So who else is pissed off at Christmas Ball?

[Z]

How about this for a bit of a twist next time - Mermaids meets Geopursuit - a clue will be released at one central time via the internet, or even via text messages, about where tickets will be sold, and it is up to the brightest, fastest and most creative of this university's fine students to have the honour of being first in line

I like it. A lot.

sell the bloody things online and save everyone, including yourselves all this hassle and disappointment.

So get the hosting, build the site, implement the system... and have someone buy 50 with one purchase? Or have a technical problem that prevents people buying? That's when things really get ugly.

The thing that pissed me off was the fact that unless you have no classes or dont care about classes you can't get a ticket since you can't afford to queue for several hours on weekdays! It would have been much fairer to have at least one "selling day" at the weekend! I'd be interested to know the Arts: Science student ratio attending the ball this year!

We initially wanted to sell tickets last Saturday to avoid this problem, but we followed the Association's instructions to sell at a time when the money could be banked during and immediately after the sales. We do think these things through, really. But considering the limit was four tickets per person, you could have arranged a friend to queue for you, as many people did.

I'm sure that it is possible to introduce some sort of token scheme.

That's the one thing we most definitely overlooked. We will definitely consider it next year... Maybe we relied too much on Christmas cheer?

[Oli]

So get the hosting, build the site, implement the system... and have someone buy 50 with one purchase? Or have a technical problem that prevents people buying? That's when things really get ugly.

We initially wanted to sell tickets last Saturday to avoid this problem, but we followed the Association's instructions to sell at a time when the money could be banked during and immediately after the sales. We do think these things through, really. But considering the limit was four tickets per person, you could have arranged a friend to queue for you, as many people did.

The Union's website is already in place, with online sales functioning for the Idlewild gig. The Mermaids minisite on the same system could easily accommodate the online purchases, and there is also already a limit of four tickets per person, and the facility to turn on/off online payments. It could be run on any day of the week, with the money all being accounted for by electronic payments, and no actual cash changing hands.

And best of all, everyone could have kept warm.

[Z]

The Union's website is already in place, with online sales functioning for the Idlewild gig. The Mermaids minisite on the same system could easily accommodate the online purchases, and there is also already a limit of four tickets per person, and the facility to turn on/off online payments. It could be run on any day of the week, with the money all being accounted for by electronic payments, and no actual cash changing hands.

And best of all, everyone could have kept warm.

I stand corrected. Duly noted. Sounds like a plan for next year. All over for now, though.

[munchingfoo]

Now, I only studied Economics at school, but... surely raising the price of the tickets until such time as demand met supply would be the most appropriate solution? It seems that every year people profiteer from buying tickets they have no intention of using. Wouldn't it be better for these monies to go directly to the organiser?

[Z]

Now, I only studied Economics at school, but... surely raising the price of the tickets until such time as demand met supply would be the most appropriate solution? It seems that every year people profiteer from buying tickets they have no intention of using. Wouldn't it be better for these monies to go directly to the organiser?

It's tricky... we had long discussions over raising the price to £25 from £20 last year, and it was painful doing so because we genuinely want to put on the best possible event for the most reasonable amount of money. Raising the ticket price at all was a tough call, and bumping it any higher definitely didn't feel right. We could have, and I'm fairly certain the event still would have immediately sold out, but why do that when it's nicer to let people save a bit of cash and make sure they really get their moneys' worth?

[Garnet]

I think it's great that it's good value for money compared to other balls. Also although people do sell tickets on for higher prices, I don't think it's that common, so it would be a shame to cut out people who don't have that much money at Christmas in order to get at those who sell tickets on.

Luckily I managed to get a ticket! I'm so excited about the ball , just need to finish this dissertation in time...

[Hennessy]

I've never been to a single ball in all my time here

Seems like a bit of a waste to spend all that time queueing, then all that time picking out dresses or renting formal wear just for four hours of sub-par music, a free glass of cheap bubbly and the chance to stand about with all the other idiots who've spent a fortune or gone overdrawn trying to pretend to be what they patently aren't.

In fact their's nothing better, in my opinion, that sitting at the window of Dreuthy's on a cold, cold night, with a pint of ale and a bit of sensible company, and watching the crowds of freezing ball-goers trooping off for their slice of absolutely pretentious partying.

Cheers for the entertainment.

[Gubbins]

Over-priced, trumped-up rubbish as usual [/oldfogey]

On the other hand, this made my day:

Queue jumping needs to be more socially unacceptable.
I think we should upgrade it from impolite to vulgar.

Oh, and Zanbato - you haven't been posting on the Library thread recently, have you? I'm sure there's a post with your name on it there.

[Edited because I can't spell for tofé]

[zipporah]

I don't "get" balls. I have been to a couple which started with a sit down meal, then there was a ceilidh band and the usual dancey stuff, and I enjoyed them, although I don't especially like dressing up. But what about the balls where you pay just for a venue to dance in? What do people do at those balls?

[Garnet]

dance, socialise, get something to eat, drink, be merry.

Also if you've never been to a ball how can you judge them? I'm in my fourth year and I've just been to one, which was the Christmas ball last year, and I had a great time.

[Barry the Banana]

Just a comment on why we don't start selling tickets early. At the moment the start time of the queue is kind of determined by the time tickets go on sale. If there is a chance that tickets will go on sale when the number of people queuing reaches a certain point then the queuing will just start earlier and earlier. I don't think anyone wants to see people camping outside overnight on the street in December...

However if everyone who queued turned up 3 hours later, they'd all be in the same place in the queue and everyone could have been warm for much longer. Perhaps all you queuing folk should get together beforehand and arrange a time to start?

[Haunted]

It may also be interesting to know of the Art:Science ratio of the committee...

Why exactly?

If they are heavily arts based then they may not have been aware of the implicit difficulty scientists would have had in getting to the que.

[irish200]

It may also be interesting to know of the Art:Science ratio of the committee...

Why exactly?

If they are heavily arts based then they may not have been aware of the implicit difficulty scientists would have had in getting to the que.

Implicit difficulty? Arts students have early lectures too you know. I myself have 10am and 11am lecture most days.

[munchingfoo]

I think the point is that almost every (if not every) science student from 1st to 4th year has a lecture or tutorial almost every (if not every) morning. The same cannot be said about a majority of arts students. So whilst it might apply to you, that doesn't mean that it isn't an implicit problem for science students. Contact time for honours science students is usually around 20 - 30 hours per week. My arts friends have usually had around 2-4hours of contact time per week in honours.

[Guest]

If science students have lectures in the morning and lab in the afternoon and mermaids weren't alllowed to sell at the weekend because of banking constraints when is left to sell? I think most labs starts at 2 and most lectures finish at 12 or 1 so to make sure science students have a chance to why don't they make sure that the tickets are on sale at least 12-2 or there is provision enough that a friend could buy one for them...oh wait they did.
My point is that science students do have a lot more classes than arts students (generally) but the time of day most people are free for both arts and science students is lunchtime (1-2) was when the tickets were on sale, it wasn't the mermaids fault that people started queuing so early for them, when else could they have sold them?

[munchingfoo]

anytime online - as has already been discussed, but I think you miss the point of the line of thought that was being commented upon. For one thing - I was only answering a question regarding why science students might have a difficulty, I haven't made any comments as to whether it was wrong or right for mermaids to do this, since I don't have an opinion about it.

[Garnet]

I never intended to queue so early i was just walking past and saw a queue had already formed so I had to join as i didn't want to come back half an hour later to join a very long queue. I guess that's the problem, once one person starts queuing then everyone else starts joining because they're worried they'll be left without a ticket. I don't know how that could really be resolved.

[What?]

The issue with online sale is that there would be the same demand at the time of first sale, so instead of the queues you'd have all those people (plus potentially those they are buying for) accessing the site at the same time. With respect to Oli, it's a much different task to Idlewild where ticket sales have trickled. I have visions of crashing websites and very very angry punters indeed.

[irish200]

The issue with online sale is that there would be the same demand at the time of first sale, so instead of the queues you'd have all those people (plus potentially those they are buying for) accessing the site at the same time. With respect to Oli, it's a much different task to Idlewild where ticket sales have trickled. I have visions of crashing websites and very very angry punters indeed.

Rather that than endless lines of very very very cold, and very very angry punters, surely?

[zipporah]

dance, socialise, get something to eat, drink, be merry.

Also if you've never been to a ball how can you judge them? I'm in my fourth year and I've just been to one, which was the Christmas ball last year, and I had a great time.

I'm not 'judging' balls; I've been to both the Albany balls and enjoyed them. It just seems an awful lot to pay for what you get, because you usually have to pay for food and drink on top of the ticket price. I suppose because I'm not really into dressing up and dancing to the kind of music they put on, it just seems like a very fancy, overpriced bop to me.