black badge protocol

[theprez98]

Re: black badge protocol

So what are you willing to do to get a black badge?

This *does* sound like a promising contest for next year.

[SniperX]

Re: black badge protocol

Last year I lost out on the cool badge because they ran out....I am guessing the same thing will happen this year (buy more badges?).

Yes! Dear God pleaseeee, if anyone in charge of procuring the badges, pleaseeee do your best to make plenty. It really adds a sour taste to the trip (maybe i'm shallow) when you pay $80-$100 to get in and you arn't even given an official badge, but a make-shift crappy replacement. Especially when there is so much talk about how "cool" the badges are and all of the fun things people were doing with them (last year).

Last year I registered at 10am Saturday morning and they were already out of the official badge. And the lady at the registration booth commented on how they actually ran out earlier the previous day (Friday).

DONT BE CHEAP! I know it's expensive to throw this con but skimping here is just a constant reminder of the planners being cheap. Over pay by $200-1000. That's just a couple people, and everyone will have their souvenir.

[/rant>

[Dark Tangent]

Re: black badge protocol

Yes, it sucks for more than just you.

The costs of the badge are way up this year, and you will understand when you see them, but we also made a bunch more. The secret would be to run out and have no waste at the end.

Anyway, I ordered more badges this year! We can only wait and see what happens.

Yes! Dear God pleaseeee, if anyone in charge of procuring the badges, pleaseeee do your best to make plenty. It really adds a sour taste to the trip (maybe i'm shallow) when you pay $80-$100 to get in and you arn't even given an official badge, but a make-shift crappy replacement. Especially when there is so much talk about how "cool" the badges are and all of the fun things people were doing with them (last year).

Last year I registered at 10am Saturday morning and they were already out of the official badge. And the lady at the registration booth commented on how they actually ran out earlier the previous day (Friday).

DONT BE CHEAP! I know it's expensive to throw this con but skimping here is just a constant reminder of the planners being cheap. Over pay by $200-1000. That's just a couple people, and everyone will have their souvenir.

[/rant>

[octalpus]

Re: black badge protocol

Yes! Dear God pleaseeee, if anyone in charge of procuring the badges, pleaseeee do your best to make plenty. It really adds a sour taste to the trip (maybe i'm shallow) when you pay $80-$100 to get in and you arn't even given an official badge, but a make-shift crappy replacement. Especially when there is so much talk about how "cool" the badges are and all of the fun things people were doing with them (last year).

Last year I registered at 10am Saturday morning and they were already out of the official badge. And the lady at the registration booth commented on how they actually ran out earlier the previous day (Friday).

DONT BE CHEAP! I know it's expensive to throw this con but skimping here is just a constant reminder of the planners being cheap. Over pay by $200-1000. That's just a couple people, and everyone will have their souvenir.

[/rant>

The instructions for registration specifically say it's on a first come, first served basis. There is no guarantee of space or badges being available. While it would be nice for everyone to get a cool badge, when you come in that late, you're not even guaranteed to get in. Adjustments are made each year based on prior years' attendance, but we can only grow so fast. My $.02? Be happy you got in at all and try to get there earlier! You miss so much when you don't come til Saturday. Registration opens Thursday, folks!

[octalpus]

Re: black badge protocol

Yes, it sucks for more than just you.

The costs of the badge are way up this year, and you will understand when you see them, but we also made a bunch more. The secret would be to run out and have no waste at the end.

Anyway, I ordered more badges this year! We can only wait and see what happens.

Jeff beat me to it! Can't wait to see what you've got cooked up this year!

[hevnsnt]

Re: black badge protocol

me either ;)

[kallahar]

Re: black badge protocol

So it looks like the policy was to have black badge holders bring their badge to reg where they would exchange their black badge for a regular human badge. Their name is put on theirs, and on sunday they can come by reg and get their black badge back. That way people couldn't get dozens of human badges with one black badge.

I think it worked fairly well, but I know a few people forgot their badges and left vegas without them...

[LosT]

Re: black badge protocol

Yes, I heard that this was the official protocol as well...

LosT

[TechnoWeenie]

Re: black badge protocol

Yes, I heard that this was the official protocol as well...

LosT

Confirmed.. this is what I did. Worked rather well. 4 folks did not get back on time to Reg to pick up thier black badges. I have kept them, and contacted the two I had email information on, and posted here for the other two.

I believe we will continue this process. Worked.

TW

[ck3k]

Re: black badge protocol

This worked great for me, I was able to check it in, get my nifty badge and then check it out on Sunday. I think that taking some email information would rock, because I would hate to lose the little thing. I prefer this to just hoping they don't run out of badges, speaking of that I need to go find a defcon 14 badge on ebay :P or...does anyone have a spare?

[bloofar]

Re: black badge protocol

Yes, it sucks for more than just you.

The costs of the badge are way up this year, and you will understand when you see them, but we also made a bunch more. The secret would be to run out and have no waste at the end.

Anyway, I ordered more badges this year! We can only wait and see what happens.

So has anybody looked at the percentage increase in attendance over the last, say, 8 years?

It seems that this has been a recurring problem. It's not just that I'm salty over missing out on getting an electronic badge (got there Friday morning. Would have been there Thursday but I injured my back in a pretty unpleasant fashion and spent most of Thursday immobile and waiting to see the Dr -- wait, maybe i am salty ;) ) but I know this happened last year and I know it happened at least once in the few years before that. In fact, in the last 5 years that I've been coming to DC, it seems that we have run out of the "good" badges more often than not.

Especially with this years badge, I think having a surplus would be a good thing. At the end of the con, auction them off to the people who have been there all weekend and donate the money to the EFF. I had a lot of cool hacks in mind for the badge (friend came over to visit Thursday night and brought one) and I would have been happy to have 2. [Scrolling Access Point finder, 2-way WiFi communicator using morse code for input using 2 of the pads in a paddle configuration, signal strength reader, etc]

What is the fear with ordering too many badges? DefCon seems to be growing at an exponential rate (for better or for worse). You occasionally see previous year's t-shirts for sale; why not previous years badges if it came to that (though i really doubt it would). Are we really that afraid of people buying them on ebay and becoming dc posers? It happens anyway. Check out this mess of instant poser-dom: http://cgi.ebay.com/Defcon-badge-Col...QQcmdZViewItem

*shrug*

[bigezy]

Re: black badge protocol

Confirmed.. this is what I did. Worked rather well. 4 folks did not get back on time to Reg to pick up thier black badges. I have kept them, and contacted the two I had email information on, and posted here for the other two.

I believe we will continue this process. Worked.

TW

While I would agree with you that the process "worked" from your perspective. I disagree that this process should remain permanent. For the following reason: I busted my ass to get the black badge that I have, and during the one weekend that having this badge would really mean something. I have to surrender it to get into Defcon. What is the point? Shouldn't previous black badge winners be honored? If this werent true, why do we get in free for life?

I know that Defcon has to do something to keep from people using the badge over and over to get friends in. But the process that was used this year was totally a pile of steaming dog shit.

I had to give my real name and I had to show ID in order to get my badge back. What is the point of that? Defcon is supposed to be an anonymous conference. But, the people that have black badges need to leave thier real names at the door if they want to get in for free.

And the second shitty thing about this is that the one weekend where I can hang out with poeple that understand what a black badge means, I get shafted again.

Sure this is a great way for you to keep people in line. And it is probably perfect for you TW. It sucks for the black badge holder.

When you are making badges next year, how about making a special badge for past contest winners?

And a general FUCK YOU to defcon for making me give up my real name. I got a chance to see other peoples real names when you wrote mine on the list. I would think the liability of a list like that getting out would be extreme.

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: black badge protocol

I busted my ass to get the black badge that I have, and during the one weekend that having this badge would really mean something. I have to surrender it to get into Defcon. What is the point? Shouldn't previous black badge winners be honored? If this werent true, why do we get in free for life?

i think that being a black badge holder involves both honor and privilege. you get your "honor" if that's the reason you go for the contests when you are invited up on stage during the closing and get presented the black badge. from that point on, having the privilege to attend DefCon for free kicks serious ass in my book.

But the process that was used this year was totally a pile of steaming dog shit.

being a bit harsh, aren't you? the organizers were responding to the requests made by the majority of black badge holders... we wanted a shot at getting a DC15 super-kickass badge before they ran out. my understanding is that the system that was put in place wasn't mandatory... you would have been free, would you not, to just walk around with your old black badge instead of a current style one.

I had to give my real name and I had to show ID in order to get my badge back.

now that certainly is a pretty poor system, i think. i would suspect that many people here would disagree with that point and call for a revision in the future. something that involves simply an email address or perhaps some sort of claim ticket coupled with a passphrase would be far superior to compromising folks' identities.

the one weekend where I can hang out with poeple that understand what a black badge means, I get shafted again.

see... this is where your argument goes a bit off the rails for me. the kind of friends i hang with at defcon don't care whether i'm wearing my black badge, my blue badge, my red one, etc. why not just ask for contest winners to get a t-shirt that says "i am super-leet and pwned a bunch of people at a defcon long ago, aren't i something? i deserve free drinks and scenewhores should line up to service me."

I got a chance to see other peoples real names when you wrote mine on the list. I would think the liability of a list like that getting out would be extreme.

again, i'm 100% with you there. i think that this sort of management system was a terrible way to implement the "temporary badge swap" that i do actually like.

[ck3k]

Re: black badge protocol

I think there is a valid point to the above discussion. I did have to show my id to turn in and retrieve my badge. I trust TW and the goons, however accidents do happen, and I would not want to have a list like that fall into the wrong hands. I don't care what badge I am wearing, some cases I would rather just blend in with the rest of the "humans" ;)

I mean, you could just generate a master list (using screennames/emails/gpg) and give us a fresh black badge every year :P

[LosT]

Re: black badge protocol

Except I have sentimental attachment to my black badges ... :)

LosT