Ballot: 2011 (19th Annual!) Internet Wooden Tracked Roller Coaster Poll This file contains the Instructions, Changed/Added/Deleted Ballot Lines since 2010. If you are updating your ballot from a previous year: - You may find last year's ballots at http://bestrollercoasterpoll.com - You may use decimals to make reranking easier. - Also please be aware that the following lines have changed on the ballot and the new lines must be used: Added to 2011 Ballot: Wooden Warrior Quassy CT,n,n,0 Zippin Pippin Bay Beach WI,n,n,0 Wood Coaster Knight Valley CN,n,n,0 Twister Grona Lund SE,n,n,0 Tyrolean Tubtwist Joyland UK,n,n,0 Lines Changed on 2011 Ballot: Apocalypse S. F. Magic Mountain CA,n,n,0 Woodstock Express Carowinds NC,n,n,0 Woodstock Express Kings Island OH,n,n,0 Blue Streak Conneaut Lake Park PA,n,n,0 Ghoster Coaster Kings Dominion VA,n,n,0 HellCat Timber Falls WI,n,n,0 Wild Beast Canada's Wonderland ON,n,n,0 Removed: Zippin' Pippin (S) Libertyland TN,n,n,0 If you don't need the instructions, the actual ballot file is located at http://www.ushsho.com/woodballot2011.txt If you are well versed in sorting with a spreadsheet, you may want to check the tips under "FASTEST METHOD" below. If you are new to the poll and intimidated by these written instructions, you may want to look at the screen-shot illustrated instructions at http://www.ushsho.com/cpvisual.htm. Jordan Hatch's Poll Helper drag and drop ballot generator page is again available at: http://www.wardleystunnels.org/hawker/ The ballot contains wooden tracked rollercoasters that operated worldwide in 2011. A few coasters that are 'Standing But Not Operating' or in storage were also included in the hopes that the poll may help some of these great SBNO coasters become better known and possibly help them find a new home. The coasters are listed alphabetically by state, with non-U.S. coasters listed at the end. INSTRUCTIONS: PLEASE NOTE: When copying and pasting to e-mail you must ensure that all spacings within a line of the ballot are preserved. Using a straight text editor (such as notepad) and sending the ballot as an attachment is the most foolproof way of doing that. TYPOS/CORRECTIONS: If you find a mistake that is not in the known list of typos (http://www.ushsho.com/knownwoodballotproblems2011.txt), by all means let me know at wcoasterpoll@yahoo.com, so that it can be fixed in the final results, but DO NOT fix it yourself in your ballot as anychanges will prevent a line (coaster) from being recognized on your ballot by the vote counting program. In past years there have been a few people who have found the instructions cumbersome, so I have added the following visual example of the voting process. The actual ballot is at the bottom of this file. Example Ballot before: --replace this text with your email address------ LOCATION FOLLOWS THIS LINE (LEAVE THIS LINE)_____ ~"state, province, or country" NAME FOLLOWS THIS LINE (LEAVE THIS LINE)_____ ~"your name between quotes" RANK THE FOLLOWING RIDING SENSATIONS <-LEAVE THIS LINE AS IS Abrupt Airtime_____________________________,y,y,0 Floating Airtime___________________________,y,y,0 Lateral Forces_____________________________,y,y,0 Out of Control Feeling/Directional Changes_,y,y,0 Positive G's/Loops_________________________,y,y,0 Sensation of Speed_________________________,y,y,0 COASTER NAME PARK LOC <--Please leave this My Favorite Steel Anypark Anywhere **,n,n,0 Rampage Visionland AL,n,n,0 Cannonball Waterville USA AL,n,n,0 Arkansas Twister Magic Springs AR,n,n,0 Giant Dipper Belmont Park CA,n,n,0 The Grizzly Great America CA,n,n,0 Roar Marine World CA,n,n,0 Giant Dipper Santa Cruz Bch Bdwk CA,n,n,0 Example Ballot after: --JoeRider@crashprone.com------ LOCATION FOLLOWS THIS LINE (LEAVE THIS LINE)_____ ~"Transylvania" NAME FOLLOWS THIS LINE (LEAVE THIS LINE)___ ~"Joe Coaster Rider" RANK THE FOLLOWING RIDING SENSATIONS <-LEAVE THIS LINE AS IS Abrupt Airtime_____________________________,y,y,1 Floating Airtime___________________________,y,y,2 Lateral Forces_____________________________,y,y,3 Out of Control Feeling/Directional Changes_,y,y,4 Positive G's/Loops_________________________,y,y,5 Sensation of Speed_________________________,y,y,6 COASTER NAME PARK LOC <--Please leave this My Favorite Steel Anypark Anywhere **,y,n,4 Rampage Visionland AL,y,y,2 The Grizzly Great America CA,y,y,2 Roar Marine World CA,y,n,1 Giant Dipper Santa Cruz Bch Bdwk CA,y,n,3 ^ ^ | | Marked all you have ever ridden 'y'------- | Marked all ridden this year 'y'--------- Note: you have deleted all coasters that you have never ridden, you added your e-mail address to the first line, rated favorite coaster as '1' etc., rated My Favorite Steel as if it were your favorite steel coaster but did NOT change the name, and first line remains untouched. Then e-mail ballot to wcoasterpoll@yahoo.com Subject:2011 Wood Poll Ballot HERE ARE THE FULL WRITTEN INSTRUCTIONS: Step 1: Put your email address on line 1 of the ballot (REQUIRED) Step 1A: Put your State/Province or Country between the quotes on line 3 of the ballot Step 1B: Put your name or nickname between the quotes on line 5 of the ballot (Optional) Step 1C: Rank the six riding sensations 1-6 (Optional) Step 2: Mark The Coasters That You Have Ridden Please delete all coasters from your ballot except those that you have ridden. Please change the left 'n' at the end of a line to a 'y' for each of the coasters you have ridden. Change the right 'n' to a 'y' for each coaster you rode in 2011. It is important that you mark ALL coasters you have ridden. Please try to keep each line 'as is' except for the aforementioned changes. You may change the ordering of the lines if that makes it easier for you to complete the ranking. A ">" in column 1 as often happens in a reply is OK. Step 3: Rank The Coasters You Have Ridden Using Method A or B. Treat the line "My Favorite Steel Anypark Anywhere **,n,n,0" as if it were your favorite steel coaster and rank it accordingly. DO NOT change the line except for the n's and the 0. DO NOT, Repeat: DO NOT change it to the real name of the steel coaster. If you can't place your favorite steel coaster in relation to wooden coasters, just delete that line. The idea is simply to see where the poll respondents would rank their favorite steel coaster in relation to the wooden coasters. Method A: Individual Ranking Replace the '0' in the last column with a numeral representing its' rank, '1'=best through '175'(or however many you have ridden)=worst e.g. Cannonball Waterville USA AL,y,y,1 Arkansas Twister Magic Springs AR,y,n,4 Giant Dipper Belmont Park CA,y,n,3 The Grizzly Great America CA,y,y,2 Giant Dipper Santa Cruz Bch Bdwk CA,y,n,5 Method B: Group Ranking If you cannot decide between two coasters or a group of coasters, give them the same rank. You may choose to group as many or as few as you want. e.g. Cannonball Waterville USA AL,y,y,1 Arkansas Twister Magic Springs AR,y,n,1 Giant Dipper Belmont Park CA,y,n,2 The Grizzly Great America CA,y,y,1 Giant Dipper Santa Cruz Bch Bdwk CA,y,n,2 You may combine the two methods. e.g. Cannonball Waterville USA AL,y,y,1 Arkansas Twister Magic Springs AR,y,n,2 Giant Dipper Belmont Park CA,y,n,3 The Grizzly Great America CA,y,y,4 Giant Dipper Santa Cruz Bch Bdwk CA,y,n,4 Method A is preferable if you can do it, as more of your individual coaster vs. coaster preferences can be gleaned from it. In any case, PLEASE RANK AS MANY AS YOU CAN. NOTE: All coasters you give a numerical rank to, even if that rank is "999", are treated as ranked better than any coasters left ranked as "0". Step 4: E-Mail Your Ballot To wcoasterpoll@yahoo.com Subject:Wood Poll Ballot NOTE: if using 'reply' from r.r-c you must remove "DELETE" from my address. FASTEST METHOD: Download http://ushsho.com/woodballot2011.xls Step 1: Open the file, Put your email address in cell A1 Step 1A: Put your State/Province or Country between the quotes in cell A3 Step 1B: Put your name or nickname between the quotes in cell A5 (optional) Step 1C: Rank the six riding sensations 1 (best) to 6 (worst) (Optional) Step 2: Mark The Coasters That You Have Ridden by changing "n" to "y" in column B. Step 2A: Select (highlight) from cell A14 to D198 and sort by column B. Step 2B: Highlight and delete the rows of coasters that you have not ridden. Step 2C: Mark The Coasters Ridden in 2011 by changing "n" to "y" in column C. Step 3: Rank the coasters in column D. ( 1 is best) Step 4: E-Mail as attachment To wcoasterpoll@yahoo.com with Subject:Wood Poll Ballot Hints: It may be easier to GROUP the coasters first by assigning a rank (e.g. 10, 20, 30, 40,...) to each coaster, then sort them by rank before differentiating between all coasters initially grouped as 10 by changing their ranks to 10 through 19, etc. The spreadsheet method is quicker because you can move from cell to cell replacing data more easily, sorting by rank as some prefer to do is accomplished much more easily, and deleting unridden coasters is very easily accomplished. As well as posting the results to the website, I will e-mail a copy of the results (using bcc: for privacy) to all those who took the poll unless they indicate on their ballot that they do not wish to receive the results via e-mail. A LITTLE ABOUT HOW THE BALLOTS WILL BE TABULATED Coasters will be ranked by best head to head record against all others with ties broken by head to head preference between those tied. In other words, each coaster is compared against every other coaster on the ballot based on only those people that have ridden each pair of coasters. Therefore each coaster's ranking depends ONLY on the opinions of those that have ridden it and not at all on HOW MANY people have ridden it. This method avoids the arbitrary point assignments AND the bias towards more ridden coasters that is inherent in total point ranking schemes and, to a lesser extent, in average point ranking schemes. DEADLINE: Ballots will be accepted through January 22nd, results will be posted very soon thereafter. I look forward to receiving your ballot. Results from previous years and much more about this annual poll can be viewed at http://bestrollercoasterpoll.com Thanks....Mitch Hawker NOTES: (S) or (SBNO) indicates coasters that did not operate in 2011. Those of you with websites or who are members of various message boards can help 'get out the vote' by posting a link to the main poll page http://bestrollercoasterpoll.com on your site. Please don't post the ballot itself to message boards, as the formatting is easily messed up and having just one place for people to obtain the ballot makes it easier to update, if necessary. The results become more meaningful with each additional person's ballot that goes into them. The actual blank ballot file is at http://www.ushsho.com/woodballot2011.txt Steel Poll: The 2011 Steel Poll Ballot has not been completed yet.