Online society app causes headache for ball goers

Prospective patrons took to the ball’s Facebook event page to vent frustration or to inquire as to whether or not their purchase had been successful.

newsTeething problems with the new online societies platform, Hive, meant prospective ball-goers were left uncertain as to whether they had successfully bought tickets on Wednesday to DU Law Society’s annual Swing Ball. The server hosting the ticket sales crashed, meaning that many had funds deducted from their accounts without receiving notification that they had been successful in obtaining a ticket for some time afterwards.

Hive, which had initially been released last year as Adme, offers societies the opportunity to centralise their online presence into a single platform for managing ticket and merchandise sales as well as handling credit or debit card payments, and managing mailing lists. The platform, which has been endorsed by the Central Societies Committee (CSC) as a method for promoting society events, is a Dublin-based start-up run by Trinity graduates.

In previous years, the Swing Ball, which is to take place tomorrow at the Shelbourne Hotel on St Stephen’s Green, had been ticketed through a process common to many societies, involving queues forming on the Arts Building concourse and payments being made in cash. Hive has been used successfully to ticket various events so far this term, including the Law Society’s Masquerave.

Many prospective patrons took to the ball’s Facebook event page to vent frustration or to inquire as to whether or not their purchase had been successful. The committee intervened, with Law Society librarian Dervla Collins assuring members that they could check whether or not they had obtained a ticket by emailing her, and responding to several open requests for information posted by nervous patrons.

Auditor James Ringland posted shortly afterwards with his apologies for any inconvenience that been caused to members. Ringland indicated that the society was open to changing the ticketing process for future events, although they felt that the digital process was fair. He assured members in his post that concerns that had been raised would be taken into account for the Society’s next ball, the Law Ball in the new year, saying that the society “will do all [they] can to ticket the event in a way that’s as fair and stress free as possible.”

Fionn McGorry

Fionn McGorry is the Deputy News Editor. He is a History and Political Science student, and hails from a very long way away indeed.