No MAS sticker for you (if you're not going to the concert...)

It was brought to my attention over the weekend that Sony Music posted some info over on their Facebook page regarding the Ricky Martin concert series and GetGlue. Verbatim:

"Did you know Ricky Martin is the very first artist to work with Get Glue on check-ins via QR codes? Fans at Ricky's American Airlines Arena show in Miami tomorrow night will get a very exclusive Get Glue sticker by scanning the QR code at the concert! Read more about it here: http://bit.ly/dYQoSU"

(URL: http://www.facebook.com/sonymusicglobal )

And then after some people (myself included) posted complaints that it was unfair to people who couldn't make it to the concert:

"Hi guys - Ricky has 3 stickers available, and only 1 of them is location based. So fans can still enjoy 2 exclusive stickers as part of the promotion."

While I haven't been to the concert (and I am not likely to be able to, considering none of the tour dates are going to be close to my neck of the woods), nor do I know anyone who will be going to the concert, this still irritates me because apparently the QR code at the concert is the only link to check-in and earn the MAS sticker.

Now it's bad enough that we didn't hear one peep out of GG that they were partnering with Sony to do something at the concerts (and we had to hear it from Sony instead... after the concert series started... and via their Facebook page, no less), but considering they are actually making this sticker available only at the concerts then they just shot the legs out from under any fan who has the misfortune to not be able to make it to the show, be it due to distance, time, or cost of the tickets (which range from $50 and up). Way to cater only to people in large cities with moderate-to-large amounts of disposable income, GetGlue and Sony. Elitism much?

It also irritates me that GetGlue, in their usual fashion, didn't say one word about how this sticker was going to be made available. Up to this point every "on tour" style sticker was made available to everyone through a simple check-in, possibly requiring a phrase. Now someone will actually have to go hunting around the venue for a QR code to scan? That'd probably be the last thing on my mind while I'm at a concert, especially if I didn't know I needed to be looking for one. There is no indication anywhere on GetGlue of where or how to find this code to check-in.

Finally, there's the issue of the possibility of cheating to get the sticker. If all that's required to earn it is to zap the QR code and use it to check-in then it would be dead easy for someone to take a picture of the QR code and either post it on the Internet as-is or take the URL it provides and post that for all the world to see.

GetGlue and Sony earn a huge NOT COOL, MAN on this one. One of the unique things about GetGlue was that you could earn the stickers revolving around the media without having to worry about whether you were in a specific location at a specific time (you just had to worry about the time). With the advent of this they have basically taken a step towards being just another Foursquare clone, complete with people who will probably further cheat the already semi-broken system to earn location-specific stickers while the rest of the users will be left scratching their heads and wondering how somone in an overseas country earned a sticker that was only available in Florida at the time.

Bad form, GetGlue. Bad form.

On GetGlue and Moving the Goalposts

So I'm looking over the stickers for tonight and I see that they added an additional one for Episodes. Technically they added it in the last update, or maybe the one before, but that's not the point. The point is what the sticker appears to be awarded for. From the sticker's text:

"Isn't Episodes much better than Pucks? Thanks for watching every episode this season! Share this one proudly. It's from our friends at Showtime."

So basically what we have here is another sticker that's only going to be awarded to the people that checked-in to every episode of the show all season long. The problem with this is that they didn't tell us they would be awarding this sticker until well past halfway into the season. At this point there's probably more than a few people out there that missed a check-in. Either they forgot, or they got their Pucks sticker and quit checking-in because they figured there wouldn't be anymore until the finale, or when they sit down to watch a TV show their first inclination is NOT "OMG, I need to check-in to GetGlue" (I tend to fall under the latter category. But I digress.)

The point I'm trying to make here is that springing a sticker on the community in the eleventh hour that would have required the users to check-in for several weeks in a row falls under the category of "NOT COOL, MAN." This is a classic example of what one would call "moving the goalposts" - bad faith on the part of those setting goals for others to meet, by arbitrarily making additional demands just as the initial ones are about to be met.

I honestly can't recall if I've checked-in to every airing of Episodes this season. I think I did, but I'm not sure. But whether I did or not, the fact of the matter remains the same: GetGlue, if you're going to do stuff like requiring a full season's worth of check-ins for a show to get a specific award then you should let the fans know from the beginning. Otherwise you're going to end up with more than a few people with hurt feelings just because they missed one or two check-ins. If you need a reminder of how ticked off people can get by you changing the rules in mid-stream, look no further than the Boardwalk Empire season 1 series of stickers and the hubbub that surrounded them at the end of the season.

Check your sticker counts - Glee stickers missing!

Tonight at around 10:30 CST I noticed a discrepancy in my sticker count. It turns out the following stickers had disappeared from not only my account but also all the people to whom I'm subscribed.

Gleek, Supergleek, Rachel, Glee Season 2 Premiere, Time Warp, Sue Sylvester, Quinn, Tina, Mr. Schue, Artie

If you are missing these stickers then I urge you to contact GetGlue support.

Look At What Came In The Mail 3 - Deja Vu All Over Again...

I swung by the post office yesterday on my lunch break to drop my Netflix in the mail and check the PO Box for any sign of stickers from GetGlue. Lo and behold, there was an envelope! I stuffed it in my coat pocket and headed back to work with some happy thoughts of what might be inside.

Canned customer response & accusations...

Just got the following in a reply e-mail from GetGlue Re: possible bugs in the system relating to the stickers from last night.

"Thanks for using GetGlue! 


We do not comment on how to earn stickers, but I can say that there are restrictions put in place to make sure there is genuine behavior when earning stickers.  Keep checking in when you are consuming the object, and you will earn the sticker."

So basically they're accusing me of trying to game the system?  Not cool, especially considering this isn't the first time that a bug has hit my account and resulted in me failing to be awarded a sticker based on a proper amount of check-ins. I'll post more in this saga if they decide to reply to my response.

Sticker Bugs Abound

Like many of you I spent yesterday afternoon and evening checking-in to the pair of MSNBC shows as well as Conan and Lopez Tonight. Unfortunately, the sticker bug decided to rear its ugly head yet again and threw most of us into a tailspin. Lopez Tonight and Conan finally came through for me with all the proper stickers, as did Hardball with Chris Matthews, but I'm still having trouble with The Daily Rundown. Fifteen check-ins bore no fruit. I deleted my check-ins in hopes that re-doing them would cause something to pop. The second time around for the fifth check-in got me nothing, as did the 15th.  I've dropped a line to GetGlue support about it because I know I'm not the only one having issues. Hopefully they're already working on getting this resolved. Any readers still having troubles with the stickers from yesterday? Air your beefs in the comments!

Time to air my beefs...

No Mythbusters last night... No Dexter last weekend... It's enough to make one think that GetGlue has forgotten about the new stickers for them. I'm sure they haven't, but it's still a pretty sneaky way to drive traffic to the site. They said there would be Mythbusters stickers all season. To me that means "every week", not "we're going to have four or five and the weeks we let you earn them are going to be completely random, starting with an eleventh-hour notice on the premiere sticker." (Yeah, I'm still bitter about that. So sue me.) It's the same thing with the Dexter stickers. We had them every other week for a month, which made sense; a sticker for that week and the bonus sticker could be considered the next week's sticker. And now... nothing. It's more than a bit of a letdown. I also have to wonder how the Third Cut sticker got leaked. They seem to lock down everything else on the site with regards to stickers and when they can be earned; why wasn't this one behind a time and date lock in addition to the phrase? Was GetGlue just hoping that no one would figure out the phrase until the clue went out with the sticker? Security through obscurity is no defense. Was there supposed to be a sticker last weekend and someone forgot to flip the switch? That just makes one want to *facepalm* and shake their head.

Item Number Two on my list'o'gripes is a combined issue with check-ins. Specifically, short time windows on check-ins and broken check-ins. This past week we had a sticker for PBS Newshour that was available only during the run of the show, from 11:00 PM to 12:00 AM. Am I the only one who thinks it's absolutely insane to expect users to stay up into the wee hours of the morning, just so they can artificially inflate GetGlue's site hits for them while earning a sticker? I'll get back to the inflated site hits in a bit, but the time window thing is even worse for the overseas users. Instead of checking-in to the shows to earn their stickers during the standard prime-time hours, they have to stay up until oh-dark-thirty to be able to pick them up. How is this fair? The internet is a global medium, not constrained by the boundaries of countries and the limits of geography. Show some love for the users that are in other countries or the users that time-shift the shows. Make the check-in window for show stickers last a full 24-hours. It'll benefit everyone. The actual users who watch the show will still check-in during the show's time. Those that TiVo the show can still check in up to 24 hours later and earn their badge. The overseas users will have a greater window of opportunity. Sticker hunters will spam it no matter what the window is. Everyone is happy. Well, except maybe those who get hit by broken check-ins. Part two of this gripe really burns my ass every time I see GetGlue throw out a Tweet regarding the number of check-ins they get on the weekends. They toot their own horn about how many people are hitting the site. While I can see bragging about your accomplishments, how many of those check-ins are repeats from people trying to earn a sticker and failing because the check-in system broke yet again? More than one person I know of missed getting the special PBS sticker, simply because their check-ins didn't register. Multiple clicks from multiple users equals an inflated hit count, leading to bad statistics. How about you give us the count of hits from unique IP addresses instead?

Item number three is more of a wish-list item, and will probably get re-hashed in Wish List 3: The Wishening, but suffice it to say I feel like it bears mentioning right now. How about a change to the stickers listing on the website that's more along the lines of what is shown on the phone apps? I keep hearing repeatedly from my friends that the iPhone or Android app has a placeholder for "sticker X". They've essentially got an early warning system that lets them know what's coming up. What do the web site users have? Jack squat. What do the non-Droid and non-iPhone users have? The same jack squat. How about giving those of us who can't access those the same ability to see the upcoming stickers? Throw that in with the wishes for the ability to sort the stickers listing.

Ok... ranting over with. I'm out for the night, unless some new sticker crawls out of the woodwork unexpectedly. Have fun out there and don't forget to check into Dexter, Boardwalk Empire, and Sherlock on Sunday.

Ghost Hunters Bug or a time zone lock?

Well, for some reason the Panic Button sticker seems to be broken. After multiple check-ins since the start of the Ghost Hunters Live event over TWO HOURS ago, it has yet to pop for my account. Some people (myself included) have speculated that it's a time zone lock, but it makes no sense that a sticker tied to a live event would be time zone locked. GetGlue should have known that this would be a HUGE night for Ghost Hunters check-ins and thus far they're letting a lot of us down. Here's hoping that if it's a bug it gets fixed soon, and if it's a lock then they pull their heads out of the sand and realize that it's a stupid idea to lock down something that has a specific start time and run time.

So where's the stickers, GetGlue?

Back on October 18 GetGlue further teased the Sex and the City 2 sticker via Twitter.  I figured this was a cool development (even though I'm still miffed over the non-apperance of the Jonah Hex sticker), and if I was able to earn the S&TC2 tag and they ever actually sent me all of my stickers (which is another rant for another post) then I could give it to my girlfriend.

So today rolls around, the date of the DVD release, and whaddya know - no sticker. Check-ins to the movie didn't make it pop. Check-ins to the show bore no fruit. Ditto for check-ins to the original movie. Nothing.

And yet they can find the time to pimp the upcoming Glee and Raising Hope stickers for tonight. Nice set of priorities there, guys; let's forget the sticker we've been teasing for months now and go ahead and pass out two brand new ones this evening.  This just makes me shake my head in disbelief.  They've got the PR department out working on new stuff when they haven't delivered the old stuff.

Guess we can continue to chalk that Sex and the City 2 sticker up on the same list as the Jonah Hex one - teased but never released.

The sticker awarding bug rears its ugly head yet again...

Last night at least five new stickers dropped - two dedicated to Pretty Little Liars on ABC Family and three for Food Network TV shows. To be quite honest I haven't heard word one about Pretty Little Liars, but it looks interesting. The Food Network stickers, however, left me majorly stoked. I absolutely LOVE the shows on Food Network. Good Eats still appeals to the geek in me. Ace of Cakes appeals to the creative side of my brain. And while Iron Chef America isn't nearly as madcap and fun as the original Japanese version, it's still a hoot to watch. If they had a sticker for Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives I'd be all over that one!

Or maybe I wouldn't. You see, shortly after I picked up the stickers for Pretty Little Liars the sticker awarding bug popped into being for me yet again.  Either that or someone over at GetGlue hit the wrong switch again, set the stickers to Live status before they were supposed to be, and then yanked them back from being available, like they did with the Scream 2010 Awards Ultimate Scream sticker (at least that one is back now.)  Anyway, I was keeping an eye on my check-ins, trying to make sure I spaced them out accordingly, and when I hit the fifth one for Iron Chef America... no sticker. "Crap. Here we go again," I thought. Sure enough, my fifth check-ins for Good Eats and Ace of Cakes yielded the same results. "It's ok - I'll just wait for morning," I thought and headed for bed.  Unfortunately, this morning's check-ins brought no results as well.  I've held off on running my check-ins up to 15 (SuperFan) for the shows for the time being and will probably do so until I see some of my other sticker-fiend friends popping up with the stickers. I figure why should I artificially inflate the check-in totals because of GetGlue's errors?

To sum up my thoughts on this: GetGlue needs to get its stuff together and get this bug squashed. It's been around for almost a month now and it's a major annoyance to the heavy users of the site.

Ultimate Scream, Jonah Hex, True Blood Newbie, and other sticker weirdness...

It was brought to my attention on the 15th that the Ultimate Scream sticker had disappeared from the lists of several users who had previously earned it. Given that this is not the first sticker that has disappeared from our listings, I fired off an email to GetGlue support. According to support the sticker was put in to the product early and will be back in a few days. No word on whether or not we'll have to re-earn it. While I can understand them disabling it from being earned, causing it to be pulled from the lists of everyone who had earned it already gets a big "Not Cool, Man" in my eyes. Hopefully it'll reappear on our lists without having to be re-earned.

Also on the "Not Cool" track is the Jonah Hex sticker that has been teased on the GetGlue Mobile Apps page since at least early September (pictured below, in case they decide to remove it from the teaser roll)

When it didn't appear as part of the regular fandom check-ins for the movie, I suspected it'd go live for the DVD release instead. This past week the release of the DVD came and went, with absolutely nobody earning this sticker for checking in to the movie. I highly doubt they'd make a sticker like that a phrase check-in, so something tells me this one got pulled from availability - probably because of how bad the movie did at the box office. If I were an exec at Warner Brothers I sure as hell wouldn't want to further pimp a movie that failed as badly as Jonah Hex did. It's still listed in the teased but not available section of the FAQ, along with the Gossip Girl and Sex and the City 2 stickers that are pictured there (both of which I highly doubt will ever make an appearance, either).

Not to bring everything totally down, we have seen the re-appearance of a sticker that had previously gone *POOF* from most people's listings: True Blood Newbie. When GetGlue did the reorganization of the stickers listing this one disappeared from the listings of everyone who had earned it. It reappeared without fanfare some time within the last week on the lists of the people who earned it. Big thumbs up to GetGlue for getting that one fixed.

Mythbusters stickers all season!

It was brought to my attention by J. that there will be a full set of 12 Mythbusters stickers this season! This post from Discovery's blog notes "You’ll also be one-step closer to earning a special set of MythBusters stickers for tuning into all 12 episodes of the new season as they premiere each Wednesday!"  This wasn't mentioned anywhere on GetGlue's blog. It was, however in the Twitter feed as a reTweet from Discovery Channel. One would think GetGlue would want an announcement of that type on their blog feed.

Regardless, I've added Mythbusters to the reminder calendar. Even if you weren't able to get the Premiere sticker, keep checking in to get the rest of the set!

Mythbusters premiere sticker - and I missed it!

Apparently at about 7:30 PM EST yesterday GetGlue posted on their blog and Tweeted that there would be an exclusive premiere sticker for Mythbusters.  Unfortunately, the premiere for Mythbusters was ALSO yesterday evening, at 9:00 PM EST, leaving those who weren't living on Facebook, Twitter, or AB's blog out in the cold with little advance warning.  I love that show but my first instinct while watching the episode was not, "Hey, I should check-in to GetGlue!" so obviously I missed out on it.  If anyone has earned this sticker, please let me know so I can get it added to to the list with the proper text.

EDIT:  Text found - Flint is a fiend when it comes to chasing down stickers.  That woman is truly a sticker-finding machine! :-)