What if Pugski ranked resorts?

[mdf]

Sure, everything Muleski says is true. But it might be interesting to know what our favorite ski areas are. And calling it "favorite" rather than "best" is more accurate, especially since few of us have been everywhere.

 

[Bad Bob]

For voting how about 1 vote per category per region per person?

It would help to reduce a lot of people just voting for the names they know.

It would also open up the possibilities of selling our votes to multiple sponsors.

 

[Tricia]

Maybe the results should just focus on different categories with no attempt to determine an overall ranking, due to controversies about algorithms and weighting.
Tony says Ski magazine's categories are weighted equally, but I have never seen this published.
Z-rankings algorithms are unpublished and unknown.
Epicski had rankings apparently based on resort reviews and some Huddler scoring criteria which nobody knew anything about.

That could be part of the focus group discussion.
I was going to reach out to you since you have a resort guide published.
You in?

[dont' get me started on the things that weren't done well on the Huddler platform]

 

[Tricia]

I would like any industry people reading this to know my votes are for sale.

It would also open up the possibilities of selling our votes to multiple sponsors.

You guys...
I'm not sure if it deserves this
or this

 

[mikel]

I think it is a great idea. I would be interested in seeing what fellow pug's think are the best areas. Could be strictly my perception but seemingly Aspen had become the de facto standard recommendation on Epic. I thought some deserved at last a few free days passes based on their recommendations. I'm looking forward to the rankings here.

 

[fatbob]

Once you colonials had seen the light the list would be

La Grave


Distant second everything else.

Won't score high on spas, shopping or quality of groomers mind.

 

[Bill Miles]

That could be part of the focus group discussion.
I was going to reach out to you since you have a resort guide published.
You in?

[dont' get me started on the things that weren't done well on the Huddler platform]

Sure

 

[fatbob]

If I had to punt I'd guess Aspen and Alta Bird would rank high here with maybe Deer Valley. Reality is your nearest bump is great if its just snowed and sucks if there has been a drought. Same rules apply anywhere.

 

[Muleski]

Ranking European resorts on here would be interesting. Reviewing them, a bit different. Some of this depends on your breadth of experience. I've skied about 40 areas in the Alps. I have skied four areas more than 50 days. Another six more than 15. And most a day or two. So my ranking would be suspect, to say the least. Bit could I help and content to some reviews that would be helpful? I think so. I might be a bad example too, as a lot of my info is dated. The terrain and views have not changed much. Ha!

But if we want rankings, so be it. They will be accurate and well done!

 

[Tricia]

If I had to punt I'd guess Aspen and Alta Bird would rank high here with maybe Deer Valley. Reality is your nearest bump is great if its just snowed and sucks if there has been a drought. Same rules apply anywhere.

So, what you're saying is that our ranking has the potential to be just as flawed as everyone else?

I'd like to think we can raise the bar.



....did someone say bar?

 

[Jerez]

By region is good. That way you get results from people who actually know those places. One of the problems with rankings like the magazines do, is people just vote for wherever they've been. (obviously) But they might have liked another place better if they'd only been there. If you can localize the sample a bit, then the chances of getting informed opinions goes up.

 

[SkiSpeed]

It might be worthwhile to pursue both the Ranking system you envision and creating a template for reviewing a resort, similar to your ski reviews, so members can do that based on their experiences (I sense cage matches in the future somewhere!).

 

[Tricia]

It might be worthwhile to pursue both the Ranking system you envision and creating a template for reviewing a resort, similar to your ski reviews, so members can do that based on their experiences (I sense cage matches in the future somewhere!).

This is the second time someone has suggested this concept.
I will add, when we talk to industry people, one of the things they like about our reviews is that we talk about who they're for and who they're not for instead of a scale of 1-10

One of the problems with rankings like this

We don't know what a "ranking like this" is just yet.

 

[jmeb]

In general I'm with @Muleski that for the more intensive users of this forum, a way to organize information on resorts that was more systematic than various threads would be of greater value than a "rankings" per se.

But for the potential future visitor, a systematic ranking system that had a clear, explained methodology that was regularly under refinement and incorporated new data would likely be bigger draw. From there they could go into resort specifics.

I don't have much experience in this sort of design ranking systems explicitly, but am happy to help on the analytics and data-viz side.

 

[Tricia]

We have the start of a focus group. Who else wants to step up and be part of it?

 

[SkiSpeed]

when we talk to industry people, one of the things they like about our reviews is that we talk about who they're for and who they're not for instead of a scale of 1-10

I agree; it is a great feature of your approach and very helpful when it comes to distilling the info in the review. On a similar note, I noticed that the reviews on the Ski Essentials site would state what the manufacturer thought the board would do and then the SE folks would ask the question, does it meet their specs or not-lets find out, which was also helpful.

I guess people like to ask questions and get answers too!

 

[fatbob]

I honestly don't think you should get into objective rankings - it sucks the fun out of it. And since Vail sucks we all know which resorts would be at the bottom, a bit like the Yankees. No problem with this type of person would have a good/bad time here.

 

[Tricia]

I honestly don't think you should get into objective rankings - it sucks the fun out of it. And since Vail sucks we all know which resorts would be at the bottom, a bit like the Yankees. No problem with this type of person would have a good/bad time here.

And yet, you spent your holiday at a VR.

 

[AmyPJ]

I was already thinking along the lines of what @Muleski said, so I'm glad he said it. I think I prefer more in-depth "guides" to a ski area, because as others have also said, everyone will rank their fav places that much higher. For me, I'm much more interested in reading about the ins and outs of navigating an area, for instance, and the food, and if the food is different at different lodges on one mountain, etc. Also, snow quality, where to go to avoid the wind...I could go on and on.

 

[Tricia]

I was already thinking along the lines of what @Muleski said, so I'm glad he said it. I think I prefer more in-depth "guides" to a ski area, because as others have also said, everyone will rank their fav places that much higher. For me, I'm much more interested in reading about the ins and outs of navigating an area, for instance, and the food, and if the food is different at different lodges on one mountain, etc. Also, snow quality, where to go to avoid the wind...I could go on and on.

That's what a resort guide is for, more so than a "ranking" or review.