Letter to the Editor: Barstool Blacklisted

Dear Editor,

My correspondence is to illuminate the true facts concerning points made in the Article “Barstool Getting Blacked Out?” which ran in the December 6, 2012 edition of The Springfield Student.  The assertion that Springfield College had blocked the Ticketmaster.com website preventing student ticket purchases for the concert is incorrect.  Upon reviewing Ticketmaster’s published Terms of Use Policy posted on the bottom of every web page on the Ticketmaster.com site, Ticketmaster states in several places that they reserve the right to block access of any domain without notice where purchase activity has exceeded Ticketmaster’s definition of “too many purchases” during a period of time.

ITS went a step further contacting Ticketmaster technical support to obtain more specifics.  Ticketmaster confirmed that Springfield College had been “blacklisted” (blocked) due to excessive purchases over the course of one hour on December 5, 2012.  The technician verbally confirmed that Springfield College continued to be blocked into December 6, 2012 stating that once a domain is blacklisted it can take as much as 48 hours for the block to be lifted by Ticketmaster.  Lastly, the technician warned that Springfield College could, and would, be blocked again anytime where twenty-five or more users try to make purchases from Ticketmaster in a one hour time period.  This included a potential circumstance where the Springfield College domain could permanently be blocked by Ticketmaster due to persistent activity.  Ticketmaster offered no reasons for their policy stance, but if one searches Google for the phrase ‘Ticketmaster and IP blocking’ one would receive an ample listing of discussion materials.

It is critical to stress that Springfield College prides itself as a student-centric campus.  From the President’s Office and throughout all faculty and staff ranks, during my tenure at the college no clearer expectation has been voiced and placed into practice than the college’s purposeful intent to prepare and serve our most important customers – our students.  My team and I strongly share this philosophy and trust that the progress made in the last three years in technology underscores that commitment.  As always, we welcome all comments and suggestions to advance Springfield College.

Sincerely,

Danny R Davis / CIO

Springfield College