Redspottedhanky codes

3010

I think the reason this promo was so hard is because last year there was 20,000 codes released at two intervals. Or was it 30,000? So last year there was much more to go around people.

skellysgirl

My frustration, is that all day i kept getting the white box, and the get code, didnt actually seem to do anything, i finally got one at 8pm, after trying all day.
The execution of giving out the code seems a little flawed, there must be a better system. there were people selling on ebay? how they got loads when most got none is questionable and frustrating

Slowhand

Worked for me.

davenport151

I think people are being a bit harsh. It should be looked on as cashback sites ie; don't rely on it. If you get it thats a bonus.
Hardly a wasted day as it only took a few minutes each time.
I tried at 11 and 4 and was unsucessful but consider myself lucky I have got deals at other times.

mixedwrestling

I managed to get one at 4pm yesterday - booooom!

devoted_fan

Let's face it the whole Red Spotted Hanky offer was a total fiasco and has done nothing for MSE or them. Despite having the page open at 10.00 1.00 4.00 and 8.00 the red bit that said this is where to get the code didn't change as it said it would. It then took over 2 minutes for a new page to open the box for address and post code (just got a white page saying 'too many connections at 1.00 because the site had crashed). Even when I managed to fill in the email address and post code the 'Get Code' button wouldn't work either - then a message finally came up to to say they had all gone! So what was the trick? Surely it would be fairer to let everyone register and then use some prize draw software to pick the winners - at least that wouldn't waste everyone's time. My devotion to MSE is fast fading because of this FIASCO.

davenport151

Check out E*bay, still some codes to be had there - for a price!

Also see post #15.

Former_MSE_Dan

Hi all,

We are sorry for any disappointment this RSH offer caused. This was an incredibly popular deal, with over 8-10,000 people sitting waiting on that page alone for the half hour leading up to each of the code launch times.

Our site actually crashed a couple of times, which is a rare occurence these days. This is why some of you didn't see the message change at the time the codes launched. We are of course working to make sure in any similar offers in future that the servers can be even more robust.

To give you an idea of the scale of the demand, below is the amount of time each set of 2.500 codes last, even allowing for the fact that some people coudn't get through due to the site not being up.

First batch.
All 2,500 went in 33 seconds.

Second Batch.
67 seconds.

Third batch.
57 seconds.

Fourth Batch
40 seconds.

MSE Dan

jamesd

Dan, I don't know how applicable this would be here but one trick that can be used for fungible items is to hash people into different pools and have the pools request batches of allocations from a central source. That reduces the central update frequency to that of the pool requests rather than the end user requests.

For non-fungible items this can be used to regulate those who are able to go on to get the non-fungible item, or compete there for the last few remaining.

Slowhand

It was a fun thing for me. Got zilch at 10.00am. Figured out a strategy which worked at 1.00pm for me, ma-in-law at 4.00pm and sis-in-law at 8.00pm. 10,000 got the codes in seconds, it stands to reason that a whole lot more didn't and will therefore be unhappy.