I hope you don't mind me quoting you here from the other thread--I wanted to move my thoughts to this thread.
That is totally fine, I agree it's better to keep all of this out of the boarding group info thread.
I think "The only system that is actually FAIR" gets at the heart of this. There simply is not an objective definition of what's fair in a case like this.
To me there is - a system that is fair, is one that has rules that if you obey you can get a predictable result from, and that I cannot gain an unfair advantage over other people with.
In a fair system, anyone with a stronger desire to ride and who also puts forth some effort, can be assured being able to ride. In a first-come-first-served system, someone who is on a once in a lifetime trip to Disney could be sure to ride ROTR by getting there around two hours before park open, maybe a bit more, and they would know they had a boarding pass.
The reason I can say for sure the current system is not fair at all, is because any small technical slip up means you have no assured boarding group, and maybe even if all is well you have no boarding group simply because there are so many people in the park trying.
You think that system is "actually fair" but not everyone agrees. There are many people who think the first-come, first-serve system is not fair since they can't show up early to get in line, or can't stand in a line all day, or whatever.
I think it's pretty hypothetical to say that there is anyone who truly cannot get there early. Only one person needs to actually be in line to hold a position, for those that truly cannot wait in line that long, they can hang to the side and join just as they are letting people in.
And plenty of people think BGs aren't fair because they don't want to be at the mercy of their cell phone connectivity.
You are not, there is Disney WiFi and also the hard boarding pass distribution. WDW has a better system there because they have cast members with iPads that can get people into boarding groups, so they can be more spread around and more of them than
DisneyLand has. At this point people that truly have that issue will be a pretty small percentage though.
And others think a pure lottery is unfair because it's purely random with no chance to get an advantage by doing something that makes you more worthy that the other people who just wandered in and entered the drawing.
Nothing random can be considered "fair", because it is dispropornate to need and effort. I do not consider any system that can casually discard someone who is truly there on a once in a lifetime trip to be "fair".
Still others may think the "actually fair" system would be an open auction where the people willing to pay the most get the boarding groups.
Also not fair for the same reason, and not everyone would have enough money to "win" at that system if they had a need to.
The current system is kind of like this, in that with more money you have a better chance.
My point: your perception that "first come, first serve" is "actually FAIR" is not a belief held by everyone. And that's why we keep going around and around on these ideas--they all have their pros and cons, their supporters and detractors.
It is my opinion but I also have not seen any logic that refutes it. Part of what makes a potential system fair to me is that it does not advantage me, it advantages someone who has a more pressing need or desire to get in than I do. Or to put it another way, what I consider a fair system is one where I cannot give myself an unfair advantage, which I can under the current system, First-Come-First-Served is the only system I have seen I cannot actually rig to my advantage in some way.
P.S. You could almost argue that the currently system is somewhat first-come-first-served at Disneyland, because first people at the hard boarding group distro sites will get a boarding group. But it's not the same as first come first served into the park getting boarding groups, because the hard distribution points are only available to very fast sprinters, and you have to scan one pass at a time in a group. First come first served into the park is way more friendly because you have some time to get your phone working properly, since boarding group distribution speed is limited by the entry rate into the park, another reason that is a fair system.
P.P.S. First come first served actually worked really, really well for the only three days Disney had it in place - opening day and the two days after at WDW. I was there at 3:30am each day, far smaller crowds than at Disneyland on opening day at 2:30am - an argument supposedly in favor of the current system is that people will not get there so early. Yet they still are, and it was worse at Disneyland when everyone knew boarding groups would not be distributed on entry. People did not show up earlier and earlier at Disney World even when it mattered, there is simply a hard cap on how early 90% of people are willing to show up to wait for something. That is what would keep first-come-first-served reasonable. Now that I have ridden the ride a number of times under both systems, I am more sure than ever of what is fair, and what is not.
