Oops, we broke it!

Magnet #984 - NERD/GEEK

Yesterday, a hundred thousand folks broke the internet, losing two hours of our lives trying to buy tickets to next year's San Diego Comic-Con. Since I wasn't doing anything but watching TNT's 2-hour block of Las Vegas, while hitting the refresh button, it was no skin off my index finger.

But to the rest of humanity, it was surely a tragedy. Actually, more like a comedy, if you watched the #sdcc hashtagged Tweets fly by. Which I did. Superentertaining.

While 13% of the tickets were sold, according to the SDCC site, the rest of us couldn't get past Step 1, that's if the page loaded. We really had no one to blame but ourselves - it was like every cell phone in the world calling the Doctor - only instead of reaching him, we broke the site. Which doesn't make sense unless you've seen that episode. And, I won't lie, if you reread that sentence, it still may not make any sense.

Annnyway. I felt really sorry for whomever at SDCC that had to deal with the issue during those two hours (and beyond), because honestly, that kind of stuff happens all the time on launch days. No matter how much you prepare for the oncoming storm, the web teams just have to pray for server space, no hackers, no typos or wrong versions or wrong code or no QA, and a problem-free launch.

But, really, whoever heard of a problem-free launch? (This was slightly different cuz it wasn't a true launch - just a hundred thousand people waiting for 12:00pm to hit. Like that Rhodes Furniture commercial from the 80s where the guys are getting ready in the store to let all those people trample down the doors? Yeah. That. Only virtually.)

They finally got the situation under control, letting us know that the new reg date would be set next Monday, and even wrote a nice apology (PR Crisis Communications Rule #1, check!). So, when they finally get that new vendor and/or server space, or whatever it is they gotta do, I'm looking forward to all my fellow Nerds/Geeks (probably the same ones who ended up with this Cartoon Network button magnet from SDCC or NYCC) Tweeting and trampling down the virtual door with me.

To buy tickets we won't use until next July.

But whatever.