New Entries in the CoasterBuzz Top 100

Jeff said:

That's why I lean into those minimums among the most experienced riders, but even then, I'm not sure I would call 39 riders statistically significant, but relatively speaking, not that many visitors here rate the rides.

Understand the difficulties, but you're still doing well with the data you have.

If you look at your Top 100 list, the most responses you've gotten is 810 riders on Millie. Having an "entry floor" of about 5% of your most popular ride isn't a bad way to go.

Interesting that for responses, the 5 most rated rides on the Top 100 all come from Cedar Point;
Millienium Force = 810 riders
Magnum XL200 = 792
Raptor = 767
Maverick = 716
TTD = 712

whereas the 5 lowest that make the cut are all over the US map;
Iron Gwazi = 39 riders
Maxx Force = 39
Screechin' Eagle = 46
Time Traveler = 52
Wooden Warrior (tie) = 53
HangTime (tie) = 53

Later,
EV

Well the audience for this site was largely seeded by PointBuzz/Guide to The Point, so that's not entirely surprising.

It's funny, but when I first rode Steel Vengeance I came back and scored it a 4/5. Part of that was because it was so damned intense that I felt exhausted after I rode it, and part of it was that my wife didn't enjoy it, so that colored my opinion a bit. After riding a few more times with my daughters I came back and bumped it up to a 5/5. Part of the change was because they had a blast, and that was exciting for me. But the other part was that I just took this site's criteria more seriously. 4/5 is for above average coasters, and Steel Vengeance is not just an above average coaster; it is "among the best coasters" I've ridden. But it's still not in my personal top tier, mostest favoritest coasters ever. So I guess it depends whether or not you grade your rides with a bucket mentality (20% five stars, 20% four stars, 20% three stars, etc.) or with a bell curve mentality.

EchoVictor:

What I am curious about is why someone would rank either ride below a 5

I just thought it was noticeably less fun than, say, Maverick or the Phoenix or the Beast. It isn’t any more scientific than that for me. Too intense? Maybe, although it’s probably the pacing of the intensity (or lack thereof). It’s like a horror movie that only consists of scares popping out at you and no tension of waiting for the next one or opportunity to laugh afterward.

I only rode it once, maybe my opinion would change with more rides.

It's remarkable. It's almost as if people can have very different opinions about the same thing. Imagine that.

Appreciate the feedback from the folks that didn't have SV or IG rated high. Those are the viewpoints I was curious about.

Bakeman31092:

So I guess it depends whether or not you grade your rides with a bucket mentality (20% five stars, 20% four stars, 20% three stars, etc.) or with a bell curve mentality.

This is an interesting observation. If I look at my own ratings, I find I tend to rate with "rose colored glasses" as I have a large number of rides at either 5 or 4, but very few at 2 or 1.

Later,
EV

I try to skew my ratings "down" a bit. I just think it makes more sense to differentiate my preferences for the good stuff and lump the mediocre and below rides together more. I have relatively few 5 ratings, but that doesn't mean I don't very much like what I've rated 4 or even 3. On the other end of things, who cares if the spinning mouse at Six Flags Topeka is better than the SLC at Nigel's Pleasure Pier?

For the most part, regardless of methodology, the various polls produce roughly the same results. Taking a super quick glance at both the CoasterBuzz list and the Golden Tickets, the biggest differences to jump out at me is that the Golden Tickets include some international rides (though still slants heavily North American) and the Golden Ticket voters seem to like old-ish hyper coasters (Magnum, Phantom, Apollo, etc.) more.

I'm not sure any of the polls do a good job of being truly international without having sample size concerns. I do like that the CoasterBuzz list doesn't separate wooden and steel. Doing so perhaps made sense 20+ years ago, but not so much today.

Obviously the key to any of this is to keep things in perspective. I find the polls fun to look at and even participate in, but I certainly don't take them too seriously.

Now I'm curious what my curve will look like. I am suspecting a large-ish number of 4s and 5s and very few 1s. A coaster has to be pretty bad to earn a 1 from me (your off-the-shelf Boomerang or mouse will get at least a 2). Off the top of my head, SOB, that flying coaster at Rye Playland, a couple others?

I just got curious, too. Just looked up all my 1s. Out of 209 total, I only have five coasters rated as a 1:

• Cyclone (Williams Grove) - the worst tracked wooden coaster ever
• Dragon Coaster (Dorney) - I don't even remember riding this thing, but I probably rated it a 1 because it was a wannabe Dragon Wagon
• The Great Chase (SFA) - whiplash-inducing kiddie coaster
• Judge Roy Scream (SFoT) - the lamest, least exciting coaster I've ever ridden that wasn't for little kids
• Little Leaper (Lakemont) - kiddie coaster...don't remember specifically why I rated it so low when other kiddie coasters are higher
• Son of Beast (Kings Island) - IYKYK

In contrast, 52 of my 209 coasters are rated 5. That's right around 25%. I didn't plan it that way, but it worked out; I never put much thought into it, I just used the rating key and winged it.

Then I got more curious and decided to count up all my ratings.

5 - 52 (25%)
4 - 61 (29%)
3 - 63 (30%)
2 - 27 (13%)
1 - 6 (3%)

There's an obvious lean towards better (only 16% are below average), but really, even a below average coaster is still going to be kind of fun, more or less, so the 1s are reserved for the ones that either hurt or were a complete bore.

Dammit. I typed 5 as a placeholder and meant to go back and edit it.

Vater made me curious about my distribution. I've only got 198 in my record, but 10 are 1-star, and half of them are kiddie coasters. The rest are the notoriously rough rides. But coasters really are like sex. Even when they're bad, they're usually good enough.

112 coasters, 18 5-star, only four 1-star, and that doesn’t include kiddie coasters, which I don’t rate.

I don’t know if anyone else is curious, but I do wonder what the CBuzz bottom 10 would be, not including kiddie coasters.

I just don’t rate anything unless it’s a 4 or 5 or something that could be in the top 100. In fact, I don’t even know if I put them in my track record.

435 in my CBuzz track record;

64 are rated at 5 (14.7%)
11 are rated at 1 (2.6%) - only one of which is a kiddie coaster
(Jr. Gemini @ CP + 6'3" me + ops requiring both knees on one side of the T-bar = severe origami + pain)

I too would like to see what the CBuzz bottom 10 or 20 is....

Later,
EV

Getting in on the one star list, here's mine:

OG Gwazi Lion & Tiger - Busch Tampa (I guess this would have been the final iteration of the rides, they were pretty good when it first opened)

Nighthawk - Carowinds (I actually really liked X-Flight/Firehawk, but my one and only lap on this was brutal)

Toboggan - Conneaut Lake / Toboggan - Lakemont (no explanation necessary)

Primeval Whirl - Animal Kingdom (Probably because I hated working in Dinoland so much. I upped it to two stars just now)

Grizzly - Kings Dominion (I've never had a ride on this where I didn't spend the entire time bracing for terrible roughness)

Invertigo - Kings Island (my only Inverted Boomerang, it makes me nauseous every time)

Riddler's Revenge - Magic Mountain (I know it's well regarded as a pretty good standup, but my one lap in 2014 was one of the roughest, worst rides I have ever had on any coaster)

The piece of plaster from the ceiling in my garage that is certain to collapse at any moment as this hurricane starts to pass through Central Florida and make a huge mess all over the place (still not as bad as a Chance Toboggan)

Hurricane Ian > RRR?

Stay safe Brett, Jeff, and the rest of the Florida based Coasterbuzzers.

Well, if hurricane Ian destroys RRR, then we'll know for sure.

BrettV:

(still not as bad as a Chance Toboggan)

Most painful experience on any coaster, ever. I would give this a negative 1 if possible.

Later,
EV

My worst is still Hypersonic XLC. The pain in my thighs lasted for two days after riding that.