otherwise, it was amazing while it lasted, and thank you.

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  • Peace says:

    Amazing things come from destruction. This may the the most epic burn in the last several years.

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  • Stop StubHub scalping says:

    Let’s all send StubHub a message that they should not allow Burning Man tickets to be scalped on their site. Go to:
    http://www.stubhub.com/help/

    Click on “Contact Us”, put in Other for a subject line and type “Burning Man”

    Then give them your thoughts (in a nice Burning Man kind of way). Below is what I wrote…

    You should not allow Burning Man tickets to be sold on your site. It’s willfully promoting behavior that is contrary to the terms of agreement between Burning Man and the ticket holder. eBay stepped up and took Burning Man tickets off their site… so should you. Send a strong message against scalping! You’re the industry leader for second-hand tickets so you have the responsibility to lead by example. I use StubHub for lots of other ticket purchases and would like to know that you have a moral code that extends beyond just your bottom line. Thank you.

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  • Klaatu says:

    Just think, this might be the year that “REAL BURNERS” will refuse to go to go. Fuck, this might be the best year EVER….!!!!

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  • Wow, we need more internet. says:

    Its easy to hate on the LA virgins blowing out the thing in the desert. But whats the point? I mean maybe they won’t leave their trash everywhere. It may be awesome and fun…until Friday when they show up. and or leave. Tried to stay positive but think thats over. Now we want to make money on the burn like everyone else. Come buy our art-music-coffee-lifestyle. It rules.

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  • Intro to life says:

    Its easy to hate on the LA virgins blowing out the thing in the desert. But whats the point? I mean maybe they won’t leave their trash everywhere. It may be awesome and fun…until Friday when they show up. and or leave. Tried to stay positive but think thats over. Now we want to make money on the burn like everyone else. Come buy our art-music-coffee-lifestyle. It rules.

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  • Jim says:

    After a lot of thought, reading, and reflection, I find myself far more disappointed in the selfish criticism, finger pointing, and sense of entitlement coming from so many Burners in this situation than in the actions and reactions of the BMorg.
    I’m pretty certain that everyone is working towards a similar goal, here.
    No-one likes to see a good thing change when they don’t know to what end…
    maybe a lot fresh blood is not such a bad thing.

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  • Reality Bites says:

    “Burning man is an experiment in community”, right? What can we learn from our little microcosm here? Overpopulation has some harsh consequences. 120k requests for 40k tickets; lottery or FCFS, aint going to make a whole lot of difference that there are going to be a lot of tickletless ones. If BMOrg had started by selling to already registered theme/art groups first, that probably wouldn’t have gone over too well, now it’s accepted. Luckily there are regionals, ie. room to expand elsewhere. Once our earth hits its population ceiling, what to do then? Lottery, FCFS or ?

    How many tickets would a non-transferable ticket system bring back and would it be worth the burden it would cause?… …more bureaucracy, loss of freedom to pass your ticket to whom you want, longer gate lines and after all of that, would there not be just as many desirees left un-ticketed?

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  • pooz creek says:

    Okay, we already knew that procuring tickets for BM isn’t exactly fun! But this year it’s been a real nightmare for more than a few, with so many burners simply not being selected to get tickets during the first random selection process! Of course, we have to wonder: where is the LOVE? We are talking about some big time, worthy burners here, who are feeling really left out in the cold! We need a new plan! Certainly no plan is ever going to be perfect and satisfy everyone, but in the light of so much upset and upheaval, how about us looking at a temporary plan of action for next year’s ticketing, one that might help to alleviate some of this year’s disgust and mistrust around the entire process? Any plan chosen and undertaken has got to be a “living-plan,” that is, a plan that can change and adapt as our circumstances change. We are all victims here, of overpopulation, supply and demand, and a failed system that no one seems to see any way around. Those of us who are saddened and afraid we won’t make it back to the playa this year are already concerned about getting our tickets for next year! There are many who are truly disillusioned and angry about the way things went down. Foremost, in an effort to demonstrate that the organization does genuinely care about all the upset and confusion in 2012, would be for those individuals on the list who registered and were not selected in the first phase of this year’s ticketing in January, and the many who were also subsequently thrown off the STEP at, approximately 12:15 on February 29th, those who did not get a 2012 ticket, deserve to be the first in line for next year’s tickets, if they still choose to be. And, they should get the first tier price! These folks should be allowed to order just as many tickets as they attempted to get in January 2012! That’s a small compensation, but a well-directed one! How many tickets would need to be promised in such a case? How much future stress, anxiety, torment, frustration and confusion would that help to remove? What if there was an allotment of next year’s tickets also available at BRC? Charge $400 per ticket and skip the open sale before Christmas if there aren’t enough tickets left over for that! BM attendees could have the option to pre-register for next year’s event. A few computer terminal kiosks strategically placed around the playa could serve this purpose and remain open 24/7 until the allotment of tickets is used up. Participants could reserve only one ticket per person at BRC, using the number printed on each individual ticket stub as their registration number. After the torment and upset that this year’s ticketing brought to so many, we’ve got to wonder how many more individuals might just belly up the extra cash and go for such an opportunity. How many more tickets would need to be promised in this second phase? Okay, SURE! This is, indeed, a “membership has its privileges” kind of a system, true! The fact that the open sale, slotted for March, was terminated to give tickets back to the theme camps in order to preserve the core/infrastructure of the BM community, illustrates how horribly ill-conceived and unfair this year’s random selection ticketing system turned out to be! A NEW and improved system could ensure that the many veteran/core/theme camp oriented burners would get early dibs on next year’s tickets. It’s NOT, an altogether perfect system, because no system is ever going to be perfect! Virgins would be, for the most part, outside this second loop, but not necessarily outside the first one! And, of course, there are many worthy burners who, for one reason or another, do not always attend BM for one season or more, so they’d potentially be missing out on this BRC pre-registration. But with so many tickets being promised and pre-registered for, for 2013, the amount of tickets necessary to make up the remaining bulk in the January open sale would be significantly lowered. Lowering the amount of tickets for sale in January would, presumably, lighten the activity on the previously overloaded website. (I continue to maintain that the only way to dissuade inflated ticket scalping is by pre-printing tickets with names, which, of course, forces BM to take the extra time at the gate to check IDs against the names on the tickets.) Gifting and ticket returns could still occur through STEP, for what it’s worth. A remainder of tickets could be held back to be sold at reduced rates for financially challenged participants. But the majority of tickets, and therefore the ticketing needs of the majority of veteran burners, the core-infrastructure, the theme camp participants, would/could be addressed! The rush for tickets in January would be so much alleviated and lessened since so many more of this year’s attendants would already have been promised their tickets for 2013. The planning process, on so many levels, from one year to the next, would be made more effective and more seamless once individual burners were assured that their tickets would be reserved for them. Mainly this system is all about reestablishing goodwill between the tribe and its operators. As people’s plans change, STEP can step in. As circumstances change and new needs arise, the overall processes and planning taken to facilitate the ticketing process can be reexamined and changed as necessary. This is a carry-over plan that will help to assuage much of the overflowing, profound discontent and concerns arising in the community at large. Also, it will demonstrate to many that the BMorg is willing to take a certain amount of responsibility for wrecking more than a few well laid plans in 2012! Any input here?? LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

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  • Guava says:

    Made it to STEP…waiting and hoping…

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  • It will be ok. says:

    It will be ok people. The problem the old schoolers are having with all the new fresh blood is their not yet changed world views. If you have been lucky enough to check it out in the past you understand, it may change your perspective a little. The longer you go to the desert the more you want to contribute and the more next level you want to take it. Just staying alive is hard enough, all you fresh new kids should remember the ten principles, or learn them. Have fun people, it will be alright.

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  • The Chef says:

    1. Please just add a secure ID system. I don’t think it’s too late to require that. People will accept it, especially since they haven’t received their tickets yet. Make people add their name now along with a name for their guest. Any changes would have to go through the system.

    2. I’d like to hear more about efforts to stop scalpers. What I see on Stubhub is unacceptable.

    2. I got a ticket. My friends did not. I was not going to go but now I have changed my mind and will have to STEP it up to try to make sure that something I love is not irreparably damaged. Just yelling at the organizers isn’t constructive.

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  • Peace says:

    Hope Horny Camp is on the list of designated camps getting tickets. Love those guys. Super fun camp.

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  • Chameleon says:

    Wow. So many comments are so burner like. I agree with what a few people said about banding together with new people. I for one would use the step system. Even if I have to eat, what, 10-15 bucks to ensure my ticket goes to a burner as opposed to a scalper? Sounds fair to me. That’s peanuts for not having to stress over selling an extra ticket. Who cares. I’m trying to keep faith that things will sort out. Either way, I know I will have a fantastic time because I am in charge of my own destiny. I plan to go to local events in the summer and meet new people who will or won’t be going. I also don’t think it will be all virgins. Common.. I’m excited to see what happens. And I’m really glad that a lot of the bitchy people on here won’t be going so that I won’t have to listen to them on the playa. Harmony y’all! And good luck to everyone :D

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  • Jen says:

    It is going to be dusty this year with all this sparkle pony talk.

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  • Reality Bites says:

    On that math thing, weather to call it “blameless” “voop” or simply an experiment in cacophony, disappointment was inevitable no matter how you sell tickets.

    Black Rock City population growth (from the bm wikipedia timeline):
    1991 – pop. 250
    2000 – pop. 25,400

    That’s one hundred times growth in the first ten years!

    If growth had continued at that rate we’d be over 11 million at this point, anyhow, our current supply/demand predicament shouldn’t be too surprising. Guess we could also blame our math teachers, sparkle bunnies and just wang dang sexy fertility.

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  • Tony Ziemer says:

    One other factor for everyone to consider is there may be a lot of counterfeit tickets out there for sale on the secondary market. Where else can someone make $1000 with just paper and ink. I know there are several anti-counterfeiting effects built into the ticket, but there’s a big incentive when the price and demand gets this high. It would be a huge disapointment for someone who shells out a chunk of change for a ticket and then gets turned away at the gate because it’s bogus. The STEP program really is the best way to know that the ticket you buy is truly authentic. I hope that the BORG recognise this and take steps to head off this potential land mine. My friends and I bought our tickets in early August last year and there were cases of counterfeit tickets floating around. This year with all of the hype I fear that this may become a serious problem.

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  • BH says:

    My time stamp is 1210 and have not been offered tickets.
    I see posts ten days ago from1208 time stamps getting tickets – any 1209s been successful yet?

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  • Mutant vehicle owners of America says:

    Sure is quiet out there….chirp, chirp, chirp……kind of peaceful..

    Must be a lot of peeps got their tickets……

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  • Ghost says:

    Ah yes, quiet like the sounds of silence, or the grave, depends on your context.
    Some reports are that the Step program doesn’t seem to be releasing ‘tickets’ or the right to pickup a ticket at will call. It does seem that the BORG are/is cross checking names and credit cards for duplicates meaning if you buy one of the code tickets (the 10,000) you will not be eligible for STEP or low income tickets.
    Hmmm, the more complex you make something that should be simple the more likely the plan will not accomplish its intended purpose. The more time spent on the acquisition of tickets and the trying to figure out how to maximize the tickets the less time will be available for planning to go, and possibly (an unintended consequence) of spending more time planning on doing something else.
    So far the ‘quiet’ stretches to many camps, maybe it is just me, but it is too quiet.

    Ghost.

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  • Freeman Michaels (Dodgeball Addiction) says:

    i think it’s weird if you get some of the 10k tickets that you aren’t eligible for STEP. i don’t get it the point. the 10k disbursement was to help you get the minimum number needed to make the camp happen. but if we want to have a camp with more than just the minimum, shouldn’t we be allowed to have STEP augment the 10k tickets? especially since STEP is non-transferrable.

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  • LookingAndLooking says:

    I got through on STEP, but no tickets yet. I can’t remember what my timestamp was but it was towards the end.

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  • Jonsi says:

    I received 2 tickets through STEP on Saturday March 17th. My email confirmation time stamp was 12:08:09.

    hope this helps. Keep the faith people! It’s gonna happen…

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  • Graham says:

    I think I was around 12.16, sweet means we’re half way there :)

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  • U2pilot says:

    @ Ghost:

    “It does seem that the BORG are/is cross checking names and credit cards for duplicates meaning if you buy one of the code tickets (the 10,000) you will not be eligible for STEP or low income tickets.”

    That would seem to be false. There are people on here who have said they’ve gotten STEP tix. On the other hand, the codes have not been released for the 10,000 tix to either theme camps or mutant vehicles, and once those codes are released, they don’t have to be used before 3/30. (Or maybe later if they extend the redemption date because they are so far past the deadline they announced for distribution of codes.)

    More likely, virtually zero tix were turned into STEP. If you had a ticket you didn’t want to use, the current StubHub price is $1585, while you would have to take a loss on STEP. And the Borg has encouraged private sales at face. I thought a dozen tickets might get turned in, and a friend thought I was being wildly optimistic.

    The Borg told the theme camp organizer list that the camps eligible for the 10k allocation had been pre-selected for a specific quantity, and that if your camp wasn’t pre-selected, you weren’t getting any tix. They never said what would happen to the tix pre-allocated to camps that ended up not returning. My guess is that those tix will be going into STEP at $390. I’m also guessing they will have at least 2k tix from the 10k because of non-returns, so they can announce that STEP was a huge success because all 2000 people in STEP got offered tix and they are ready to open STEP for more names.

    And in the tradition of openness that the Borg has shown throughout this entire process, they will never admit that any unclaimed tix from the 10k went into STEP.

    If you were the Borg, and your goal was to help scalpers get rich, what would you have done differently?

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  • U2pilot says:

    Update: Preselected theme camps have begun getting codes. Apparently, not yet for Mutant Vehicles.

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  • joe bob says:

    just a step reminder – the average ticket request was 1.7 so the 2000 on step should need about 3400 tickets. step was to reopen when they were sold tickets thru step to a couple of hundred in the system? – has anyone seen the queue open? a suggestion to Bmorg if you reopen the queue when down to 1800 in line let 100 people in the queue so there are 1900 in line then 1800 … so August 15th there aren’t 2000 disappointed in line burners. Sent in a ? about the 6th of March got the auto reply that a human hand would answer – no hands left? It would be nice if Bmorg would release #s like how many people have received tickets through step. ticketless and stepless in MT

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  • Ace says:

    I have an idea…let’s split burning man into TWO weekends!

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  • Aron says:

    We got 2 tickets at $320 through STEP. We got through between 12:07 and 12:09. We got our tickets last week. Not a perfect system but it’s working for some people. We didn’t game the system at all, just went along and now we have tickets.

    I still don’t understand why not link tickets to people. Gifting tickets is so shy of an adequate answer it doesn’t even qualify.

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  • Aron says:

    For those that are monitoring. 12:08 email time stamp. We got offered tickets on 3/19. Good luck.

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  • Rob says:

    i just feel like i have to post here and say i was not a believer in the STEP program but i got a ticket.

    THANK YOU BMORG for setting this up

    THANK YOU ticket donators for choosing STEP and making so many of us happy!

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  • Freeman Michaels (Dodgeball Addiction) says:

    congrats rob! we are anxiously awaiting 4 tickets in our group too. hopefully the initial prediction that the initial 2k tickets in STEP will be filled comes true…

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  • murse says:

    I love you all. I’m sending good mojo to all. It will work out. I’m still waiting for step too…mojo all around.

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  • Graham says:

    Hay Rob,

    Congrats on the tickets, can you let us know what your email time stamp is, so we know roughly where STEP is at?

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  • LittleByrd says:

    Just got an e-mail saying Step was closed for me and I wouldn’t be getting any more info on tickets. It pretty much said “TFB…. But don’t give up…Keep looking into friends and the secondary market for tickets”. I am SO DONE with Bman and all the “we’re better than you are” attitudes. This whole experience has been a slap in the face and I’m beginning to think that the dry desert has absorbed the Default World. I’m unsubscribing to the JRS and I’m done reading updates and blogs…. So go ahead and blast my comment here and say mean things to me…. I won’t be reading them.

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  • Graham says:

    Hi LittleByrd,

    Do you have a STEP Confirmation email, if so you are still in the running for a ticket, I think the email stated that no one else was able to join it.

    Not sure if this helps, keep those hopes up.

    Graham

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  • murse says:

    Anybody know what number we’re at in the step process?

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  • BH says:

    I have a 1210 time stamp and haven’t received a ticket offer yet. But sounds like some folks with 1208 got tickets. Slowly but surely I’m hoping :-)

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  • One of the lesser known gods says:

    Hey Burning Man. Guess what Nobody cares anymore.

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  • murse says:

    Thanks BH! I’m hoping too!

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  • AsOfTime says:

    No worries… we can counterfeit that too.

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  • Laura says:

    I have have noticed a few posts stating that people have tickets they will not be using, but do not want to use the STEP program for various understandable reasons- if you are one of these people please read–
    I know this may be a far stretch, but I am going to try anyways because I am willing to work for this.

    Although I have not yet been to the burn, my life over the last year and a half has transformed me into a burner.
    I am an active member/ volunteer in my local community, offering many hours of my time along with my creative ideas and energy. This includes volunteering time & energy towards freezer burn & a number of Calgary burner events.

    I am feeling a strong pull towards burning man this year as I am feeling ready and excited to experience the playa. The only thing that I’m missing is a ticket

    Given the chance I know that I would be a positive addition to the playa, so if anyone has a ticket to sell at face value (I of course would also pay any fees) please contact me at paintedyellow@live.ca . I would be very grateful for the opportunity.

    Thanks :)

    Laura xoxo

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  • Laura says:

    i dont know why my whole email address did not show up, it is paintedyellow @live.ca

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  • Steve D says:

    A suggestion for the STEP program:

    I signed up about 15 minutes after the program went live, and haven’t yet been able to purchase a ticket yet.

    It would be nice if Burning Man would occasionally report how many ticket have been made available for sale thru STEP. As it is right now, I have no idea whether I’m first in line for a ticket or 1,000th in line!

    It would go a long wait to help re-establish damaged credibility if Burning Man would be a bit more transparent about the status of STEP tickets.

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  • hunny bear says:

    STEP update: I just received 2 tix through STEP at the $240 level. The time stamp on my notification email for entrance into STEP was 12:10pm……keeping the faith for everyone else.

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  • BH says:

    I also just received 2 tickets through STEP with a 12:10 time stamp. $420 each for me – pricey…hope it’s worth it!

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