Pre-judging coasters (A Rant)

I havent ranted in a while so I think I'll take this opportunity. I've seen a couple of posts, especially with respect to the announcement of El Toro where some have expressed a bit of negativity towards the ride. It's too short. It looks boring. Not enough twister elements. The restraints suck, blah, blah, blah. Almost immediately following these posts were others taking up the mantra "Dont judge a coaster before you ride it" or in this case, before it's even built.

Now, I'm not here to talk about the merits of any particular ride, but I have a problem with hypocracy. Because although those who "bash" a ride before riding are summarily chastised, those who exclimed that a ride will be "awesome" are left to go about their merry way. So my question is this, if positive "first impressions" are well and good, why not negative? I'm sure that most of those who express a negative sentiment towards a ride would be absolutely *thrilled* if their initial opinion turned out to be wrong. But you people seem to what to shun them into silence. This aint a happy-go-lucky world and sometimes people will have not-so-flattering impressions.

Bottom line, either respect these negative impressions or quit talking about any ride before it's ridden period!

lata, jeremy

Hmm..my mom's favorite saying comes to mind:

Me..."Mom, I don't like spinach."

Mom..."Have you ever tried it?"

Me..."No."

Mom..."Then shut the hell up and eat it."

Jeremy's next post is going to suck. It will be too short and based on opinions instead of facts. I mean, I like that he's posting more, but it's like, how many different threads is he going to post another clone in? I hate clones. His next post should be written by The Gravity Group and have PTC trains. I'm going to be disappointed by his next post.

Well said, 2Hostyl! How many pages of discussion did Hydra get last year? And how many pages of discussion did it get this year?

I really can't add anything else... I think Hostyl's preaching to the choir on this one.

LOL Jeff. Heck, I knew Jeremy's opening post would suck before I even clicked thru to read it! ;)

Great post, Jeremy! If there's something I've learned in my near-40 years of riding coasters is that you never know how its gonna be UNTIL you ride it.

Well I'd say you never know how much your going to *like* a ride until you ride it. I certainly knew TTD was going to be a one trick pony offering very little of what I look for in a coaster. I *didn't* know I would like it so much. ;)

It's always ok to have an opinion. What cracks me up is when some people have this magical ability to *pre-judge* their experience on the ride. Oh yeah? Well what if the trains don't track correctly? Or a trim is added to the first drop? In number of things can happen between announcement and opening day that may swing your vote completely the other way. *** Edited 9/30/2005 3:21:22 PM UTC by DWeaver***

I've said nothing bad about El Toro or even most coasters. Even the coasters that are relativly sucky to me, I don't complain about too much as some might like em.

I like SOB, Many don't. I don't tell them they have to like it.

I know for a fact I won't be able to ride El Toro due to A sucky and IMHO discriminant restraint system. Im intitaled to my opinnion and how dare anyone tell me otherwise.

Chuck, who will have mass fun on Voyage.

Wow... talk about a moment of clarity. I have to admit that I think Jeremy is right.

How many times do people on here say a coaster is going to be so awesome or fantastic before it is even built, and we seldom challenge them. But the moment someone says something negative about a newly announced coaster, and we jump down their throats and tell them to be quiet and not be so negative since they haven't ridden it yet.

I'm not saying we shouldn't comment one way or the other, there should just be some respect for BOTH kinds of opinions.

I agree whole-heartedly with Moosh, theorize all you want, but you never know until you ride it. (Hmmmm... that could be extended to a lot of things methinks ;) )

I made that mistake a long while back by pre-judging Greezed Lightnin' at SFKK...and not even riding it when I had the chance. I got reemed here for it, and I deserved it!

By the way, I've rode GL about 6-8 times now, and I love it. Because of one of my earlier experiences on it I can truly say that coaster scared me the most I've ever been scared on a ride.

I pre-judged it because it was a transplant coaster & because it looked boring, and too short. Just look at what riding it actually did for me.

I think that it is always ok to look at stats and layout and forge initial thoughts.

I really believe that it is just human nature to immediatly judge things (no matter how right or wrong).

When you are thinking about something that you have written, try to offer just thoughts. Save the judgements for after you experienced it.

I didn't read any of this thread, but I'm pretty sure it sucks.

Jeff, did you watch the video of Jeremy's next post? Someone posted it on a website somewhere. it looks like it might be okay at first, but it will probably be a maintenence nightmare! (that is, if it even works from the beginning, I mean it IS a "Norris"..UGH)

And what kind of a name is "Jeremy"? I mean, it's so unoriginal. I must have like 15 friends with that name. Why couldn't he have picked something more creative?

-Josh

Hey, don't be making disparaging remarks about what will soon be my new number one thread.

The Voyage is too long and the track changes direction too much.

Where is my banana?

Can I start a thread on "pre-judging" rants?

Actually, it's been WAYYY too long since jeremy posted a *rant*....but the next one definitely WILL suck... :)

How can you people prejudge Jeremy's next rant before you even hear it? I bet his next rant will be the best rant ever. When it is the best rant ever, I bet none of you people will have the guts to admit that you were wrong.

It depends.. will Jeremy's next rant have a stripe on the side, and be a near-clone of a previous rant?

Will his next rant have OTSRs? If it is, too many people won't be able to fit in the rant.

Here we go, all the pro-rant fanboys come crawling out of the woodwork. This rant is too predictable, same elements in almost the same order. Who picked that godawful color scheme anyway? Sorry, but the corporate chain rants just can't compare to the small independents.

Could we relocate this rant over to Trip Reports so I can get another credit? Even if that doesn't happen I'm glad I got to post on it before it is SBNO.

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2Hostyl said:
Now, I'm not here to talk about the merits of any particular ride, but I have a problem with hypocracy. Because although those who "bash" a ride before riding are summarily chastised, those who exclimed that a ride will be "awesome" are left to go about their merry way.
lata, jeremy

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Jeremy, you and your SAT words :)

Anyway, the problem I have with pre-ride-bashers is that sometimes (it is so obvious) they are bashing out of envy. Ride X is built at Park Y (which is 2000 miles away and I am too broke to buy a plane ticket) and I can't ride it. Ergo, it sucks.

Worse, if it is built at a competing company's park. . .worse if this competing company is trying to turn itself around. . .worse if this competing company's park has some of the best rides around! You feel me?

Yeah, my problem with 'pre-bashing' of rides is similar to Antuan. I mean, sure, there are some rides that don't look very exciting. However, for the most part, I here the little 14 year old fanboys complain every single time.

'That looks boring' is one thing. But every time something looks boring, unless it is coming to your park, well, that gets really old.

C'mon. You know you're tired of hearing Batwing Fan. And He doesn't even usually 'bash' a ride, other than to say 'well there goes anything new for the rest of the chain'. When you hear people complain every single time a ride is announced, it does get kind of old.

I've seen some people go "Oh, it looks okay" or "Eh, it might be fun". But they usually aren't the people that do it every single time. They actually have an opinion. They aren't doing it just to be a troll. Having an opinion and displaying it is one thing. I think some people have valid opinions that keep getting stated as well, and thats fine. But I have to wonder if certain parks got a brand new major ride every year at some of these kiddie's parks, would they still say "That is gonna suck!"?

Try living where I do. Going to a park is a major undertaking for me. I can never just go 'oh, I think I'll go to Funderland Today, I'm off work now and don't have anything to do'. So when I see people complain because of new stuff, when they dont' have to travel 300 miles just to ride it, it get really, really, really old.