81yo Dodgers fan can no longer get tickets because he doesn't have a smartphone • Hacker News Board

Re: 81yo Dodgers fan can no longer get tickets because he doesn't have a smartphone

#351

Post by ryandrake » Mon, Apr 06, 2026, 9:01 PM UTC

bradlys wrote: post #345

ryandrake wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As the sibling commenter pointed out, in their case, it totally failed to create a meaningful identifier, because he used some other person's phone to get past the ridiculous gate.

It’s not ridiculous. It’s for you to verify. It’s setting up 2FA. How can you not understand that?

2FA presumes user-ownership of the second factor, and that possession of the second factor authenticates that the possessor is the account owner. It's ridiculous because in the OP's case, he literally had someone else temporarily hand him the second factor in front of the clerk: the 2FA didn't really authenticate anything, and the clerk could even see that.

Re: 81yo Dodgers fan can no longer get tickets because he doesn't have a smartphone

#352

Post by kube-system » Mon, Apr 06, 2026, 9:02 PM UTC

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #230

tacticalturtle wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Visual impairment was just my naive example - but maybe there’s a better one that still persists. Regardless, maybe there’s a path to legislation forbidding smartphone requirements for huge monopoly businesses like national professional sports leagues. I’d hate for ownership of a consumer device to become codified as a requirement for participation in activities like this.

Yes because we really need to give the government more power to selectively go after businesses - what could possibly go wrong?

Increased regulatory scrutiny is typically standard for all government granted monopolies. There are significant issues with this arrangement but it isn't because of the increased regulation, but usually the lack of it!

Re: 81yo Dodgers fan can no longer get tickets because he doesn't have a smartphone

#353

Post by mmmlinux » Mon, Apr 06, 2026, 9:03 PM UTC

Bro is 81. Computers have been ubiquitous for at least 20 years now. hes had plenty of time to learn how to use one. I get the feeling hes the kind of guy that just retired instead of having to learn how to use the new fangled thing they sat in front of him.

Re: 81yo Dodgers fan can no longer get tickets because he doesn't have a smartphone

#354

Post by EvanAnderson » Mon, Apr 06, 2026, 9:03 PM UTC

jeroenhd wrote: post #350

EvanAnderson wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the assumption that SMS is enough is valid anymore. My wife's elderly aunt has a flip phone that can receive SMS but not MMS. We just went thru an "identity verification" procedure with a major bank last week that sends MMS, not SMS, and could not reach her flip phone. The whole ordeal was a huge pain in the ass and if my wife and I weren't there to help her it would have been completely impenetrable to…

MMS is ancient. Ancient enough that my carrier disabled it entirely. Maybe the flip phone UI is shitty, or the carrier hasn't supplied the necessary APN info to the phone, or the phone hasn't been set up to use that APN because of a bug, or they're using some kind of modernized, non-standard MMS media type or something, but there's no way that phone can't receive MMS at all.

Like I said in my other comment - She can't receive a message with a photo from me. Just text, she can. It's an old phone, I think a Kyocera, and I believe her carrier is Cricket Wireless.

Re: 81yo Dodgers fan can no longer get tickets because he doesn't have a smartphone

#355

Post by booleandilemma » Mon, Apr 06, 2026, 9:06 PM UTC

this_user wrote: post #158

SoftTalker wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an older guy at my office who often says "if you don't want to do something, don't learn how" and I think this attitude is common. It's not that they can't learn this smartphone stuff, they just don't want to use it.

That's their choice, but they also choose to suffer the consequences. Expecting the world to cater to your needs specifically is such a typical boomer attitude and should no longer be tolerated.

Learn how to use whatever shitty technology is being pushed onto the masses or die, yes, that's the right attitude for sure.

Re: 81yo Dodgers fan can no longer get tickets because he doesn't have a smartphone

#356

Post by observationist » Mon, Apr 06, 2026, 9:06 PM UTC

mmmlinux wrote: post #353

Bro is 81. Computers have been ubiquitous for at least 20 years now. hes had plenty of time to learn how to use one. I get the feeling hes the kind of guy that just retired instead of having to learn how to use the new fangled thing they sat in front of him.

Ah, so screw the Amish, too. And anyone who doesn't want 24/7 tracking or to be permanently connected and available. Those people suck and shouldn't be able to enjoy baseball.

The audacity of the guy, depriving all those scammers the opportunity to dupe him into gift card scams.

Re: 81yo Dodgers fan can no longer get tickets because he doesn't have a smartphone

#357

Post by reaperducer » Mon, Apr 06, 2026, 9:07 PM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #275

EvanAnderson wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You will be the "boomer" some day. I wish people had more empathy. An example: Presbyopia came on hard for me in the last couple of years Now I really appreciate low-vision affordances that, as a younger person, I couldn't have cared less about and would have seen as an unnecessary cost.

Exactly. When OP is 85, I hope some whippersnapper 20 year old says to him, "Come on, grandpa. You need to get that neural advertisement brain implant like the rest of us, or you can't buy anything. Why should businesses need to support your lame smartphone? Step into the 22nd century, pops!"

No need to wait until 85. Just slip on something at the age of 22 while playing a quick game of basketball and blow out a knee.

Suddenly you start seeing and using all the wonderful ADA affordances that have been installed in plain sight all around you.

Re: 81yo Dodgers fan can no longer get tickets because he doesn't have a smartphone

#358

Post by drstewart » Mon, Apr 06, 2026, 9:10 PM UTC

elevation wrote: post #25

We need to extend the ADA to protect people who are not technologically-abled.

This! I want to read HN but it's unfair that I have to do it on an electronic device. Ycombinator should be required to offer me a print service that delivers the top articles and a phone in service to make comments through

Re: 81yo Dodgers fan can no longer get tickets because he doesn't have a smartphone

#359

Post by tomwheeler » Mon, Apr 06, 2026, 9:13 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #318

tomwheeler wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I feel like phone tickets are anti-convenience because they rely on terrible apps like TicketMaster. Case in point: I traveled from St. Louis to Houston for a concert a few years ago. Before I left home to catch my flight, I installed the Ticketmaster app on a phone and verified that I could bring up the tickets. When I tried it again in my hotel an hour before the conference, it no longer worked because the fraud…

Why would you sign into Ticketmaster with an email address you don't have access to and use it to buy tickets? Don't do that. Create a new account with the email address you have access to. Apps require you to sign in again all the time , and send a verification code to your e-mail to do so. Changing locations is, yes, a reason to require sign in. Sorry, but that one's on you.

> Why would you sign into Ticketmaster with an email address you don't have access to and use it to buy tickets?

Because in the context of signing in, its role is that of a user ID.

Ticketmaster spams that address constantly. It's a valid email address, to be sure, but they've trained me over the years never to look at it. They certainly didn't do any multi-factor authentication when I bought the tickets, only when I was preparing to use them (despite having accessed them on that very device two days earlier).

Re: 81yo Dodgers fan can no longer get tickets because he doesn't have a smartphone

#360

Post by kube-system » Mon, Apr 06, 2026, 9:20 PM UTC

rrr_oh_man wrote: post #150

tacticalturtle wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Visual impairment was just my naive example - but maybe there’s a better one that still persists. Regardless, maybe there’s a path to legislation forbidding smartphone requirements for huge monopoly businesses like national professional sports leagues. I’d hate for ownership of a consumer device to become codified as a requirement for participation in activities like this.

> I’d hate for ownership of a consumer device to become codified as a requirement for participation in activities like this. What is your reasoning for that sentiment? (I don't disagree)

Not to speak for the other person -- but I think the biggest reason is that these facilities are often constructed with public money and public resources and therefore owe some degree of public accessibility back to the community at large.