11th Annual wood coaster poll underway

Commom brethren vote Cornball Express the best wood coaster! Just kidding, this will be my first poll and am intrigued to see how some of the new great woodies will fair.

I've voted...have you??

And, yes, coasterkid, I did indeed put Cornhole Express as my #1, albeit tied with three others.

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Mike Miller - The CPG: The ORIGINAL flash mob

I must be getting old...

I started to fill out the ballot but had no desire to complete it.

Oh well... my favorites are my favorites... so why should their ranking in any poll concern me?

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"I don't believe it!" - Victor Meldrew

This is the fourth year I think I've posted this news for Mitch and already it's the fourth year that people complain about filling it out.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog
Blogs, photo albums - CampusFish
What time does the water show start?

Maybe next year will be the first year people DON'T complain about it....;)

bill, only fills out the wooden ballot, 'cause I like Wooden Award winners...(hoops humor, again).
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Mistakes were made, others are to blame...

Hey, I'm not complaining about fillling it out. This is the first year since I've known about that I did not fill it out. (Filled it out the last two I think... or was it three?)

It's just that I can't pick my favorites. Ask me today, and I will give one answer... ask me next week, I will give another. I'm just indecisive.

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"I don't believe it!" - Victor Meldrew

It'll be interesting to see if Shivering Timbers can hold onto #1. Actually, IMO all coasters in top 10 have the ability to claim #1. People seem to complain about the poll because it's complicated. I filled it out last year and found it to be quite easy when you figure it out.

This is one of the easiest polls to complete, expecially if you've saved your ballot from the year before.

I've voted...took me all of 5 minutes.

mOOSH

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The only 2004 Wood Coaster Calendar still available, plus holiday & all-occasion cards. All at S&D Greetings.

This will be my first year (yeah, like anyone gives a ****) Anyway, I would love to see Roar and Wild One make it further up.

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Lyrically, I'm supposed to represent
I'm not only a client, I'm the playa president!

It is one of the easiest polls to complete. But , you must understand it first. You MUST read the directions before it makes any sense.

I wonder how my #1 Son of beast will turn out this year....

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I'm highjacking every post. :):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):);)

OK, here's my dumb comment (call it a complaint if you want to).

The instructions state to "delete all coasters from your ballot except those that you have ridden". Then you have to "change the left 'n' at the end of a line to a 'y' for each of the coasters you have ridden".

If I've deleted all the coasters I've never ridden, then by default, the remaining coasters are ones I've ridden.

Hmmm????

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Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein

Changing the 'n's to 'y's has something to do with the way that the program tabulates the ballots.

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-Rob
A.C.E. member since 1990
Posting @ Coasterbuzz since 2000
E.C.C. member since 2002

One can act all high and mighty and say that the poll isn’t hard and that people shouldn’t complain about filling it out. Well, it’s inconvenient. I filled it out last year, or possibly two years ago, but not this year. Forget it. Something like this could "easily" be constructed using radio buttons, check boxes, and the such.

In other news, I’m rooting for Boulder Dash.

So it's "high and mighty" to say the poll is easy, but not high and mighty to say it can "easily be constructed using radio buttons, check boxes, and the such." Do you have any idea how much effort it takes to conduct such a poll?

If it can easily be done a better way, where's your version?

mOOSH

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The only 2004 Wood Coaster Calendar still available, plus holiday & all-occasion cards. All at S&D Greetings.

*** This post was edited by Mamoosh 11/4/2003 9:52:36 PM ***

I thought about trying to implement the poll once on the Net, and it's not an easy process. Not only do you need to have every ride out there (not so much a problem if you have a database like this site does), but you then need the ability to build a track record and the order it.

Yes, the CoasterBuzz track record system essentially does this, but have you seen the interface? It's not a real fast process to order the rides. The alternative would be to offer text boxes where you could put numbers, but then you have to do a ton of validation to get all of that right.

Sure, it's possible, but don't think you're going to do it because you read "HTML for Dummies."

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog
Blogs, photo albums - CampusFish
What time does the water show start?

A coaster poll? *rolls eyes

One of the most subjective things I've ever come across.

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This space will forever be dedicated to Hercules at Dorney Park 5/89-9/03*** This post was edited by DorneyDante 11/5/2003 11:25:00 AM ***

Dante, of course it's subjective.....but when you tally ALL the votes from ALL these people with so much riding experience, you come pretty close to the "true feelings" of your *average enthusiast*. I don't expect my personal favorites to always rank at the top, but I DO expect that these rankings are *infinitely* more accurate than the OTHER polls, like Discovery Channel's poll, which surveys people with exceptionally limited riding experience.

Hulk #1 steelie my eye!
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Mistakes were made, others are to blame...

DEK,

There are two quick and easy ways to handle changing all the ,n,n, to ,y,n, after deleting those you have not ridden.

1. Use a change all command in an editor such as Wordpad (care need be taken to never save your ballot as any type other than a straight text .txt file or some editors will combine the whitespace on each line).

2. Use the spreadsheet method mentioned in the second paragraph of the instructions as "Fastest Method" and use your spreadsheet's "fill down" command.

The two-step ridden indication is necessary. Three hundred 20k ballots would waste a lot of bandwidth if people didn't delete those they hadn't ridden. The default needs to be unridden to protect the integrity of the poll from the inevitable ballots that people send in without completing the deletion step.

Dante - at least the poll won't have Herc to kick around after this season.

I think the poll is fantastic if you take it in the right spirit. The goal isn't necessarily to determine the best ride - Mitch isn't handing out trophies or anything. But you do get an accurate picture of what enthusiasts consider to be the top rides. And for someone who's only ridden 14 woodies, it's good to know what quality coasters I should be making an effort to ride on future trips. As gator eloquently pointed out, the Discovery Channel isn't the best reference.

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"Did I say 'corpse hatch?' I meant 'innocence tube.'"
- Montgomery Burns