Newsgroups: rec.roller-coaster,rec.answers,news.answers Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!crl.dec.com!caen!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!netnews.nwnet.net!serval.net.wsu.edu!news From: geoff@eecs.wsu.edu (Geoff Allen) Subject: rec.roller-coaster FAQ, part 1/3: General info & introduction Summary: This document contains the introductions to the rec.roller-coaster newsgroup, and to Usenet in general. Sender: news@serval.net.wsu.edu (News) Message-ID: Supersedes: Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Date: Wed, 20 Dec 1995 14:00:22 GMT Expires: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 14:00:22 GMT Reply-To: geoff@eecs.wsu.edu Organization: Washington State University Followup-To: rec.roller-coaster Lines: 207 Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu rec.roller-coaster:24016 rec.answers:17099 news.answers:60486 Archive-name: roller-coaster-faq/part1 Last-modified: Wed Jul 19, 1995; 21:47:41 MDT WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF ROLLER-COASTER FANATICISM! ================================================== This article is posted regularly to rec.roller-coaster, news.answers, and rec.answers by Geoff Allen. It is also available in a hypertext version on the World Wide Web as http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/~geoff/coaster_faq. The original conversion to hypertext was done by Darlene Fladager. This article is the main info posting for rec.roller-coaster, the net's own asylum for coaster fanatics. In this article, you'll find everything (or, almost everything) you need to know to be a coaster fanatic, too. Enjoy your ride!!!! Contents: --------- Part 1: General info & introduction 1.1: About rec.roller-coaster 1.2: About Usenet 1.3: About this document Part 2: Coaster info, organizations, and references 2.1: Common abbreviations 2.2: Definitions of Roller-Coaster terms 2.3: American Coaster Enthusiasts - ACE 2.4: Mid-Atlantic Coaster Club - MACC 2.5: Western New York Coaster Club - WNYCC 2.6: Great Ohio Coaster Club - GOCC 2.7: First Drop - U.K. Coaster Club 2.8: National Amusement Park Historical Association - NAPHA 2.9: National Carousel Association - NCA 2.10: Books on Roller Coasters and Amusement Parks 2.11: Magazines 2.12: FTP site 2.13: Other Stuff of Interest 2.14: Amusement Industry Jobs Part 3: Lists and statistics 3.1: Roller Coaster Designer Info 3.2: Roller Coaster Record Holders 3.3: ACE's Classic Coaster Roster 3.4: Inside Track ``Top Coasters'' Readers Survey 3.5: Amusement Park Attendance Statistics 3.6: Coming Attractions -- new coasters for 95 and beyond! 3.7: List of Endangered Coasters in USA Recent changes -------------- October, 1995 * Updated the email address of ACE membership director Brian Peters * Added email addresses to the "Magazines" section. * Some changes to the "Coaster Designers" section. * Added "Screechin Eagle" to ACE Classic Coaster roster. * Some major changes to the "Coming attractions" section. * (Perhaps most important!) Fixed the posting bug, and am posting ahead of time (on Oct. 5) so everyone can get their hands on a real, live, up-to-date version. It'll also be auto-posted at the regular time on the 20th. Hopefully, we're back on track for regularly posting. June, 1995 * Yes, I'm a day late posting this month. My auto-poster failed due to a slight configuration problem. But never fear, if you're reading this, I've got the problem fixed. * Updated the Inside Track survey listing, adding the 1994 results. (Thanks to Bill Buckley for providing the info.) * Added "Point of View" to the abbreviations and the definitions sections. * I had planned to add park operating dates and coming coaster events to this month's edition, but haven't had a chance. Hopefully they'll be here next month. Again, thanks to Bill Buckley for providing the info. * I have several additions to the book section, courtesy of Mark M. Oship. Again, I haven't had time to include them this month, but hope to next month. May, 1995 * Added info on Great Ohio Coaster Club * Renumbered the sections (and changed the numbering scheme while I was at it). * Added Pepsi Max to the "steepest steel" records section * Updated the status of the Vancouver Playland Coaster and added the Conneaut Lake Blue Streak to the "endangered coasters" section. * Corrected the name "David Pickstone" in the New-4-95 section. * Updated several items in the New-4-96 section. * Added info for _The Ride_ magazine. * Updated (finally!) the description of the Coaster Calendar from Moor publishing. I have the calendar, but never managed to sit down and type in descriptions of this year's calendar. Thanks to Bill Buckley for doing it. * Updated pricing and contact info for NAPHA. 1.1: About rec.roller-coaster ----------------------------- The official definition of rec.roller-coaster is: rec.roller-coaster -- Roller coasters and other amusement park rides. rec.roller-coaster is an unmoderated newsgroup which passed its vote for creation by 184:72 as reported in news.announce.newsgroups on 21 July 1991. This newsgroup is for the discussion of any amusement park rides, including (but certainly not limited to) roller coasters. Other topics include park operating times/season schedules, admission prices, latest attractions, future expansion efforts, etc. You might also want to read rec.parks.theme for pertinent discussions. 1.2: Usenet info ---------------- If you're new to Usenet, I'd really recommend reading the newsgroups news.announce.newusers and news.newusers.questions for a while. You can learn a lot of useful things, and maybe even some not so useful things. 1.3: About this document ------------------------ The rec.roller-coaster FAQ is posted on the 20th of every month to rec.roller-coaster, rec.answers, and news.answers. Why the 20th, you ask? Because the patent for LaMarcus Thompson's Switchback Railway was issued on January 20, 1885. The Switchback Railway is widely considered to the the first modern roller coaster. (Thanks to Dave Altoff for his list of coaster dates which helped me pick a good date to commemorate with the FAQ.) The rec.roller-coaster FAQ is also available in a hypertext version on the World Wide Web as http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/~geoff/coaster_faq/. The plain text version of this document comes in three parts. Part 1 offers a table of contents to the posts, plus a general introduction. Part 2 offers general roller-coaster info -- abbreviations, definitions, information on organizations, and references for the roller coaster/amusement park enthusiast. Part 3 contains lists and statistics relating to coasters. It is also the most volatile section, more likely than the others to be changed. The rec.roller-coaster FAQ was originally compiled by Dave Rounds (dave@bcco.com), then maintained by Bill Buckley (buckley@powdml.enet.dec.com), and has now fallen into my hands (Geoff Allen, geoff@eecs.wsu.edu). Comments and questions are most welcome via e-mail to Geoff. You can get a copy of the latest version of this document via anonymous FTP from the "official" roller-coaster FTP site, gboro.rowan.edu, in directory /pub/Coasters (more on the site later). You can also get a copy from the official archive of news.answers, which is on rtfm.mit.edu in the directory /pub/usenet-by-group/rec.roller-coaster. (A lot of other interesting FAQs are there, too. The name under which a FAQ is archived appears in the Archive-name: line at the top of the article. This FAQ, for example, is archived as roller-coaster-faq/part1, 2, and 3. If you just want to browse there, try directory /pub/usenet-by-hierarchy, where the dots in newsgroup names represent directories. So these documents are in /pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/rec/roller-coaster.) If you don't know how to use FTP, or don't even know if you can at your site (not all sites can), ask a knowledgeable user at your site. Special thanks to all the contributors, commentators, error-correctors and others who've helped to make this FAQ possible. They are (in no particular order): * Mark Wyatt (of Inside Track magazine) * William "Buck" Buckley (buckley@powdml.enet.dec.com) * Me, Geoff Allen, geoff@eecs.wsu.edu * Ronnie Swain, swain@aludra.usc.edu * Tom Obszanski, Tom_-_Obszanski@cup.portal.com * betsyp@apollo.hp.com * Ken Denton, SYSOP@elan.glassboro.edu * little gator aka s. mudgett, scm@harvee.billerica.ma.us * Kara L. Robinson, KROBINSO@Kentvm.Kent.edu * Michael A. Cornell, mac18@po.CWRU.Edu * Chris Toomer, toomer@cs.colostate.edu * Paul Asente, asente@mv.us.adobe.com * Patty Winter, winter@apple.com * Tom Maglione, maglione@media.mit.edu * Bill Figie, wjf@controls.ccd.harris.com * Sharon Crichton, sharonc@meaddata.com * maniac, MANIAC@ozone.com * Justin Garvanovic (of First Drop Coaster Club), Justin@frstdrop.demon.co.uk * Martin I Lewison, milst1+@pitt.edu * Matthew Crowther, crowther@crl.com * Brian Peters, bpeters@pit.legent.com or coasterfun@aol.com * Jeffrey L. Seifert, Jeffrey263@AOL.COM * Ty Fluharty, napha@pgh.nauticom.net * Jan Fitzurka, jannie@city-net.com * Jim Whelan, 73467.2141@compuserve.com * Bill Bishop, wdbishop@dictator.uwaterloo.ca * Nora G. And now.... On with the show!!!!!!! -- Geoff Allen, Washington State Univ, School of EE & CS, sysadmin support guy (geoff@eecs.wsu.edu || geoff@wsu.edu) && http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/~geoff/ ___________________________________________________________________________ Please remain seated and keep your hands and arms above your head at all times. Enjoy your ride.