Now Onsale

wml7 wrote:
sorry to ask, who is jadetree  ;D

A boardie legend.  Founder of the "Just Announced" thread is her ongoing legacy.

^^ tempted to start a twitter account just for these soft sales …what name should it be? should incorporate James Ford's name…haha

kosmo wrote:
I too am a bit opposed to this thread, but am not in the position to know if it's against any ticketing policies..  although it does point out the social networking aspects of the forum….

Here's the etiquette I would suggest in order to protect the sanctity of the soft sale for fellow boardies:

(1) Only post the name of the band with a link to the ticket sale as sweetcell has done for most of the On Sale announcements (this has thus far kept them off the googles)

(2) No passwords if the thread is to remain open to the public (ie, non-registered boardies).  PM passwords to fellow boardies only as has been the practice most of the time previously.

(3)  Never post the links for bands that I like and will be travelling to DC to see until after I have purchased my tix. 

Ok, thanks.

Vas wrote:
^^ tempted to start a twitter account just for these soft sales …

Why?  For your own personal glory?

The more people who know about a soft sale, the less soft it becomes.  It's not like there won't ever be a public annoucement for the masses.

Don't wanna ruffle any feathers unless they're James Ford's.

how 'bout we don't post links here until the public onsale has started?  no presales, no soft sales?

Here's the problem – lately TicketFly has had sales for shows that don't appear to even be Soft Sales yet.  Good example is Superchunk.  If you go to TF and search for Superchunk, the 9:30 show does not come up.  As a boardie and long long time 9:30 regular, this is frustating the shite out of me.  These are not just soft sales links, they're really hidden links.

Absolutely against passwords to presales, but I don't think that was ever the intent of this thread.

For regular soft sales that show up on TF in a normal manner, well, maybe this thread makes it a little too easy, though you gotta figure if someone is resourceful enough to find this forum and the info they need, they can find what used to be a normal soft sale link.

agreed with Bags…these hidden links from Ticketfly are ultimately what I'd appreciate seeing.

bearman wrote:
agreed with Bags…these hidden links from Ticketfly are ultimately what I'd appreciate seeing.

Check your PMs (both of you).

I don't want to speak for any of the other veterans of the board, but I think the reason for the concern is all of the work that went into getting soft sales.

For years boardies asked (READ: bitched to/at) Seth for a solution to his most loyal customers (aka Boardies) being shut out of tickets to popular shows.  The solution was originally the soft sales concept for up and coming bands and then the addition of Volume Presales for the most popular acts.

The more that information is not "soft" the less useful Seth's solution is for us.  I like the concept of sharing that information with other boardies, but once it hits the public, it's self defeating.  The old board was not searchable by the googles so I would have been less opposed to this concept, but this new board is searchable.  In reality though, a typical google search turns up the ticket fly link before this thread, but I'm guessing that's only because this thread is new.  Once it has a ton of oft used links, it will move up the Zeitgeist…

My preference would be a way to close the thread down to registered board users only (sorry lurkers, but lurking is for pussies anyway - take issue with that?  Register and give me shit!), but I don't know if that's possible, or even the will of the rest of the group.

Maybe we can get a definitive yes or no from Shadrach or Seth or Eddie re: posting these hidden links?



P.S. Teenage Fanclub/Vaselines just popped up.

if you guys post links, then you're going to have less tickets to have a shot at

it's very shortsighted

we try & keep this info quiet until we can give our regulars a crack at it

Wise words, Seth!!!

Seth wrote:
if you guys post links, then you're going to have less tickets to have a shot at

it's very shortsighted

we try & keep this info quiet until we can give our regulars a crack at it

I don't think this addresses the issue of onsales not even listed on the ticketfly website, only soft sales etc.  I'm curious to know why the former even exists.

The soft sales worked really well for a long time, and were and ARE incredibly appreciated.  But it's not working the same way, so it's not functioning for regulars.  Regulars don't know about these sales, they're not listed in the emails, and you can't find them (although I was sent via PM the way to use Google, but I don't think that's really the intent).  And I know at least some of the current tix available in this new type of soft sale are not available at the box office.

I think that's why, after all this time of the soft sale option, a thread like this has started now.  The way to find soft sales, or find out about them, CHANGED in the last month or two, and I know I and the regulars I talk with have been thoroughly confused (and we're not normally the folks here who are confused).

Seth wrote:
if you guys post links, then you're going to have less tickets to have a shot at

it's very shortsighted

we try & keep this info quiet until we can give our regulars a crack at it

Agree with Bags.  These shows are leaking out in a very piecemeal fashion all of a sudden.  Word is getting out that shows are up on Ticketfly and there's a live link to buy tickets if you are creative.  If these aren't on sale or shouldn't be on sale then why is there a live link out there somewhere to buy tickets?  Don't know if that's the club's doing or Ticketfly's doing but that seems easy to manage.  If you don't want people getting tickets early before regulars or presales, then don't have a live TF link out there. 

And there are other shows that are sort of in limboland–Superchunk is a prime example.  That show went on sale several weeks ago.  I bought tickets on the onsale date.  Now TF doesn't list it.  Nor does the 930 site on upcoming shows. And Bags went to the box office and was told they weren't available there.  But the official Superchunk forum has a live link available that was posted by a band member after people were complaining there that they couldn't find the TF link.  How could they go on sale and now be hard to find?  And that show clearly isn't sold out. What gives?

as bags notes, soft sales have become less predictable.  shows appear and disappear on TF.  one can buy tickets before the show is announced as a soft sale, and shows announced on soft sale randomly disappear.  lack of predictability has led regulars to seen an alternative… such as this thread.

if management and TF can work out a system where soft sales appear only when they're supposed to appear (and not before), and stay available (vs. randomly disappearing), this thread would be pointless… and harmony would be restore.  this thread is an attempt to deal with this unexpected variability.

Bags wrote:
I know I and the regulars I talk with have been thoroughly confused (and we're not normally the folks here who are confused).

speak for yourself.

These "invisible" shows aren't even for sale at the box office - correct?  Didn't someone call them an "artist-only" sale - or something like that?  I just assumed that these on-sales are for fan clubs, band mailing lists, etc.  It's a way to make these tickets available to those groups without requiring a password.  Not a perfect method, obviously, but probably fairly effective.

I don't think it's accurate to compare these to soft sales.  Soft sales are meant for the general public - they're just not widely advertised.  These "invisible" shows are specifically hidden and not meant to be available to everyone - including boardies.  The fact that you can find them via a web search seems to be poor web design, more than anything else.  I wouldn't be surprised to see that disappear in the future - especially if the links are consistently made public knowledge.

As for this thread, I don't see much of a difference between posting these links here and other people posting our presale passwords to other forums.  I think it would be better to post a note saying the tickets are available, then share the links via PMs.  Soft sale shows are fair game.  They're listed on TicketFly and available at the club, so post away.   

I think we've got a nice little loophole in the system here.    The more it's advertised, the less effective it will be.

Bombay pretty much nailed it there folks. My suggestion, if you're out there searching for yet to be announced shows and happen upon something, keep it to yourself. Posting these links here will only give us reason to use tougher security measures. In other words, you're only hurting yourselves in the long run.

Bombay wrote:
These "invisible" shows aren't even for sale at the box office - correct?  Didn't someone call them an "artist-only" sale - or something like that?   I just assumed that these on-sales are for fan clubs, band mailing lists, etc.   It's a way to make these tickets available to those groups without requiring a password.  Not a perfect method, obviously, but probably fairly effective.

I don't think it's accurate to compare these to soft sales.  Soft sales are meant for the general public - they're just not widely advertised.  These "invisible" shows are specifically hidden and not meant to be available to everyone - including boardies.  The fact that you can find them via a web search seems to be poor web design, more than anything else.  I wouldn't be surprised to see that disappear in the future - especially if the links are consistently made public knowledge.

As for this thread, I don't see much of a difference between posting these links here and other people posting our presale passwords to other forums.   I think it would be better to post a note saying the tickets are available, then share the links via PMs.   Soft sale shows are fair game.  They're listed on TicketFly and available at the club, so post away.     

I think we've got a nice little loophole in the system here.    The more it's advertised, the less effective it will be.

bottom line is we hold tickets back for sales to our regulars

I can't tell you how many fights we have with bands to do that

but if we feel like our own people are trying to fuck with us, we will not care anymore