Manual F5 now being detected as Multi-Hit?

[parsonjack]

4 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

Successful people will have refreshed the page like crazy too. I would think practically everyone does.

True....but there is definitely something that detects more than 60 refreshes in a minute.

A bit more testing shows I can avoid the holding page by either slowing my F5 rate to less than 60 in a minute, or by waiting a few seconds before hitting F5 for the 61st time.  If I do this and then increase the rate again I get the holding page after a few more quick F5's.

[kalifire]

This is a good development as far as I'm concerned. It puts things like that app from a year or two ago out of business overnight, and makes it fairer for everyone.

[Raincatcher]

It's simple demand far outstripping supply. I did what I have done for every sale for the last 4 years, on some sales I have seen nothing but a blank white page, others a timed out screen, but mostly the holding page. For this sale I got the holding page on both browsers and my phone on 4G from the get go and got through once at 9:05 and again at 9:15. I was pressing F5 like mad. It's luck of the draw.

[DareToDibble]

55 minutes ago, Quahog5 said:

I was f5ing like a madman on my iPad and never got past holding page, manually refreshed my iPhone maybe once every 3/4 seconds on got in 3 times. Unfortunately got kicked out every time after inputting reg details

Same for me.

1 laptop and 1 iPad on WiFi. F5'ing the laptop constantly. Nothing.

2 phones and another iPad on 4G. One of the phones got through a few times and, like you, got kicked out after entering reg details.

[parsonjack]

 

10 minutes ago, kalifire said:

This is a good development as far as I'm concerned. It puts things like that app from a year or two ago out of business overnight, and makes it fairer for everyone.

I totally agree ref the app thing....but it's a bit worrying that human attempts can be ambushed.  How fair is it to handicap those with a quick technique?  I'm watching the London Marathon now and it looks to me like those who have practiced the most and have the best technique are all at the front....

[shuttlep]

1 hour ago, parsonjack said:

I have a theory that a quick F5 finger is now being detected, and possibly blocked, as a 'multi-hit' attempt by Seetickets.

I'm pretty quick with the F5 finger, and if I focus I can easily F5 in less than a second, assuming the page has loaded that is and the refresh icon in Chrome is showing.

However.....attempts earlier to get tickets for friends saw me on the holding page from the outset....I never saw a ticket choice page once (I assume there was one.....?) until it sold out and the page with Worthy View etc appeared.  F5ing repeatedly as usual never got me off the holding page once....even to a ticket choice page.

Oddly though if F5 the page now more than 60 times in a minute I get thrown to the holding page on my 61st F5....which I then can't get off unless I wait for it to time out.  I can repeat this over and over again....very time, same result.

Anyone else experienced or tried this?

I was on my iPhone , got to the page , hit refresh , got to the next page. Realised I didn't have the details ready. Went up stairs got a pen . Wrote them down . I then entered these. 

I thought this will have timed out now. Boom it went through . It now said enter card details my wallet was up stairs again . Off I walked up stairs got my wallet, came back down entered my details. Boom I had s ticket.

 

all on my phone whilst doddering around 

[parsonjack]

9 minutes ago, Raincatcher said:

 It's luck of the draw.

Of course....but knowing how the system works for, or in this case against, you will help maximise that luck.

The point here is that knowing you could be restricted in the manner I'm describing will allow you to revise your technique, approach etc to avoid such a situation, and therefore maximise your chances.

 

[parsonjack]

1 minute ago, shuttlep said:

I was on my iPhone , got to the page , hit refresh , got to the next page. Realised I didn't have the details ready. Went up stairs got a pen . Wrote them down . I then entered these. 

I thought this will have timed out now. Boom it went through . It now said enter card details my wallet was up stairs again . Off I walked up stairs got my wallet, came back down entered my details. Boom I had s ticket.

 

all on my phone whilst doddering around 

That's cos once you have a session it's yours for 10 minutes.....you could have probably put the kettle on too.

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

2 minutes ago, parsonjack said:

Of course....but knowing how the system works for, or in this case against, you will help maximise that luck.

The point here is that knowing you could be restricted in the manner I'm describing will allow you to revise your technique, approach etc to avoid such a situation, and therefore maximise your chances.

 

Possibly have a timer or a stop watch counting down a minute, refresh as many times as you can until you hit 60, then wait until the minute is up and reset and start again? 

[musky]

12 minutes ago, Raincatcher said:

It's simple demand far outstripping supply. I did what I have done for every sale for the last 4 years, on some sales I have seen nothing but a blank white page, others a timed out screen, but mostly the holding page. For this sale I got the holding page on both browsers and my phone on 4G from the get go and got through once at 9:05 and again at 9:15. I was pressing F5 like mad. It's luck of the draw.

I'd agree with that, but there's no demand on the site at the moment and you can still replicate what parsonjack is describing. This isn't the site buckling under pressure from traffic, nor the type of connection being used. This is something different.

IP rate limiting? I do recall something about the festival recommending not to use work places/universities in the October sale, but I'm a bit vague on it. Anyone else remember this? Doesn't seem to be anything about it on the Glasto info pages.

[parsonjack]

Just now, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

Possibly have a timer or a stop watch counting down a minute, refresh as many times as you can until you hit 60, then wait until the minute is up and reset and start again? 

Yep....I'm thinking something like that might be necessary.

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

3 minutes ago, parsonjack said:

Yep....I'm thinking something like that might be necessary.

All doable on one device, I guess unless you have some pretty amazing manual dexterity it would mean you'd struggle to accurately count to 60 and refresh any other devices you had too, while at the same time keeping an eye on the time. Obviously you could let any other devices manually refresh.

[Raincatcher]

3 minutes ago, musky said:

I'd agree with that, but there's no demand on the site at the moment and you can still replicate what parsonjack is describing. This isn't the site buckling under pressure from traffic, nor the type of connection being used. This is something different.

IP rate limiting? I do recall something about the festival recommending not to use work places/universities in the October sale, but I'm a bit vague on it. Anyone else remember this? Doesn't seem to be anything about it on the Glasto info pages.

I stand corrected. Just tried it now and I guess the fact that I was alternating between the two browsers before refreshing a few times then alternating back saved me from this. The threshold seems a little low really, considering how fast an auto refresh will refresh the page. 

RE the work place/universities issue, I didn't see any guidance from the festival however I did use a University connection in October and didn't get a sniff of even a holding page, just a white screen, got through on my phone connected to 4G.

[thewayiam]

1 hour ago, Charm said:

I've just tried this, now wondering if I didn't get through because I was refreshing too fast, how annoying. 

Charm x

You can't do it too fast, as soon as 19 hits or even before you hit F5

[parsonjack]

12 minutes ago, thewayiam said:

You can't do it too fast, as soon as 19 hits or even before you hit F5

You can do it too fast.  F5-ing less than a second apart over 60 seconds forces you to the holding page which you can't get off until you reduce your F5 rate to less than 60 per minute, or wait 20 seconds for it to timeout itself.  While you're on the holding page you're losing chances......

[thewayiam]

1 minute ago, parsonjack said:

You can do it too fast.  F5-ing less than a second apart over 60 seconds forces you to the holding page which you can't get off until you reduce your F5 rate to less than 60 per minute, or wait 20 seconds for it to timeout itself.  While you're on the holding page you're losing chances......

I don't do it in the process of time between refreshing holding and holding loading as that would be silly.

[shuttlep]

31 minutes ago, naughtygeorgie said:

Well played, excellent bimbling skills

I was really pottering thinking it's going to kick me out anytime . I don't even know the person I was getting a ticket for 

[Stretlow]

This isn't a gloat or a dig at anyone that has missed out but in the last three years I've got through every time, this year in the main sale i got through twice to book for me and then for other friends. I got through on Thursday but didn't book for friend because they didn't want to go from Leeds and I got through this morning and got three more.

I'm not sure if i have a good finger or i'm just incredibly lucky but I've found it smooth sailing .

 

I've just screwed myself for the next one haven't I

[parsonjack]

27 minutes ago, thewayiam said:

I don't do it in the process of time between refreshing holding and holding loading as that would be silly.

Of course it would.....so I don't either.  I will only F5 once I'm sure the holding page has fully loaded....which for me on Chrome/Android on average takes less than a second.  The point here is that if See's setup forces you to the holding page if you F5 more than once per second over a minute then I'm potentially being forced to a holding page deliberately rather than due to site demand.

[Gnomicide]

I only hit F5 about 10 times before 9 while the sold out coach options were still showing, then got straight through to the enter reg details page, didn't even see the holding page. I've never got in so quick, in fact I've not bought my own ticket since the coach sale in 2011.

It's terrifying getting tickets for someone else in case you mess it up but I'm absolutely buzzing that I managed it. Nearly (but not quite) as good a feeling as when you get your own ticket.

[DeanoL]

1 hour ago, parsonjack said:

 

I totally agree ref the app thing....but it's a bit worrying that human attempts can be ambushed.  How fair is it to handicap those with a quick technique?  I'm watching the London Marathon now and it looks to me like those who have practiced the most and have the best technique are all at the front....

Actually many of them will be at home having failed to get tickets!

There's no way for See's servers to differentiate between an auto-refresh program and manual refreshing other than by speed. So it stands to reason that there will be a point at which your manual refreshing becomes so fast it's assumed to be a bot.

[parsonjack]

1 minute ago, Gnomicide said:

I only hit F5 about 10 times before 9 while the sold out coach options were still showing, then got straight through to the enter reg details page, didn't even see the holding page. I've never got in so quick, in fact I've not bought my own ticket since the coach sale in 2011.

It's terrifying getting tickets for someone else in case you mess it up but I'm absolutely buzzing that I managed it. Nearly (but not quite) as good a feeling as when you get your own ticket.

Yep....this is luck at its purest in play.  It's a great feeling.

[verrymerry]

2 hours ago, parsonjack said:

 I'm watching the London Marathon now and it looks to me like those who have practiced the most and have the best technique are all at the front....

Their technique is rubbish, they're never going to get tickets by running a marathon

[Mr.Tease]

6 hours ago, parsonjack said:

Try it now people....load the main page.....then try to F5 more than once a second for a minute.....if you count each F5 you should get a holding page on your 61st hit.

Nerd alert! 

[Mr.Tease]

5 hours ago, dentalplan said:

Successful people will have refreshed the page like crazy too. I would think practically everyone does.

Yes, but I suppose at different speeds. I thought I was rapidly refreshing until I read this thread- doubt if I clocked up more than one refresh per second for the most part, you fast-fingered fiends!

The holding page did indeed switch from:

http://glastonbury.seetickets.com/event/glastonbury-2017/worthy-farm/1100001

to

http://glastonbury.seetickets.com/event/glastonbury-2017/worthy-farm/1035046

midway through. I don't think it was a straight forward server switch, because if you went back to the start (and typed in glastonbury.seetickets.com), then you'd go pack on the 1100001 path. 1035046 showed its face right about the time that people started reporting unavailability problems.