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Do you count coasters you rode pre-enthusiast?

Do you count coasters you rode pre-enthusiast?

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    56
Matt N

Matt N

CF Legend
Hi guys. Sorry if there's already a thread like this or if this thread seems a little unnecessary, but I was just wondering; I know many of you keep coaster counts (as do I), but do you guys count coasters you rode before you became an enthusiast?

As for my answer to this question, I know that this might be an uncommon opinion, but I don't count anything I rode or any parks I visited pre-enthusiast as part of my coaster count. So for me, that is before 28th September 2013, as that was the date of my first proper enthusiast's visit to a theme park where I could ride all of the coasters. Now, the reason I do this is because when I ride a ride, I like to be able to talk in depth about the experience and compare the ride to other rides that I've ridden, and I don't personally feel that I'm able to do that with my non-enthusiast experiences, as I didn't really rate the experience particularly in-depth before I was an enthusiast, if you get what I mean. Also, I feel that theme park enthusiasm is somewhat of a journey for me that I started when I rode my first big coasters and started discovering more about coasters and theme parks and how they work, and I like to think of my coaster count and my Captain Coaster ratings and my reviews and whatnot as my way of logging that journey, so I kind of feel that experiences I had pre-enthusiast don't really contribute to that and aren't really part of that journey to me, if you get what I mean.

Also, I don't really remember any of my non-enthusiast experiences very clearly as I was quite young, and it would also muck up my milestones and my ranking of everything I've ridden if I was to include those experiences. Besides, I would only stand to gain 3 creds from Disneyland Paris when I was 7.

But what do you guys do?
P.S. Sorry if this post seems a little long and rambly.
 
Yes.

When does one 'become' an enthusiast? Why does being an 'enthusiast' put you in a different position to judge rides? You either like it or not.

More importantly, if you've ridden it, you've ridden it. Simple.
 
Yes, since every park I went to before becoming an enthusiast I visited after too? But since I've always been a fan of parks/rides, I don't really recall not being an enthusiast of sorts... although I didn't start going at this hobby hard until I was 15 or so.
 
I dunno, seems pretty reasonable to not-count anything before your official enthusiast coming-out ceremony. I mean if we didn't stick to rules like that what would be the point of the thing, would just be a waste of dippin-dots and funnel-cake. After all when we sign the enthusiast-charter we agree to adhere to all the unquestionable rules (not counting alpines, Grand National is one / Steeplechase is three ; all that sort of thing) - we can't just be making all this up as we go along surely, that would be anarchy.
 
I mean, one's coaster count refers to how many roller coasters they've ridden. If you remember riding some cred well before you became an enthusiast...well there you go.

It may get tricky if you don't recall riding. I'd say that's an exception for not counting them.

But Matt, if you definitely remember riding the DLP creds, that's an easy +3 my guy.
 
I have to say yes, I have always loved coasters/theme/amusement parks for as long as I can remember.
Prob being 11 and going on the Ultimate back in 1992 on my birthday and rode many more after.

It was me finding this forum many years ago that I guessed I became an enthusiast and enjoyed learning and contributing to the forums.
 
It's not a moral dilemma, it's me being interested to see what you guys did! Everybody has their different ways of managing their coaster count, so I was interested to see what you guys did.

For the reasons I stated above, I will not personally be adding these 3 coasters to my count. Besides, I'll probably ride them some day as an enthusiast!
 
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Coaster count is how many coasters you have ridden. I.e. throughout your life. To me this is an easy yes
 
I've also found a good post from @Hyde in another thread that somewhat explains my rationale for not counting pre-enthusiast creds:
Hyde said:
"If a Vekoma SLC runs without any riders, does it still hurt?"

The point of coaster counts, to a large extent, is sharing your experience of riding any given roller coaster. For instance: You and I ride Revolution at SFMM. You and I both thought it was good. But how good? I thought it was 47th best, based on my roller coaster count. But you thought it was 32nd best, based on your roller coaster count.

Roller coaster counts give us a frame of reference for judging a roller coaster. So in this sense, you would not count a roller coaster if you cannot remember riding it. However, if you are simply counting for the sake of counting - full steam ahead!
Click to expand...
To tell you guys the truth, I know I rode the DLP creds, but I don't really remember the experience and what I thought of each of them, so for that reason, I'm not counting them. It was 8 or 9 years ago now and I was quite young, so I couldn't really compare them to anything else I've ridden, so I personally thought it would be easiest to only count stuff I rode after becoming an enthusiast.
 
The dilemma that arises from memory of riding, though, is what happens when you have ridden, say, over 1000 coasters. Do you really remember every single coaster you've ridden? Genuine question there to all those with high cred counts - can you look through your list and remember riding every cred and what it was like?

If they can't remember every cred, should they count them? Of course they should. So how do you draw the line? It's too fuzzy to do so clear cut. But I don't really see any argument for doing it other than if you have a somewhat pompous "you need to know every detail about a ride to judge it" outlook.
 
I'll admit that that is actually something I never thought of, and people with high cred counts who can't remember every cred they've ridden should still count them, but my personal way of doing things still remains the same, because I was very young at the time and I don't really remember anything about what I thought of them; whether they were good, bad, fast, slow; I know I definitely rode them, but I have little to no recollection of what they were actually like or even what the rides entailed. If I remembered what I actually thought of them, then I would possibly be more inclined to count them.

In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have made this thread. As it would seem that for some people, the line of when they became an enthusiast is far more blurred than it is for me.

Everyone's free to do things their way, but I will personally not be counting these coasters. Besides, I shouldn't have this dilemma some time in the future, as I hope to ride these coasters as an enthusiast!
 
I rode a travelling cred in Italy when I was 6 but I have never been able to remember exactly what it was. The only thing I think I remember was that it had yellow track. It definitely still counts as a cred for me so I just picked a random Italian travelling cred with yellow track on Coaster Count and added that to my list.
 
I think that coaster counts and rankings are entirely different though. My coaster count is just the coasters I've ridden. I know I rode Wile E. Coyote at Over Texas when I was a kid, but I don't remember anything about it. But still, I count them.
 
Yes, because I've ridden them.

The "can you remember them" thing doesn't really apply to me since I didn't have that many under my belt before going "proper" enthusiast. Because parks back then were an uncommon treat, I've got much more distinct memories of stuff I did as a kid/teenager/young adult over a lot of the s**t I've done much, much more recently.
 
Yes, anything I remember riding as a kid is included, even though I didn't start cred counting till 2014. Most things I've ridden again since but there were a few coasters in Florida and at Alton Towers and West Midlands Safari Park that I definitely remember riding as a kid. I don't count the ones I'm not sure about, so I know I went to Camelot and American Adventure in the 80's but don't recall exactly what I rode, so I'm probably missing +5 or more.
 
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