redfoot12 Posted October 4, 2010 Share Posted October 4, 2010 It sounds like all they've really done is postpone Big Dipper's demolition and lost a few bucks in the process. I wonder if her most recent statement was released when they realized that the information they had out there made this effort seem too grassroots-ish. Their intentions may have been noble but a little foolhardy. The steps she's talking about should have been done before she and New Zealand guy parted with any cash. This effort seems to have been built on the backs of lollipops, rainbows, and unicorns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPDave Posted October 4, 2010 Share Posted October 4, 2010 Harold and I are just two normal people. We aren't business people. We aren't rich As we move into the business week, we are hoping to be able to get some definite figures on getting a professional inspection done of the coaster so we can get a goal set and a time line proposed for the careful removal of the coaster. 1. The people involved DO have the money to store, refurb, and relocate the ride, and have places in mind to move it 3. The ENTIRE RIDE was surveyed to be rebuilt already, it was done in case it did end up demolished, a park could build a copy of it, using the trains Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted October 4, 2010 Author Share Posted October 4, 2010 (edited) ^ LMAO!!! Good to know that Devious is not a trusted source of accurate information. Edited October 4, 2010 by robbalvey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ernierocker Posted October 4, 2010 Share Posted October 4, 2010 "Impulse buy" is a great way to phrase this entire situation. Except, for most people that is a new TV or car. They bought a freaking roller coaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dailey Enterprizes Posted October 4, 2010 Share Posted October 4, 2010 It sounds like all they've really done is postpone Big Dipper's demolition and lost a few bucks in the process. I wonder if her most recent statement was released when they realized that the information they had out there made this effort seem too grassroots-ish. Their intentions may have been noble but a little foolhardy. The steps she's talking about should have been done before she and New Zealand guy parted with any cash. This effort seems to have been built on the backs of lollipops, rainbows, and unicorns. My guess is that the wrecking ball was on its way to the park when the purchase occurred. I hope Kat is more than willing to sacrifice her social life to keep this project afloat or it might sink before any inspection takes place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteornotes Posted October 4, 2010 Share Posted October 4, 2010 If you read the recently posted article about the Starliner being moved, the people involved with that said the project would cost around two million dollars. That coaster was operating recently, and has not been sitting somewhere rotting. I'd guess to actually revive the BD you're talking twice that amount, IF any of it could even be salvaged at this point. This plan is beyond dumb and is an amazing joke. I love all the excuses in the forum post, "Oh, I'm busy", "Oh, I didn't have time to make a website", "Oh, we have no business experience". This plan has about as much chance of succeeding as my cats developing a working spaceship. dt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDipper 80 Posted October 4, 2010 Share Posted October 4, 2010 (edited) Two million was also how much it cost to rebuild the Belmont Giant Dipper as well, I think. This whole thing actually is a lot like Giant Dipper, it seems. Someone buys it but it sits for a while, some more people buy it and can't raise any money to do anything with it, so it sits some more. Except with Giant Dipper, an ACTUAL PLAN was formed (albeit some time after the purchase) with developers and led to the formation of an entire COMPANY to support the project, on top of fundraising and federal grants. So, theoretically, it could happen, but not without the "magic" better known as money, and a plan of attack, and even IF all of that happened, there probably wouldn't be results for years.That coaster will be sitting in the back of a lot of people's pickup trucks for a long time until someone releases a plan. Edited October 5, 2010 by BigDipper 80 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewhoutx Posted October 4, 2010 Share Posted October 4, 2010 My project expectations went from to to in that one post.... What Kat and the New Zealand magician.... Dude, I literaly sprayed my keyboard with water when I read "the new Zealand magician". Holy hell, thanks for that laugh! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Band-Aid Posted October 4, 2010 Share Posted October 4, 2010 So, people bought the Big Dipper in order to disassemble it and put it in an indoor storage facility without a plan to find a place to rebuild it or find a park that would be willing to buy it? Makes perfect sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jds03 Posted October 4, 2010 Share Posted October 4, 2010 ^ Wait! I know who these people are and which park the big dipper's going to! This One! It all makes PERFECT sense now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jew Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 At least she is trying to do some all coaster fans have always wanted to do There is about 1,000,000 things I would rather do than buy a crappy old wooden roller coaster without a plan to return it to operation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
let1gre Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 Like buy a crappy old Wild Mouse. Or get punched in the balls by a bear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grinch1313 Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 This plan is beyond dumb and is an amazing joke. I love all the excuses in the forum post, "Oh, I'm busy", "Oh, I didn't have time to make a website", "Oh, we have no business experience". This plan has about as much chance of succeeding as my cats developing a working spaceship. dt I'd put my money on the cats. It seems much more likely to happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
808Freq Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 At least she is trying to do some all coaster fans have always wanted to do There is about 1,000,000 things I would rather do than buy a crappy old wooden roller coaster without a plan to return it to operation. They have a plan. Just like John Kerry had plans. Trust them, they have them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcjaco Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 I wish this thread would die. Just like the Big Dipper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandallDuell Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 While I don't understand the glee with which some are ripping apart this effort, I have to admit that while I was initially torn by the very transparent effort (just two regular people, who saw a cause to rally around, pooling some cash together before the foolish owner of an old SBNO coaster was going to have it torn down) ... I am now leaning in the direction that they really need to stop thanking their brother and neighbor on the main page of their site, and start making it seem like they're actually serious about doing something. I know most here will immediately post that "yah, duh, the reason it looks the way it does is because that's what it is!!!", it does seem like (especially in this day and age) it shouldn't be too hard to at least present a professional look. http://www.savethebigdipper.org/donations/ They've already pulled in .04% of their donation goal! I probably don't know a whole hell of a lot more about "the biz" than the two people behind this, but even the lamest of Internet grassroots campaigns have come off a lot more professional than this. The only other comment I would have to them, if they're reading, is to stop claiming victory. As if sending a check for $10k "just minutes" before it was to be taken down should be labeled as "WE DID IT". I think a much more truthful, and effective, angle would be to say that you've just begun what is sure to be a very tough journey and will need the support of anyone who happens upon the site to even come close to starting the first real step to letting the coaster "fly again". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted October 5, 2010 Author Share Posted October 5, 2010 (edited) A couple of comments... While I don't understand the glee with which some are ripping apart this effort I think it's probably because they have made themselves out to be an easy target. And, let's be honest, the people who have attempted to post in their defense have actually caused more damage than they did good, and that just fueled the fire to poke fun at the effort even more. I have to admit that while I was initially torn by the very transparent effort (just two regular people, who saw a cause to rally around, pooling some cash together before the foolish owner of an old SBNO coaster was going to have it torn down) ... I am now leaning in the direction that they really need to stop thanking their brother and neighbor on the main page of their site, and start making it seem like they're actually serious about doing something. I know most here will immediately post that "yah, duh, the reason it looks the way it does is because that's what it is!!!", it does seem like (especially in this day and age) it shouldn't be too hard to at least present a professional look. I probably don't know a whole hell of a lot more about "the biz" than the two people behind this, but even the lamest of Internet grassroots campaigns have come off a lot more professional than this. Totally fair comments. Even the re-design (which apparently they seem VERY proud of) isn't anything more than your stock Dreamweaver template that was shipped with the product in 2004. Looks better than the god-awful abortion they had up initially, but it's still terrible by today's standards. It's clear they don't even have any clue about websites or how they work. I mean, this was posted to their website today: As a side note, we have received over 2,400 hits on our webpage in the past three days! Amazing! What??? No! That's not "amazing!" TPR received 1.3 million "hits" and ate through 114gb of bandwidth just yesterday alone...and we're a relatively small site! Anyone that thinks 800 hits a day on a website is "amazing" tells me they don't actually understand the scope of the project they have in front of them. The only other comment I would have to them, if they're reading, is to stop claiming victory. As if sending a check for $10k "just minutes" before it was to be taken down should be labeled as "WE DID IT". I think a much more truthful, and effective, angle would be to say that you've just begun what is sure to be a very tough journey and will need the support of anyone who happens upon the site to even come close to starting the first real step to letting the coaster "fly again". I agree 100%. It's like they are putting the victory before the race. I don't understand that attitude. And by doing this victory dance what they are actually communicating to people is "We're done! We did it!" and then the follow up asking for donations is actually confusing to anyone outside of the inner circles. I mean, they told the public "The Big Dipper HAS BEEN SAVED!" so if that's what you're communicating to me, "why should I then give you a donation to help save it? I thought you told me it was already saved?" Their need to brag about what they've done is actually creating confusion and causing damage to their efforts. If anything they should be reading this thread and LISTENING to what a lot of us have to say. This is free advice to Kat & Kiwi! Normally I get PAID for this kind of common sense thinking! At the moment, there are two other preservation efforts going on - Zippin Pippin and Starliner (three if you count the effort for the Blue Streak) and each one of them present a very good example on how to do this VERY professionally, and most importantly, believable so that people will donate to the cause. When you have three great examples out there as reference, how can you fail so miserably? So Randall, it's not that we're taking so much glee ripping apart the effort, it's that the effort so far has been so ridiculous that how can you not poke fun at it? --Robb "My donation to this project is sensibility..." Alvey Edited October 5, 2010 by robbalvey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcjaco Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 Feathered Fedora Designs is pretty much a copy and paste template too. Seriously people, get it together if you want to be taken seriously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jarmor Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 The only other comment I would have to them, if they're reading, is to stop claiming victory. As if sending a check for $10k "just minutes" before it was to be taken down should be labeled as "WE DID IT". I think a much more truthful, and effective, angle would be to say that you've just begun what is sure to be a very tough journey and will need the support of anyone who happens upon the site to even come close to starting the first real step to letting the coaster "fly again". I agree 100%. It's like they are putting the victory before the race. I don't understand that attitude. And by doing this victory dance what they are actually communicating to people is "We're done! We did it!" and then the follow up asking for donations is actually confusing to anyone outside of the inner circles. I mean, they told the public "The Big Dipper HAS BEEN SAVED!" so if that's what you're communicating to me, "why should I then give you a donation to help save it? I thought you told me it was already saved?" Hey if it worked for bush with the war why cant it work for them! Jarvis "mission accomplished!" Morant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandallDuell Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 Right, as I read the website today I did indeed picture Dubya standing in front of that banner. Seems like the only thing really "saved", at this point, is the dope that bought the coaster at auction in the first place. He's now washed his hands of his intended flip, so he should be posting a Mission Accomplished statement on his site. It does seem odd to me that they didn't approach industry people, or even a larger forum like this, before announcing that they "saved" it. I enjoy that $50 is prefilled in when you go to the donation page, by the way. Anyway, good intentions I'm sure - but I do have to agree that the execution of this whole thing (to this point, at least) is about as poor as the overall concept (considering the scope of actually disassembling/transporting/storing/finding location/re-building etc). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted October 5, 2010 Author Share Posted October 5, 2010 (edited) As a side note, we have received over 2,400 hits on our webpage in the past three days! Amazing! What? No! That's not "amazing!" TPR received 1.3 million "hits" and ate through 114gb of bandwidth just yesterday alone...and we're a relatively small site! LOL! I just realized something... THIS THREAD has had more than 2,400 hits in the last three days! AMAZING! Edited October 5, 2010 by robbalvey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themeparkman25 Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 (edited) delete Edited January 20, 2011 by themeparkman25 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace Of Spades Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 Someone should contact Warren Buffet or Bill Gates or someone like that...I'm sure they'd get a kick out of giving these people their three-hundred K and watching them flounder about trying to find a park that would actually want the damn thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jedimaster1227 Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 We have received $120 USD of our $300,000 USD total. That'll cover their website's bandwidth for years, considering how many hits they receive each day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted October 5, 2010 Author Share Posted October 5, 2010 (edited) What also amazes me about the new website is that they've taken the time to write 4 brand new paragraphs about the project directors, give shout outs to the web designer and Kat's brother, write a news entry about the new website (like, duh, we didn't notice), but not a single word...NOT A SINGLE WORD was written about their plan to restore the Dipper, what action items are currently in progress to take it down, or most importantly, what your donation is actually going to go towards. But we know important detailed information like Kat caught the brass ring at Knoebel's! --Robb "Their priorities are totally out of whack!" Alvey Edited October 5, 2010 by robbalvey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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