Vote or die...

Yes, I know it still takes time, but I thought it was at least easier and not as intimidating as the txt file :)

The one part I had a problem with last year was making sure columns were lined up properly. The coaster fanatic form does all that work for you. OK granted, I can just go in there and wipeout everything until I get to Ohio... and everything after Virginia... at least for the wood poll.

If you copy and paste the text into an archaic program like Notepad, you should have no problem. That's what I do, and I think Mitch recommends that on the site.

But whatever... as long as you vote ;)

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Jophish said:
...but I thought it was at least easier and not as intimidating as the txt file

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Because changing n's to y's and zeroes to numerical rankings is so difficult. ;)

Just poking fun. (insert many smileys to keep it light)

Seriously though, once you do it by hand, you'll be astounded at how ridiculously easy it really is and probably kicking yourself for thinking it would be difficult in the first place. (I know I was.)

But hey, like I said, if these webforms make it more accessible to all, then great!

But with a modest track record of 68 woodies, I went from raw txt file to submitted ballot in just under 15 minutes - and the vast majority of that time was deliberating and tweaking the actual coaster placement rather than the physical work of putting it together.

Just digging though the web form list and clicking to add the appropriate coasters to my ballot would drive me nuts. :)

At any rate, glad there's some additional opinions being heard that otherwise might not be.

I did it, and for the first time. I had to sit down and actually list the coasters I rode and then try to make up some sort of ranking system for them. Whatever. I still don't see the appeal. I ranked pretty randomly. I think I loosly followed the pattern of ranking things people talk about the least toward the top and the most popular rides at the bottom. I didn't save a copy of what I did so next time I do it I'll have completely different results.

Hows that? ;)

Ironically, I actually submitted a text file as well. I just updated my ballot from previous years, and then I tried the web form without sending and it took about the same time as doing the whole thing in Notepad wood have. (blatant pun ;))

So many people complain that it is too confusing and I just provided an option light on directions. Perhaps there are so many complaints from people not wanting to read instructions because an overwhelming majority of enthusiasts are males? ;)

Wow, 75 woodies.
Proof the Dells pays in more ways then one :)

Chuck, who can mark Avalanche as his 75th coaster cause I don't include steel.

The control button is your friend. Since the coasters are all listed by park, you can ctrl-click on multiple rows and bring 'em over to the right side all at once.

My biggest problem with the polls is I'm expected to rate coasters I last rode before some people on this site were conceived. Hence, no matter how kickass a coaster may be, if I have an "n" in the second column, it's probably going to be down near the bottom of my rankings. Good, bad, or indifferent, I just don't remember what kind of ride it was back in 1990.

Yeah, little anomolies like that happen. On my list it's Cheetah. I rode it the month after it opened. Solid ride, very nice.

From what I understand, it's gone WAY downhill since then. However, my impression of the ride remains in July 2001 limbo and I find myself placing it oddly high on my list - probably much higher than if I'd get to Valdosta to ride again (based on more recent reports)

Luckily, Mitch's poll tend to work things like that out over the whole.

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The control button is your friend.

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Highlighting 30 some odd lines of text at a time and hitting the backspace button is still quicker. ;)

Trust me, Gonch...with 91 wooden coasters ridden my near-last place ranking of Cheetah will counterbalance yours ;)

I rode Cheetah on New Years Eve of 2002 and loved it. It has one of the best floaters out there and the rest of the coaster was pretty good.

Now if it's much rougher than when I rode it. I can see your point.

Chuck

Chuck - there were four of us on the trip: me, Bass, Flare, and Tony Milano. None of us are coaster wimps. We all like agressive coasters. But in June of this year Cheetah, having just come out of rehab earlier in the year, tracked horribly and was extremely painful.

Bass and Tony rode once; Flare and I took two more rides before giving up. The park had a decent-sized crowd but hardly anyone was in line for Cheetah.

Sad, sad, sad.

See that is a shame because I got a ride back in the day like Charles talks about.

Last year it was #16(!) on my ballot. This year I rode some new, good wood and it dropped to #21 - still much higher than it seemingly would be if I had ridden it more recently than 4+ years ago.

Then again, like I said, Mitch's poll has a way of balancing stuff like that out and the consistent low rankings from others who've ridden it more recently will render my lone decent vote almost useless.

Another way to look at it, is that the poll inadvertently factors in past quality of a ride. Many coasters (woodies especially) that were once great have been reduced to crap solely on upkeep issues. Perhaps this is a way of seeing which ones turned to crap vs which ones were always crap with oddball "haven't ridden since..." votes.

Then again, maybe I think about such things too much. :)

Yep, you guys who rode Cheetah on one visit LONG ago, you're very lucky...and you're *rating* a coaster that NO LONGER EXISTS. It's not too different from ranking Hercules...

Shame too, because it once WAS a fast aggressive thrill ride, but sadly, that didn't last long at all...

*Strong persistent rumors* remain suggesting that Cheetah was designed for SFAW...and that Kent B. got a *discount* for buying an off-the-shelf ride....kinda like Magic Springs got with the SLC...

Much like other CCIs with forceful laterals and G-trains, the joy was short-lived... :(

^What is Wild Adventures going to do about it? If anything?

Cheetah CAN'T remain like THAT forever. I can see where it *used* to be an awesome, non-painful ride but my......god.......:-(

Such a waste of good wood. It deserves A LOT of TLC.

As far as the Gauntlet at Magic Springs I was VERY surprised. I think I was the ONLY one that loved it at the Preservation Con last year. ;-)

-Tina

Good turnout so far, it seems. Still, I think it would be the duty of every enthusiast able to take this poll, Even if you can only rank them in catagories of
1 best of the best
2 great, wouldn't pass it up
3 good coaster but somethins missing or it's not running like it should
4. Id ride it again but its not that great.
5 Never again, What a POS.

Chuck, who thinks to not do so, Is DISSRESPECTFUL :)

That's how I do it, but I try to rank the coasters within each group so I end up with a real list.

Mines 1-75.

I found it easiest to put the top five up top and then take each coaster, Move it to the top and then take it down to the next most enjoyable to me, and so on, and so on.

Chuck

I just listed all the coasters I had ridden. Then, I looked at the top of the list, and compared the top 2. If it didn't change, then I'd compare 2 and 3, etc. Every time I made a switch, I went back and compared the new pair (effectively a bubble sort, for those of you who are into algorithms). Of course, my wooden track record is only 18, so there wasn't much to bubble.. (I know, I know.. I need a lot more good wood)

BTW, I found it really simple to use the one tool listed on his site for submitting ballots. It will do everything for you - proper formatting and even email it to him. All you gotta do is find the coasters you rode in step 1, rank them in step 2, and then specify which you've ridden this year (along with the thrills ranking). Took me less than 5 minutes.

This would be really cool if we could get over 500 people in the poll. Most polls used by news organizations use a poll sample much smaller than that in most cases.

Chuck, who still thinks 500 is a small percentage for the estimated over 15,000 coaster enthusiast but its still great.