BlokForge did this the right way and I don't feel they have anything to apologize for. I'm not saying this because I was one of the lucky ones. I'm saying it because it was the most fair way to do it and all the suggestions being bounced around would have caused things to go the same or worse.
(Warn people that you expect high traffic when the sale starts) - Assuming BF knew that their website would be suddenly slammed with thousands of would-be buyers, what purpose does warning everyone about it serve? The end result is the same and we all knew that everyone was going to be on there trying to order anyways.
(Advise How Many Units are available) - What is gained by knowing how many units they have available? If you knew there were less than 100, what would you have done differently? Scarcity breeds more interest, not less.
(Limit to 1 per person) - I like that they set a limit. I can't say I like it being as low as one miner, though. A more appropriate method of limiting order sizes would be to related it to the total number of miners available. If there are few to go around, then make an appropriate limit. Consider also that BF creates more work for themselves because the smaller limit increases the number of orders to ship, payments to handle/receive, and increases the number of potential shipping issues.
THANK YOU FOR THE LIMIT, BLOKFORGE! Seriously. That really helps those of us that do not have tens of thousands of dollars to throw around or the ability to write a script to automatically order dozens of units as soon as they're available).
(Don't let miners be added to the cart if there are none left) - I believe the issue here was that people were in the process of buying the same miners you were able to add to your cart. There is no way around this except that you can remove any units in someone's cart from the available inventory. That is a bad idea because of the high-traffic issues and people constantly hitting F5, which can increase the number units they end up adding to their cart. That is alleviated somewhat with the order limit, but I've only ever had negative experiences with websites that do this.
(Make a Lottery/Queue System) - I think the lottery and the queue are both not-great ideas. There will be rumors that BlokForge is picking friends or family or that they're not randomizing the selection in the correct way. I've never known any other seller (in any private industry/business) to do something similar. And you're not thinking about just how many people would be in that lottery...
For the most part, all of us were on equal footing tonight. All of us were frantically trying to F5 our way to the "Submit Order" screen. And you were only competing with those that were actually online and trying to get the order. If there was a lottery/queue, then just think about how many people would just be adding themselves to the list. Now you're competing against 5,000 or 10,000... They already limited it to 2 per customer, which created a better chance than any of us has ever had trying to catch an order through Canaan.io directly.
I'm not trying to pander, but I honestly don't know how anyone could have expected BlokForge to handle that better. Honestly, I'm surprised their website didn't completely crash, since I doubt the servers were set-up for that much traffic. We are in a new world of BTC Mining. Even if you didn't get any tonight, you at least had a chance.
I think BlokForge has been the best distributor as far as communication of any I have seen. They seem to enjoy their work and it shows.
But:
(Warn people that you expect high traffic when the sale starts) Probably hard to do, who can see the future,. I personally have internet service that measures about 80-150k, works just fine for mining, but works not at all when competing in milliseconds to grab a sale. This one is on me, I should assume in this environment that everyone on the net is going to try to get in.(Advise How Many Units are available) Sets anticipation, low units numbers clues me in that I would not expect to get one, maybe make extra arrangements (drive to town and use McDonald's wireless). Some websites show quantity available, helps with planning.(Limit to 1 per person) Adds 60 happy customers to BlokForges list rather than 30, distributes to more locations. gives more people the chance to join in. Maybe 1 miner per person for the first week, or 1 day of 1 per person, second day 2 per person etc.. Be inventive and creative[/font]
(Don't let miners be added to the cart if there are none left) ...There is no way around this except that you can remove any units in someone's cart from the available inventory. That is a bad idea... I disagree! there are ways around it, including doing exactly as you say, once added to cart, drop the qty available. What did happen sounds like this: it sounds like someone walking up to my cart at WalMart, taking something from that cart and running to the checkout faster than me. Once it is in my cart, I expect I am taking it home with me
(Make a Lottery/Queue System) - I think the lottery and the queue are both not-great ideas. There will be rumors that BlokForge is picking friends or family or that they're not randomizing the selection in the correct way. I've never known any other seller (in any private industry/business) to do something similar. And you're not thinking about just how many people would be in that lottery... BlokForge just had a sale that consisted of 100 units, that would be 20 units short of two pallets. I would expect, and hope, that BlokForge is striking a balance in taking care of their friends and best customers first before offering to us unwashed masses.
Until supply meets demand, I think a lottery would be a great system to distribute these, 1 per miner, collect emails the day before, then a random drawing. Takes out website issues, speed issues, etc. Does any retailer NEED to do this, no they don't, but I would respect them more if they did try to make the sale fair. (restrict to registered users, minimum postings on reditt or bitcointalk to eliminate adding brothers, sisters, parents, etc.)
For the most part, all of us were on equal footing tonight. No we were not all on equal footing.. In the time I do one F5, you could literally probably do 20
So... like almost every sale in the last 3 months, I did not get an ASIC I would just like to level the playing field as far as access and anticipation.