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People report smooth sailing with new state vaccination registration system, except for one glitch for some mobile users
By adamg on Fri, 03/12/2021 - 9:17am
Massachusetts this morning rolled out its latest vaccine registration system, which lets you pre-register and then get notified when a shot will be available near you, and unlike the previous systems, it actually seems to work, people who used it report.
"Super easy. No issues," Gianna Porcaro reported. "Smooth like butter!" Natt agreed. Nonelvis added:
Surprisingly smooth. Looks like it was "designed" by a developer instead of an actual UI designer, but it got the job done without falling over, which at this point is about all you can ask from one of our state's vaxxing systems.
Some people did report problems trying to set their birth year over a phone browser, though. Ian Levitt reports:
Pretty smooth, although inputting your birth date (at least on Android phone) involves scrolling through each individual month rather than simply typing it in.
Fignaz responded:
It helps if u change the day 1st on the calendar which pops up, then adjust the month & year. On an iPhone, if u don’t, you’ll be stuck with the current day when u select month & year. Say u want June 7, 1984. It will come out June 12, 1984 today, if u don’t change the day 1st
Other users noted the system doesn't let you select a possible location for a shot, but instead will pick one for you.
And, of course, registering doesn't mean you'll get a shot right away, especially if you're not on the current state priority list, but at least you won't have to spend hours refreshing a browser anymore when it is your turn.
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Comments
Mass state COVID-19 registration site
I had no issues accessing the site or following the instructions to register. It is easy to follow and you can register in just a couple of minutes time. Now the real question is how well it will work to help keep me and others up-to-date on when / where we can get vaccinated.
Android
I registered this morning (~5am) on my Android phone. It's not obvious but if you click the year in the popup window it turns into a scroll to select the correct year. They are not using a great date selection library.
Otherwise, super easy! I got the email with the confirmation number. Now to just wait another month or so until it's open to the general public. (Or sit around and complain about how Baker wants me to die because I need to wait a bit longer than the elderly. /S)
Doesn't work on Firefox
Just noting it doesn't work on Firefox. Here's what happens when you try it. If you're having trouble on non-Chrome browsers, that might be what's happening.
Firefox
FWIW, I was using Firefox as my Android browser on a pixel phone.
You're probably talking about desktop which I haven't tried.Edit: Just tried it in Firefox on a desktop MacOS and it worked fine.
Working now
It is working now for me in Firefox. I wonder what changed after the first few times I tried it.
Works fine in Firefox now
They even had pretty decent keyboard accessibility -- I was able to do the whole signup without using the mouse.
It would be nice to have a
It would be nice to have a site on the Cape.
Since they pick the location
Since they pick the location for you, does that mean if you live where a lot of people want appointments, you'll have to wait longer?
They have no way of knowing who is willing to drive from Boston to Worcester, who doesn't have a car and has to go to Hynes rather than Gillette or Danvers, etc.
And they must have some secret criteria for prioritizing within each sub-phase.
I think it's a little too
I think it's a little too soon to say that the system "works" when zero (0) people have as of yet received vaccinations by signing up through it. Literally all we know at this point is that we were able to (mostly) successfully input our personal information.
Given how much of a mess the vaccine rollout has been in Mass thus far I'm not going to hold my breath for this system to run "smooth as butter." It should have been set up months ago.
It worked fine, with some minor quirks
Signed up successfully this morning as soon as I saw Sen. Markey's announcement online.
Quirks: The site forces you to put something in your "middle name" field, even if you don't have a middle name. I typed in "N/A". I hope that doesn't cause problems elsewhere later on.
As others here said, entering your birthday was a little strange. I used Firefox on a PC laptop.
Both seem fixed now
I used Firefox just now and didn't need to enter a middle name.
For the birthday I was able to just type in the date -- no weird date picker or anything.
Re: Both seem fixed now
They fixed it? Excellent. Yesterday, I was unable to proceed until I put "N/A" in the middle name field, and that was after I ensured that my NoScript extension wasn't blocking any scripts.
I didn't enter a middle name
The field was not marked with a * as required, and I left it blank.
"Ethnicity" question has odd choices
Pick one, and only one, from:
I don't know what "Other ethnicity" covers that isn't either "Hispanic" or "Non-Hispanic". (I still chose it, anyway.)
Gender, too
Transgender isn't a *gender*, it's a description of how someone's gender matches their body (or not, as the case may be). Most transgender people would have to choose between honestly picking "transgender" and either "male" or "female".
(There should be a gender selection row and then a transgender yes/no/decline to respond row.)
Yes! And then epidemiologists
Yes! And then epidemiologists like me can’t accurately track health concerns among transgender people because the question was asked in a way that doesn’t make sense. It’s 2021; we should be doing better by now!
Typical engineer arrogance
I can say “typical engineer arrogance” because I’m in that field.
“we’re gonna match you with the closest site because we have a cool GIS database that’ll let us do that. Never mind that you might prefer the one that’s close to your work. Or that you don’t have a car and the closest site is not accessible by public transportation but another one is. Never mind that letting you pick your preferred site would be just another pull down list on the web site. Nash, we pick for you because we’re infinitely smarter than you are.”
Agreed
Although I think it might be gameable by picking a home address that's closest to the most convenient/accessible site. :-P
Might be worth some feedback on their feedback page!
Gives the state flexibility to add more mass vax sites?
If I had to pick a site now while signing up, I'd choose Hynes Convention Center. But by the time I'm eligible, the state might add more sites. If one of them turned out to be closer, such as Cambridge or Arlington, I'd want to be assigned there.
I’m also a little annoyed
I’m also a little annoyed that there must be some secret criteria they’re using to prioritize appointments within each phase.
If you’re restricted to the site closest to your house, people living near busy sites will have a much longer wait, even if they’re willing to drive a little further to a site with spare capacity (or work near there anyway).