It’s been nearly 2 years since the release of our first CannonKeys raffle queue system. And while it's impossible to fully prevent botting with any system, we’re confident that our raffle queue system has helped us get more of the keyboards that we run into the hands of the people that want them, and not those looking to flip and make a quick buck.
But we’ve always wanted to do more. While the raffle queue has been great - we know it can be better.
And with that in mind - we’d like to introduce our new checkout system which we’re calling CANNONKEYS HYPE V2.
Over the past few years, we’ve received some feedback about our system, which we’ve wanted to address. But the original raffle queue wasn’t built in an easily extensible way.
We’ve built HYPE V2 from the ground up to help make it more extensible and easier to iterate.
And in its first iterations, we’ve addressed these pain points that you shared with us about the original raffle queue:
- It could be stressful to have to rush to set your cart once you got through the raffle queue, leading to mistakes
- Using a Google Form to collect options could be a bit confusing, and could make it tough to understand what was ordered
- Not being able to change submitted options was frustrating
- There was no confirmation page before creating a checkout
- It wasn’t clear if you had hit an error and should refresh, or if the queue was just working slowly
In HYPE V2 we’ve changed the flow:
- You can create your cart prior to joining the raffle - complete with a confirmation page! If your items sell out while you’re in the queue or on the cart confirmation page, you’ll be taken back to the main screen so you can modify your cart.
- We collect options in your cart - so you don’t have to wait for a Google Form. And you can edit your choices on your own, later!
- We’ve changed the raffle selection protocol a bit… we don’t want to get too detailed, but it should result in you having to wait less time to figure out if you got through or not.
- Elaborating a bit on the new selection protocol - prior to a raffle starting, there is a waiting period. During this time, no one will be selected to get through the queue. So you can set your cart and options at your leisure - no need to rush at all!
- And while it’s still possible for something to go out of stock while you wait for a checkout, the likelihood of that happening should be reduced compared to the old system.
This new flow should also make it easier for us to facilitate group buys overall - not just ones that we expect to sell out. And offer the same order editing and option editing features.
And we’re not quite done yet! We have even more improvements planned for our HYPE V2 system, which should make life even easier.
Tomorrow’s Vector launch at 11 AM Eastern will be using the new hype system. By virtue of using HYPE V2 for the first time - it is a piece of beta software. While we’ve tested internally (including load testing) - we will definitely need your help and feedback to make HYPE V2 better. We appreciate your patience and understanding! As always, our Discord is a great place to share feedback.
And a brief schedule of tomorrow's drops:
11 AM - Vector Special Edition Opens on Hype V2 with a 5 minute waiting period
11:05 AM - The raffle queue process for Vector Special edition begins.
11:10 AM - By this time, we expect Vector Special Edition to be sold out, or if not, then everyone who wanted one has been able to checkout and purchase one
11:15 AM - Vector Standard Edition Opens on Hype V2 with a 5 minute waiting period
11:20 AM - The raffle queue process for Vector Standard edition begins
We expect the Vector Standard edition raffle to take about 20 minutes - and if it’s not sold out by then, the queue will stay open and make it easy for those who want to purchase to do so.