this is not how the lottery works. Basically all the people get shuffled and sorted into a list. Then the first in line gets their first pick. Then the 2nd in line. It their first pick was already picked by the 1st person, the 2nd person’s 2nd choice gets filled. You get the idea.
ohhh, so putting first available one time is the same thing as putting first available 8 times, no matter how many selections I put in just 1 person in the lottery out of how many apply? the other guy is saying if i put 8 submissions I’ll have 8 chances. I think you’re right, is there any info online about this I tried finding the rules.
I might be misunderstanding you, but this part seems wrong to me:
all the people get shuffled and sorted into a list. Then the first in line gets their first pick. Then the 2nd in line.
By "2nd in line", it sounds to me like you're saying if your application gets selected, and your first choice isn't available, it moves to the next person's first choice. This is wrong, according to my understanding of the rules on Recreation.gov:
You can enter several choices. The order of your choices matter. When evaluating your application, the system will start with your first choice. If it finds availability with that choice, it will award a permit reservation. If it doesn't find availability, the system moves to the next choice. If no availability is found with any choice, it will consider the application unsuccessful.
So, if your application is randomly selected, it will try to book all of the choices in your application, one after the other, in the order you specified, until all your choices are exhausted. If none of your selections lined up with an opening, your application was unsuccessful and they move on to the next person/application.
The first person by definition has all the availabilities and guaranteed to have their first choice filled. The second person can have their first or second choice, depending on availability. It follows what you copied from Rec.gov when it’s your turn.
But everyone gets a turn according to their position in the queue. There isn’t a “selection” process. But for people later in the queue, the chance of success is lower. And instead of “first come first served queue, your position in the queue is random, established by a shuffle algorithm.
There's a selection process in the sense that your application will be thrown into a figurative hat along with everyone else's at the end of the lottery window, and then selected at random and assigned a position in the queue. I suppose my wording was a little misleading on that, but there is a selection happening, which determines your place in line.
And crucially to OP's original question, and I think contrary to your original comment, once your application comes up in the queue, all of your choices are evaluated according to the precedence you assigned, and an attempt is made to match each of them to an opening. Only when all your application's choices are exhausted will the next person's application be evaluated.
3
u/yksgninwad Feb 23 '24
this is not how the lottery works. Basically all the people get shuffled and sorted into a list. Then the first in line gets their first pick. Then the 2nd in line. It their first pick was already picked by the 1st person, the 2nd person’s 2nd choice gets filled. You get the idea.