Theme Park Review's
"Idiot's Guide to
Mitch Hawker's Wood Coaster Poll!
"How to fill out Mitch Hawker's
Wooden Coaster Poll Ballot!"
First off, you
need to know where to get your ballot. It can be found
HERE!
PLEASE DOWNLOAD AND REVIEW THE
BALLOT BEFORE FOLLOWING THESE INSTRUCTIONS!
I use the 'grouping'
method to fill out the ballot. IMO, it's easier, and if you don't have a
lot of time to go through and rank
each coaster, this might be the best option. I know what my favorites
and least favorites are, and everything else kind of ranks
somewhere in the middle. This method will allow you to quickly and simply
fill out the ballot,
and give each of your coasters the ranking they deserve.
To fill out the
ballot, follow these 4 easy steps!
Advanced
users click here.
STEP #1:
The first thing I do is copy the
ballot into Notepad (or any other text editor), and delete the coasters I haven't ridden:
(to find notepad on your computer go to "Start" > "All Programs" > "Accessories"
> "Notepad"
This leaves you with
a nice clean ballot of ONLY the coasters you've ridden.
For each coaster, you should have three columns that look like this: "n,n,0"
The first "n" answers the question "Have I ridden this coaster?"
The second "n" answers the question "Have I ridden this coaster THIS YEAR?"
The "0" will eventually become your personal ranking.
STEP #2:
Replace the "N" with a "Y" in the
first column of ALL your coasters so it looks like this:
Since you have a
list of only the coasters you've been on, it's easy to go down the list and mark
them all with a "Y"
At this point, you should have all "Y"s in the first column, and all "N"s in the
second.
STEP#3:
In the 2nd column replace the "N" with a "Y" if
you ridden the coaster THIS YEAR!
This takes a little
but of time, but it's worth it! Make sure you ONLY mark the ones with a "Y"
if you ridden THIS YEAR!
STEP #4:
Rank your coasters in the final column.
There are a number of different ways to rank (see below):
You could either
rank your coasters 1 through 100 (or whatever your final number may be) or you
could choose the
"grouping method" (what I use). If you've been on a lot of wood coasters,
and it's really hard for you to determine
how you would indivudually rank all those kiddie woodies, for example, this
method might be for you.
Instead of ranking 1
through 100, you group all your coasters into a specific category and assign
them each a number.
Here is the
breakdown of my ranking categories:
1 – Coasters that I would
go out of my way to ride. (My all time favorites or my "top ten".)
2 – Coasters that I like a lot. (My second favorites)
3 – Coasters that I like, but I wouldn’t wait longer than 10 minutes
in line to ride.
4 – Coasters that I don’t feel the need to ever ride again, but I
would.
5 – Coasters that I wouldn’t care if they were torn down or burned to
the ground!
To complete the
ballot, put your name and email address where specified in the ballot,
and finally you can also rank your favorite "riding sensations" (however this part is optional.)
After you have
ranked your coasters, the instructions on
Mitch's Website tell you
how to submit your ballot.
Simply copy and paste your ballot into a TEXT email (not HTML) and send it to:
wcoasterpoll@yahoo.com with
the subject header of "Wood Poll Ballot."
CONGRATS! YOU ARE
DONE!!! =)
ADVANCED USERS PLEASE
READ!
Mitch tells me for an
even MORE accurate poll, break out your top 5 and bottom 5 coasters and give
them a separate ranking.
Follow these steps:
1. Take your #1 grouping from above, and select your five favorite coasters and
rank them #1 through #5.
2. Change ALL your remaining coasters in the #1 category to #10
3. Change ALL your coasters previously ranked #2 to #20
4. Change ALL your coasters previously ranked #3 to #30
5. Change ALL your coasters previously ranked #4 to #40
5. Choose 5 of your least favorite coasters and rank them #56 to #60
5. Change ALL your remaining coasters in the #5 category to #50
So your ballot should look something like this:
I stress the
importance of filling out this ballot as this is seems to be the most accurate
ranking system of any 'coaster polls'.
If you want to get your opinion heard on what your favorite coasters are, this
is THE BEST way to do it!
By all means you do not have to fill it out using my method, but a lot of people
find the ballot difficult or time consuming to rank
each coaster individually. You also do not have to limit your groups from
1 to 5. It can be 1 to 10, etc.
I hope this guide was helpful!
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