SMD4 Launch Party: Please let us have a bigger party thread!!!

This thread is on behalf of all of us who have waitlist positions so high that "there's not a chance".
I am so high on the list that it was never even counted, for example.
There seem to be dozens of us who really want to go, and will happily pay something for the pleasure of it all.

So, speak, please!!!

WE WANT A BIGGER LAUNCH PARTY - PLEDGES / CONTRIBUTIONS:

1. wijomas - $100
2. aptraveler - $100
3. Switch2 - $100

Total pledges: $300

I second the suggestion, you can count me in. Another $100 into the pot!

Although I'm well and truly in at #27, I'll contribute $100 to the "bring more people to the launch party" cause!

I would ask that the honorable jbcarioca adopt the following amendment:
insert new language in section 3 after line 21:
(c) attendance at the Star Alliance MegaDO 4 Launch Party neither guarantees nor gives priority for securing seats on the Star Alliance MegaDO 4 charter.

I feel the quiet majority of us that (1) can't attend the Launch Party but (2) really, really want to attend the DO could support this suggestion if amendment is adopted. Otherwise, if the party is extended to 192, nobody that doesn't attend the party can get a spot on the DO itself!

Of course, Tommy never stated that attendance guarantees or give priority and that has not been a condition for all previous MegaDOs...

It stands to reason that if the eligibility for seats on the MD were offered to people who'd attended the party, waitlisted or otherwise preregistered, more or less in that order, it might be workable. In principle I find it hard to argue that people who plump for the time and expense to go to the LP should not have priority.

OTOH it is hard to commit to something when we have no dates, thus the organisers have perpetual problems for which there are no ideal solutions.

Why would waitlisting to attend a party where the details of the SMD4 are announced give one priority to attend the DO? In your scheme, does otherwise preregistering mean my spot is based when I posted in the RSVP thread that I could not attend the party?

The case can be made for those in attendance (although this has not always been the case for MegaDOs).

That's why some of us are concerned about being ineligible to attend SMD4, scheduled for this fall, because we have already made un-cancelable plans 3-4 weeks in advance of the Launch Party. In what universe is that fair?

Good question. IMHO it is almost impossible to settle these issues with everyone thinking it is fair. We all want our own circumstances to be considered, me included, but I know it is not really practical.

Well, lottery is always the "fairest"... Maybe everyone interested makes deposits during a certain time range, then there is a weighted lottery based on MP status (or previous MegaDo attendance, etc.) to give the leg up to mega-contributors, like yourself, but not eliminate the general population.

But I'm sure the organizers already have something planned out.

For example:
Gold = 5-16x odds
Silver = 4-8x odds
Active = 3-4x odds
New = 2x odds
Non-MP = 1x odds

or
4 MegaDos = 5-16x odds
3 MegaDos = 4-8x odds
2 MegaDos = 3-4x odds
1 MegaDo = 2x odds
0 MegaDo = 1x odds

1x,2x,3x,4x,5x for less weighted
1x,2x,4x,8x,16x for more weighted

But now you are dealing with karma. Something that people have no control. For example, I have never in my life won a lottery or even a raffle.

True, just read Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery."

But we also didn't have control of the location of the party or the timing of the announcement...

That reminds me that I won a $50 Five Guys gift card (based on >$50 lottery tickets) on SMD3 and forgot to collect!

What's more fair than karma? Doesn't karma result in people getting what they deserve?

I heard Karma's a b!tch!
I heard what goes around, comes around!

No it is an Indian Religion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma

Is it too late? I recently discovered that there is a Five Guys in Minneapolis; IIRC it's open until something like 3 am.

I already RSVP'd but I'll contribute 100$ to a bigger party... A party that is big is better!

The whole reason there was early access for OWMD party attendees was that they were supposed to accept reservations at the party, but were not quite ready. To make up for that, they created the early window, not because people are more connected (that was the Gold window)

I forget what happened: was the Gold window after the OWMD launch party window?

Launch party window was T-24, Gold window started at T-12.

When the last seats in Tommy class sold out (before waitlist and upgrades)?

Didn't keep track of that, since I went for one of the early TC seats

I got a Tommy Class seat during the 17 minute fire drill, and I think a lot of the others were also still available to the general public after the party and Gold pre-sales. I could be wrong, but it seems like the TC seats were especially oversold, too. I know that the one in front of me was sold to six different people. I was afraid they were all going to put their seat back at the same time.

lol

Sounds like we just need two planes or an A380, rather than a bigger launch party

You realize this will start a whole new set of rumors!

2 A380s flying to Antarctica, accompanied by a giraffe in a helicopter!