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2009 Mitch's Steel Coaster Poll

marc said:
So why have they included Cobra, the one in Tripsdrill and the one in Denmark. They are all clones so therefore they should just have the 1 vote.
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They have different layouts.
 
^ It's the X 2000/3000 thingy. Something that looks similar to that.

Done! After a couple of hours. So hard to make some choices, I realised you gotta put things in places where they belong and not think too hard about it. I'd be here 'till next year I'm so damn indesisive. The Ultimate was number one, also in my top ten was Matterhorn Bobsleds and Orlando's Space Mountain. Odd!
 
Dave said:
marc said:
So why have they included Cobra, the one in Tripsdrill and the one in Denmark. They are all clones so therefore they should just have the 1 vote.
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They have different layouts.
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I thought they were the same.

Which, prooves the point of the spinners more and more... they should be seperate.
 
Liveforthe Launch:
Exterminator @ Kennywood is separated from the other spinning mouse because of all the additional theming. (That's addressed in the instructions or fav XX-coaster listings)

Jerry:
Teststreck is a mouse... not a Silver Arrow/Looping Star. I'm confused.
There aren't that many Schwarzkopf double loops left (if there ever were) They each have a line AFAIK. RCDB doesn't have fair operator coasters, so we put in what we can...
Carolina Cobra is a boomerang. It's one of 50-something. It's the same as the rest, but if you like it more than the rest, then rank "FAV VEKOMA BOOMERANG" higher. Mitch is not interested in having every coaster in the world listed separately on the ballot, and frankly, I agree with him. The poll is huge and challenging enough to complete as it is.
As for the S:UF/Batman clones thing: The Batman coasters are all exactly the same, not counting the 'mirroring' of some. There are 4 S:UF's: One is actually a unique layout, but similar to the other three and one of them (in China) has MASSIVE amounts of theming. Not doing a "FAV" group for two coasters.

Gazza:
SO, SO sorry! I did miss Jet Rescue! Those Aussie coasters are tricky because they open after the ballot is written, but when we check against 'what opened this year' they aren't there, because they actually opened the year before. I'll put it in my notes for next year's ballot. (I already have a short list of stuff that we know will be gone next year, such as Big Bad Wolf and Chang.)

marc:
You can group as many coasters as you want. The computer just counts them head-to-head as a tie. If you group massive amounts, it could reduce the effect of your ballot some. (Ex: All coasters ranked as 1, 2, or 3 would result in fewer meaningful comparisons and reduce the effect of your ballot on the whole of the results.

A-Kid:
Your coasters are likely all there, not counting kiddy coasters. Many of them may be production models, and therefore fall into the 'FAV this' and FAV that' lists. Pick your favorite of each model, and rank that one against the rest. As mentioned, the poll as it is has a lot of data points already, and with too many, it will bog down Mitch's computer or not function properly.

marc/Gazza:
The spinners are tough. There's 99 of 'em that are identical, and then a handful that are unique. I know Nemo is separate because of theming, and c'mon Winjas? They don't make too many coasters more unique than that!

Ben:
Fury likely got it's own line the year it opened, but as there grew to be more and more of them, got dropped into a set. I think I made that call when I lived in Japan and Mitch was needing ballot lines cut down, and I wasn't sure where else I could go.
I want to lump all the Intamin Impulse coasters, too. Yes. Wicked Twister, Linear Gale and SFDK's V2, all into one line. We just haven't needed to cut that many lines yet.

marc:
Cobra, Tripsdrill and Denmark... Technically, there's 4 models of Gertslauer Bobsleds: 380/4, 450/4, 480/4 and Custom. There's 7 coasters across the 4 models. We could merge them into one line, but then there'd be complaints about THAT.
;)
 
gavin said:
My major complaint with the groupings, as it was last year, is the loop/screw category. There are SO many variations that it's ridiculous to put them all together.
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And there being so many that are clones, and so many that aren't quite clones that it's hard to know for sure what needs to be separated out and what doesn't. I mean, the two Great America Demon coasters are technically loopscrews. I have no idea why they aren't lumped in. I'm guessing because Mitch lives less than 2 hours away from SFGAm?
Pick the one you like the most and rank accordingly is the only thing I can suggest.

RE: Gertslauer Bobsleds / Spinners, etc.:
We know it (the poll) isn't perfect, and I know I wish (and I'm sure Mitch feels the same) that we could put everyone's favorite, or local coasters on there one by one.

The poll has grown huge over the past few years I've been helping Mitch, and not just in the number of coasters that ARE on the ballot, but in how many people submit a ballot, too.

I know I put in about 5 days of work in on the Steel poll ballot this year, and about 2 1/2 on the Wood ballot. I 've gotten it to the point so that EVERY wood coaster, SBNO or operating, is included on the ballot. That's roughly 175 or so coasters, and I check each one to see if it opened, closed, changed it's name, the park changed it's name, etc.

There are over Two-thousand and two-hundred operating steel coasters out there right now, not even counting all the SBNO stuff. Sure, a lot of that is Miner Mikes, Little Dippers and Big Apples, but we do what we can. After I write out the ballot and send it to Mitch, both Duane (of RCDB) and Ted (of Coaster Fanatics) look it over for 'obvious' mistakes before Mitch puts it out for voting. (I totally forgot that two MAJOR coasters changed names this year! Bizarro and Bizarro? Facepalm! )

After each poll closes, Mitch and myself look at each and every line of every ballot for mistakes we can fix (misspeling that will innvalidate a line) and for evidence that someone is trying to rig results (Dragon Khan or whatever his name is from NL or BE is to blame for that necessity). Mitch contacts people individually to give them a chance to fix the ballot (someone accidentally ranks every coaster as #5) or to explain an odd vote (Zipper Dipper as #1 wood, El Toro (6FGAdv) dead last, and the person is from the UK but has no other wood coasters in the US on the ballot)

After we've looked them over, (anything I find I relate to Mitch, he makes all final calls) it's all Mitch's show. He runs them through his programs, crunches the numbers and posts the results

If there's an issue, I know that we'll try to fix it, whether it's adding it to next year's ballot, or addressing it in the results announcements.

I never realized how much work Mitch was putting into this until I was asked if I could lend a hand.

/rant

Have fun with it, guys, that's the point. It's not that serious, it's Roller Coasters, not legislation!
 
Can I make a suggestion for next year too, it's been bugging me for years!

Jumbo Vs:
Enigma - Pleasurewood Hills

It's the only one left in the world, and another will never be made, so what's the point in just having that 1 coaster with it's own catergory?
 
^ I totally HATE that line, and I mean to change it every year, but just one thing stops me:

Does ANYBODY know if there was ever a portable Jet Star V / City Jet on any of the European fair circuits?

If there wasn't, or it is confirmed that they've been scrapped, I'll add it to the (rapidly growing, I'm sure) list of complaints to be addressed on next year's ballot!
 
^ According to the Schwarzkopf site by Pantenburg, then there were only one made: http://schwarzkopf.coaster.net/ESjumbovGF.htm

If you want to add another category then Intamin Mega-Lites would work very well, there are 4 of them at the moment, but I'm pretty sure that there will be a few of them popping up in the future...

Also if you are going to make groupings then I would like that you make some of the titles a bit more descriptive, like adding manufacturer names to some more of them, like the M&S spinners, or Pinfari Zyklons.
 
I saw that before, but even Michael isn't 100% that there wasn't ever a second one made. It's essentially the same problem with stuff like Drier Looping/Magnum Force and Zambezi Zinger/Broca: Some of his stuff went to weird places, and pops up where you least expect it.

I guess I could change it, though. That way, ten minutes after I do, the 'other' Jet Star V will show up, and we can all go ride it!
:D
 
Ergh, I hate doing the steel poll- I'm far too indecisive on what should go where. :?

Here's my top 5, as bad as ever:
1. Favourite Woodie
2. Goliath, SFMM
3. Apollo's Chariot, BGE
4. Talon, Dorney
5. Alpengeist, BGE

Bottom 5:
107. Favourite SLC
108. Favourite Gertsl. Spinner
109. Revolution, SFMM
110. G Force, Drayton
111. Vortex, CGA

=/
 
^LOL, tell me about it! My steel ballot was nearly 300 lines this year. I was at it for what felt like AGES, and I don't get the opportunity to use the 'helper'.
:--D
 
I'm guessing that kiddie coasters are excluded from this poll?

Top 5:

1. Manta
2. Montu
3. Sheikra
4. HRRR
5. Kumba
 
^Pretty much, although there was one exception, which was finally off the ballot this year, as it was removed before the season started:

High Speed Thrill Coaster @ Knoebels'...

Mitch told me he left it out the first year of the Steel Poll, and he got more e-mails about that than anything else that year.

...and I don't think it ever finished in the top half anyways.
:lol:
 
Thanks for the feedback Rollermonkey.

I am going to edit my votes to make sure I do have a proper ranking system, just printed it off and starting writing numbers.

I never knew the models on them coasters were different tbh, but the one in Tripsbrill was the best thanks to the theming. They are all low ranked on my list anyway so makes no difference.
 
Is there any way I could leave a note when I send in my ballot as to where I want jet rescue placed, and then it can be manually inserted?
Or is it sort of feeble because there likely wont' be the minimum 5 riders or whatever to make it count?
 
All done :)

Top 5:
1. Favourite Woodie
2. EGF
3. Khan
4. Mamba
5. Kumba

My top 5 is rather boring tbh when I look at it like that.

Saw was not my bottom coaster btw, it was in my bottom 20 though :)

Just one last quick question, am I meant to change these lines, or just leave them as they are?
Fav Wild Mouse Any Park Anywhere **,y,y
 
Gazza, at this point, there probably wouldn't be enough people to include it in the rankings.

marc, leave everything exactly as it was on the original ballot, changing only the ** to your numerical ranking, and the n's to y's as necessary, or the computer will ignore that ballot line. You can move lines up and down / reorder them all you want, but otherwise, just change n's to y's and **'s to numbers.

Don't forget: a zero is treated as last place. (Don't know how many ballots come in each year with mostly or all zeros...)
 
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