Coaster101's Attraction Awards of the Decade

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^ I would actually consider Maverick's delay to be a larger "epic fail" than HRRRRRRRRRRRRR's. I wasn't sure what we were supposed to nominate for that, I thought it was in terms of mainly just parks.

Also, I believe I am the one that nominated this, but I've since realized that Jurassic Park at IOA opened in 1999, so it technically isn't in "this decade."

^Woah! I keep thinking of IOA as a cutting-edge park and thus assumed/ brainwashed myself to believe it was built in 2000...not cool!

Not to say this is a weird poll, but the biggest epic fail choices are quite random. Like I don't understand how HRRR's delayed opening could even be on the same level as a HRP fail. But the dark knight coasters and ka? I don't know, just seems to a haphazard of things.

It's hard to find six or seven "epic fails" that are on the same level, hence the varying "failness" of the choices. They were all chosen based on the number of nominations.

Jurassic Park was removed from the poll, thanks for letting me know.

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I haven't said anything about this poll because I just know that it's just going to get me in trouble. But every time I see a post about this where people are questioning it, I get the feeling a lot of people are thinking it, so I'm just going to say it...

The poll is half-assed. There. I said it.

Look, I respect and appreciate what you guys are doing. I really do. I know it takes a lot of work and effort to put this together.

I just found the options and the categories to fall quite a bit short for me to be able to support the effort this time around.

Not to mention that it seems like little research was done that allowed you to have poll options with incorrect data.

I think more time thinking this through and editing what you were presenting to the public could have resulted in something far more impactful.

And as much as you want to say "Oh, it's because something didn't get nominated..." well, you guys are the final editors, the last round of filters, etc, of everything you publish.

I think you guys could have done a better job making sure that the data and the options that were being presented were a little more thought through.

WARNING! ROBB RANT APPROACHING! STOP READING NOW IF YOU DON'T HAVE THICK SKIN!

You can't think of 5 or 6 epic fails of the last decade? REALLY??? Off the top of my head - Hard Rock Park, Wild West World, Celebration City, Son of Beast, Disney's California Adventure, Cypress Gardens, Six Flags Astroworld, Geagua Lake, Frequent Faller, Hypersonic, Deja Vu's... REALLY??? You guys couldn't think of any? I mean, c'mon, Rip Ride Rockit was the best you could come up with? That ride freaking OPENED at least...in the same damn year it was supposed to! And it was ranked the #59 steel coaster in the world in it's opening year! Not amazing, but not a failure by any means. Most of the Deja Vu's didn't even make it the year they were supposed to open! And you put "The Dark Knight" as an "epic fail of the decade?" REALLY??? In the same decade where Disney admitted they needed to spend $1.1 billion dollars to fix their failed California Adventure, and you put The Dark Knight???? That's NOT an epic fail! Those coasters may not have been amazing, but they at least opened, and were more entertaining than your standard Wild Mouse! Same thing to those who suggested Maverick. A two week delay is NOT an "epic fail!" Opening a park that didn't last two weeks, like Wild West World, THAT is an epic fail! Closing down at park like Astroworld in the #4 largest market in the US...THAT is an epic fail...and you put Kingda Ka??? A ride that does actually work! (albeit only sometimes) In fact Kingda Ka seems to work a lot better than Hypersonic does now! Where is that one on your list?

And your best "Water Coaster" includes rapids rides, water slides, splashdown boats and, um, hello, a ride that was built in 1996 (Yes, Master Blaster was NOT built in the 2000s...DO YOUR RESEARCH!!!!) In fact, I believe you really only have one water "coaster" in your entire water coaster category!

I'm sorry, I just really am a stickler for polls and I can really get behind ones that are rock solid, like Mitch's poll, and I get very frustrated by ones that seem thrown together just to generate some traffic, like this one. If you want the traffic, that's fine, but PUT THE EFFORT INTO IT to deserve it. It seems like you guys want all the glory of this poll without doing the required work to make it great. My advice to you guys? Re-do it and MAKE IT GREAT!

Again, you guys could have done SO MUCH BETTER and this poll could have been amazing. Something more people could really get behind and support. But really, it's half-assed.

And that's my honest, constructive opinion.

--Robb "Sorry John, I really respect what you guys have done and the support you've given TPR, but I just had to say my mind and I needed to rant about it." Alvey

I agree with Robb.

The poll idea is actually a great concept for driving traffic to your site...but the execution really does leave a lot to be desired. If the goal is for you to have your polls taken seriously, a little more thought should definitely go into them.

For example, compare your options for best coasters with Mitch's poll. There's definitely some outliers that clearly don't belong in the debate for best coaster of the decade.

You also included water slides in with actual water rides. That doesn't make much sense to me. Why not separate them into different categories?

I'm also not even sure how the Dark Knight coasters qualify as an epic fail in comparison to all the other "epic fails" you could have picked from.

I'm also not even sure how the Dark Knight coasters qualify as an epic fail in comparison to all the other "epic fails" you could have picked from.

Well, it was "nominated."

I took a look at the poll, (because I do like them for fun) and decided against voting.

It seems as if it was just put up to justify a couple of people's opinions of what would make the list, as opposed to an actual poll. (Aside from the fact there's no way to prevent a single person from voting 2000 times, aka: Discovery channel "polls")

I also found it interesting that under the category of "Water Coasters", there is only one actual coaster, and several water rides. I would assume, by definition, that for something to be considered a "water coaster" (which IMO is a TERRIBLE term for a ride), it's principal mode of flow/movement is caused by water. Atlantis Adventure does not require water to run at all, though it does enhance the experience. It would still be a top tier ride without any water at all.

It just came across as a little too Mickey Mouse to me (speaking of - DCA=Epic Fail).

Sorry.

JJ

Robb I appreciate the criticism and will use it my advantage when planning next year's Attraction Awards. Just a couple things I want to mention:

You can't think of 5 or 6 epic fails of the last decade? REALLY??? Off the top of my head - Hard Rock Park, Wild West World, Celebration City, Son of Beast, Disney's California Adventure, Cypress Gardens, Six Flags Astroworld, Geagua Lake, Frequent Faller, Hypersonic, Deja Vu's... REALLY??? You guys couldn't think of any? I mean, c'mon, Rip Ride Rockit was the best you could come up with? That ride freaking OPENED at least...in the same damn year it was supposed to! And it was ranked the #59 steel coaster in the world in it's opening year! Not amazing, but not a failure by any means. Most of the Deja Vu's didn't even make it the year they were supposed to open! And you put "The Dark Knight" as an "epic fail of the decade?" REALLY??? In the same decade where Disney admitted they needed to spend $1.1 billion dollars to fix their failed California Adventure, and you put The Dark Knight???? That's NOT an epic fail! Those coasters may not have been amazing, but they at least opened, and were more entertaining than your standard Wild Mouse! Same thing to those who suggested Maverick. A two week delay is NOT an "epic fail!" Opening a park that didn't last two weeks, like Wild West World, THAT is an epic fail! Closing down at park like Astroworld in the #4 largest market in the US...THAT is an epic fail...and you put Kingda Ka??? A ride that does actually work! (albeit only sometimes) In fact Kingda Ka seems to work a lot better than Hypersonic does now! Where is that one on your list?

These options were chosen based on the number of nominations received. I took all the nominations and made somewhat of a bar graph to represent the number of nominations per attraction/fail/etc. In most cases, there were 6-8 choices that stood out from most of the "outliers".

I realize that I have final control over everything, but if I change the options to what I see fit, then isn't that defeating the purpose of the poll? I see your logic, but I would rather have a mixed bag of options to choose from rather than the same top ten steel/wood coasters that would be found on Mitch's poll.

The water attraction poll has been removed entirely, as pointed out I made too many careless errors within it to justify it remaining.

Again, I appreciate the criticism Robb and will take this as a lesson learned when planning for the next installment of AA.

Same thing to those who suggested Maverick. A two week delay is NOT an "epic fail!"

Just to clear up some possible confusion, I wasn't suggesting that Maverick be an option in the poll, just that I would consider it more of a "fail" (using the term "fail" EXTREMELY loosely) than HRRR. I don't consider either to be anything close to being "epic fails."

This is coaster EPIC fail!