Saturday, May 29, 2004
Rumor Websites
I used to read rumor websites all the time. It was always exciting to "get inside information" about what might be coming soon. Most of it turned out to be false, but some things were close or dead on correct. Rumors are what got me interested in roller coasters and amusement parks in the first place. My cousin had worked at Disney World and also monitored what the Disney Company was doing. He gave me links to his favorite websites and after that I became enthralled with the industry. This was back when Jim Hill and Al Lutz were still with Mouse Planet and Thrill Ride was in its glory days.
Thrillride.com was the best place for rumors (and reviews, but that is not this story). Robert Coker, who ran the site alone, would collect "Wild Rumors and Random Notes" from people's submissions and post them in a weekly digest (along with his comments). Sure I read the other websites, but none were as good as Thrill Ride.
Then Rob lost focus and time. He closed Thrill Ride down and from its ashes came Thrill Network a good try at replacing Thrill Ride, but it could never equal the fun. I stayed at Thrill Network for a while, posting in the forums as Rider and taking part in Rollercoaster Tycoon and No Limits contests, but it got old and the same old posts day after day were no longer fun. They tried to do Wild Rumors like before but the people just were not there sending in crazy notes. Plus it was always the same things we saw posted in the message board, so nothing was new.
Thrill Ride reopened after Rob got bored of "retirement" (he did write a book: "Roller Coasters", check it out) but it wasn't the same. He didn't have the Wild Rumors back, so I never visited. Plus over the years Thrill Ride was gone I had lost my interest in rumors. People always claim that a ride operator told them something or other but the truth is that these ride ops have even less of an idea of what is next then we do.
So anyway, after over four years without "Wild Rumors and Random Notes", they are back. There may not be as many of them (when the website closed, a week's posting could be five pages long) but Rob still gives his opinion about each rumor and that is what I always loved.
