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Mitch Hawker Polls 2008 - Full Results In

Wow, so if Anaconda (GRC) was included in more ballots, and at the same/similar rank, it would've reached #5? Really?

Cool that the two Megalites ranked in the top 5 though!
 
I'll agree with the groupthink idea, as well.

When I rode Nash by myself (as in alone on the train) in... I think 2002, I liked it, thought it was a decent ride. I much preferred Roller Coaster and Wild Mouse to it, though.

Four years later, and I'm at BPPB for the 2nd time ever, and I rode Nash with like 50 coaster enthusiasts, and we were slapping hands, grabbing between the two trains, and whatnot. Needless to say, I had a much better time, and it moved way up on my ballot.

I still say that Wild Mouse is more fun, though. Alone, or with a friend, that coaster is CRAZY!
:love7:
 
Good to see X2 is getting the love it deserves.

I was expecting it to be a rough as hell piece of crap when I went on it in the Summer. But it was awesome because it felt so damn insane.

Shame I only got 1 go on it due to the stupidly long line and the fact its the one good coaster in the park that doesn't accept the Flashpass.

And lol at how that piece of crap Nitro is still that high.
 
t's 12th, so, given that you don't think it's deserving of a top ten spot, it's right about where it should be then? Furthermore, Maverick is 15th, which is no surprise considering the ride isn't that amazing. It just does several different tricks and manages them all well, but as the saying goes: jack of all trades, master of none.

No, I didn't say Millennium deserves a spot in the top ten, and I do believe it is where it should be, but I'm just shocked to see that it dropped so fast.

And personally, I think Maverick is a fantastic coaster. I also didn't let other people's opinions persuade me either, because I had continued to say it was going to be a crappy coaster even when I was about to ride it. I just really enjoyed it, like, it's not piss your pants scary, and it doesn't do anything overly exciting, it's just a fantastic coaster with a great layout and variety.

And I totally agree with what everyone is saying about riding coasters alone and such.

EDIT- Dragster at 25 and Ka at 59? There's not THAT much of a difference...
 
^True! Thanks iJustin & all your merry mates. :p
TTD is better, but not by that kind of margin.
 
As Lance said over on Screamscape, a higher cap of riders should be considered for rides to qualify for tabulation.

To have Eagle Fortress jump to second from not qualifying last year and T Express claim #1 with only 14 riders?

I'm not doubting they are great rides, but the polls shouldn't be governed by where TPR decides to vacation each year.
 
Hyde244 said:
To have Eagle Fortress jump to second from not qualifying last year and T Express claim #1 with only 14 riders?
So where will they end up this time next year? :?
 
I'm a little shocked Toro wasn't #1. #3 is still really awesome, and to be fair, I haven't ridden #1 and #2, but with all the heaps of praise it gets and just how amazing the ride is I figured it'd take #1 for sure. Glad to see S:ROS won another year for the steel coaster side, though.
 
Considering the Voyage beat El Toro by .0001 of a point this year and .0085 last year, I would expect these two coasters to always be coming down to the wire on which is voted better.

It is a matter of personal preference between a traditional wooden coaster or prefabricated track.
 
I can see the point about some of the high-ranked coasters getting there despite having so few riders, but the people who have ridden them have had a lot of coaster experience. I'm not saying anyone's opinion is "better," but if people with hundreds of coasters to their name put them at the top of their lists that has to count for something.

T-Express: No surprise there at all. Fantastic coaster, and while a few may be upset by it, it's hardly an outlandish result.

Eagle Fortress: Top ten coaster easily, but 2nd in the world? Doubtful. I'll repeat what I said about it last year. People went on it expecting the usual Arrow Suspended blandness and were blown away when they realised it's anything but. So yeah, probably pushed up in a few people's rankings because it's so unexpected.

As for the whole group thinking thing. I think there's definitely some effect there. Go on some other forums (no names mentioned) and look at the ass kissing that goes on. Then look at the positions of, say, Fujiyama, Dodonpa and especially Eejanaika. Not that they should be near the top or anything, but when a park trip is set to fail by the previous whining of the organisers, people are already looking to "agree" with earlier, unfair opinions.
 
As for the whole group thinking thing. I think there's definitely some effect there. Go on some other forums (no names mentioned) and look at the ass kissing that goes on. Then look at the positions of, say, Fujiyama, Dodonpa and especially Eejanaika. Not that they should be near the top or anything, but when a park trip is set to fail by the previous whining of the organisers, people are already looking to "agree" with earlier, unfair opinions.

For once I agree with you, Gavin.

As for the whole El Toro / Balder / Voyage / T-Express thing, I don't think (althuogh I haven't ridden it) that Balder should be above El Toro, just because the layout looks a bit bland, but I think I pretty much expected Voyage and T-Express to beat it out. It's not like the margins of winning were immensely high anyways.

Also, I don't agree with the fact that a coaster gets fourteen riders and it can rank higher than something with a heck of a lot more riders. Like, so two people can ride a caoster and rank it really highly, and it can get above a coaster with a thousand riders, most of which thought the ride was good, but due to the fact a few people didn't like it, it didn't rank that highly?

I dunno if that made sense, but it did to me.
 
LiveForTheLaunch said:
Also, I don't agree with the fact that a coaster gets fourteen riders and it can rank higher than something with a heck of a lot more riders. Like, so two people can ride a caoster and rank it really highly, and it can get above a coaster with a thousand riders, most of which thought the ride was good, but due to the fact a few people didn't like it, it didn't rank that highly?

I dunno if that made sense, but it did to me.

That does make sense to me as well. If you're looking to buy an item on Amazon, and one has 400 reviews that are mixed in quality but mostly high, and one item with 9 reviews that are all positive, what has more weight? I suppose it does fall under argument ad populum (50,000 Elvis fans can't be wrong) a bit, to be fair, but really, it has to be pretty hard if not impossible for everyone that rode El Toro and loved it to be wrong; a lot harder than 14 people.
 
^ Yay, I'm glad someone understands what I was saying.

It's just silly, like, that is the main reason I really disliked the polls this year, especially the steel ones, mainly in the case of Eagle Fortress. I think the minimum amount of riders should be at least like, maybe thirty in order for the coaster to even qualify for the polls in the first place.
 
Just as an aside, where has all this "Eagle Fortress from outa nowhere come from"? Its was at #3 last year with 6 riders.

http://www.ushsho.com/steelrollercoaste ... ts2007.htm

I think that there should/could be a minimum %age ridership or something*? Surely someone with proper statistics experience should be able to work out what that level should be for a reasonable analysis?

But thats just a comment, it is what it is, so why dwell on that!

Dave "Should have paid more attention to statistic theory at University instead of all that drinking!" M.

(2%=~13 riders, 5%=32 etc)
 
Don't you just love the way TPR influence this poll so much!

I mean for ****s sake, look at this one -
28 X2 Six Flags Magic Mo CA 99 342 307 27 8 0.9094 6
246 Eejanaika Fujikyu HighLands JP 21 330 81 215 34 0.297


GUESS WHAT PARK TPR LOATHE, AND WHICH ONE IS THE ALVEYS HOME PARK GUYS!

Seriously, how can there be that much difference between the two?
 
All I ever seem to hear about Eejanaika (even from people not on the TPR trip! SHOCK!) is that it's rough... So, that's probably why...

And I'm still not buying into people just blaming the TPR trips for any results they don't agree with. If it was that big a factor, Superman wouldn't have been at number one and Boulder Dash would have been above Toro...
 
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