Quigley is essentially a supermodel AND a pro runner. Absolutely nobody should feel sorry for her for a little bit of criticism. That's the life of a model and a pro athlete.
No one feels bad for Quigley. They just understand why she wouldn’t want to talk to the toilet of running media (letsrun).
While "pages of personized abuse" may be a bit exaggerated, many women in our sport take a dim view of the LRC message board and, by extension, the journalistic side of Let's Run. Too often, discussions of athletes on this board degenerate into allegations of doping, body shaming, TMZ styled gossip mongering, defining people by their looks, demeaning individuals on their gender, color, political views, etc. Some have simply had enough of the mean spirited and immature takes displayed on this site. I personally know many women athletes that speak very ill of this site. Rest assured, it isn't just Colleen Quigley.
I also agree with you that the forum should be a place for free expression. You are also well aware that your stance on this matter also comes with consequences. People are free to blast athletes on LRC within your moderation guidelines but athletes and other luminaries in the running community are also free to avoid talking to LRC if they feel attacked, hurt, or disrespected by it. Like it or not, the message board reflects on the site as a whole. If you are going to allow caustic and hurtful commentary by the users, then don't be surprised if you, your brother, Gault, Stephanie, and others are denied access. No need to apologize. You have made a business decision and that decision will reap rewards in some areas and cause pain in others. Athletes that avoid speaking to LRC are the same as people that refuse to do business with companies that have sketchy records on product quality, sourcing, wages, and human rights. You have made a choice and they have made a choice.
I’m a woman who has been on LetsRun for 17 years. The message board isn’t any different than a comments section, Twitter or Reddit. It’s moderated as best it can with a limited number of actual humans. I don’t recall anything coming directly from the staff of LetsRun I’d find sexist and if I did, I’d call them out on it.
If you support “ Coleen” or “ Colleen” is neither here nor there . She has shown time and time again she is a better athlete than Emma Coburn. Coburn did talk to LetsRun and blamed her slow time on the wind .
It's not the staff or ownership directly, Stephanie. It's what is permitted to flourish on the message boards. Right or wrong, it is the public face of LRC for many people in our sport.
Think of LRC as a tavern. The owners are running a legit business that serves food and drink to the public - nothing wrong with that. Over time, the tavern becomes a hangout for a violent motorcycle gang that sees it as their turf and intimidates anyone that dares to enter their "clubhouse". Eventually, the local customers stop frequenting the place because they don't want to get into fights, stabbed, or shot by the unruly patrons. They blame the owners for not keeping the place respectable and safe.
It'd be interesting to do a tally. If you think criticism on this forum is only "occasional," including the often vehement and highly personal criticism of female athletes (have you not read the posts about Molly Seidel?), then you are either in significant denial, or aren't really aware of what goes on in the threads.
For Quigley, you can search your own forum for combinations of words like "quigley and horse," and on the thread announcing her signing with lululemon, you will find posts criticizing her "gummy smile" and making direct connections (with links to images) between her looks and a certain hoofed beast.
You will also find full posts saying, "Colleen has, BY FAR, the creepiest teeth in professional running. Wigs me out every time. Distracting, weird and unfortunate teeth. She should get those things fixed with that lululemon money. Peace, love, and orthodontia."
And another: "Since she has all this money though supposedly, she could stop posting all those junk Instagram partnerships for any product under the sun, def fix the teeth situation..."
That is a selection of posts on ONE THREAD about her signing a new endorsement deal, and it took me less than 30 seconds to find. And those are just the physical comments; I didn't even bother with the comments on her personality from people who don't know her personally. You want "page after page"? You can find it if you care; heck, every Seidel post is literally page after page of personalized abuse.
I don't understand why more people don't just click "report post". They do look at it and remove most posts that I report.
There are some posts that are not really abuse, but could probably be taken poorly too, but that's why you don't read about yourself in a forum unless you have tough skin.
Quigley is essentially a supermodel AND a pro runner. Absolutely nobody should feel sorry for her for a little bit of criticism. That's the life of a model and a pro athlete.
No one feels bad for Quigley. They just understand why she wouldn’t want to talk to the toilet of running media (letsrun).
Other pro athletes hate the media too. But in other sports part of their pro contract is that they are REQUIRED to talk to the media.
The 1st thing they teach you in journalism school is that the media's job is to hold the powerful to account. Morons here call Rojo racist for being upset with Athing Mu skipping a meet without providing a reason, but that's actually what journalists do.
If Quigley runs a garbage time, the media's job is to ask why. If there is drama with her and BTC, the media needs to ask why.
From my perspective, a middle-age male (not American), I can say that there is plenty of free speech permitted here. When you allow free speech, and only have a few humans to moderate, you are going to get the spew with the good.
I am with LR on the free speech thing, but would caution those slandering individuals. I am not a lawyer, but I am pretty sure defamation and slander laws includes message boards.
But I am with Rojo to a degree in that while people complain about judgement and objectification there are young women, on "Reels" at Facebook and Instagram, parading around in a way that asks the world to look at them. It's social media, you cannot control if some greasy dude is watching. Not all Prince Charmings are looking on Instagram.....you are going to get judged it is human nature.
On the other hand, I don't know what basement-dwelling little sloped-headed and gormless knuckledragging outcast is referring to Quigley as a horse. She is anything but...
I'm done apologizing for this forum , particularly to people who live on Instagram. Which is worse - allowing sports fans to talk about the sport they love and occasionally criticize pro athletes on a forum - or simply the creation of Instagram? For the last 20+ years, we've heard how the media and model industry has been bad for creating unrealistic expectations for what a women's body should look like. Well, Instagram is the 1985 SI swimsuit issue on steroids. So now the average person goes to the coolest place they've ever been and takes the greatest photo of their life, edits it with a filter and everyone else wants to slit their wrists because they don't look like that and their life isn't like that.
Heck on another thread we have regular user Douglas Burke claiming Hitler isnt all bad, and its still up.
Having said that if Quigley had spoken on video to LR maybe some of the people talking smack about her could get the TRUTH directly from her lips. She missed a golden opportunity.
While "pages of personized abuse" may be a bit exaggerated, many women in our sport take a dim view of the LRC message board and, by extension, the journalistic side of Let's Run. Too often, discussions of athletes on this board degenerate into allegations of doping, body shaming, TMZ styled gossip mongering, defining people by their looks, demeaning individuals on their gender, color, political views, etc. Some have simply had enough of the mean spirited and immature takes displayed on this site. I personally know many women athletes that speak very ill of this site. Rest assured, it isn't just Colleen Quigley.
I also agree with you that the forum should be a place for free expression. You are also well aware that your stance on this matter also comes with consequences. People are free to blast athletes on LRC within your moderation guidelines but athletes and other luminaries in the running community are also free to avoid talking to LRC if they feel attacked, hurt, or disrespected by it. Like it or not, the message board reflects on the site as a whole. If you are going to allow caustic and hurtful commentary by the users, then don't be surprised if you, your brother, Gault, Stephanie, and others are denied access. No need to apologize. You have made a business decision and that decision will reap rewards in some areas and cause pain in others. Athletes that avoid speaking to LRC are the same as people that refuse to do business with companies that have sketchy records on product quality, sourcing, wages, and human rights. You have made a choice and they have made a choice.
I’m a woman who has been on LetsRun for 17 years. The message board isn’t any different than a comments section, Twitter or Reddit. It’s moderated as best it can with a limited number of actual humans. I don’t recall anything coming directly from the staff of LetsRun I’d find sexist and if I did, I’d call them out on it.
I agree. I'm a woman, and Letsrun is one of the few websites I visit every day. There is sometimes sexism on the message boards, but it doesn't bother me all that much. Honestly, I find the morality police on the boards more offensive than the people writing bigoted nonsense.
Heck on another thread we have regular user Douglas Burke claiming Hitler isnt all bad, and its still up.
I didn't see that, but why should that be removed? It reveals something bad about the poster for all to see, and others can judge him for it. Removing the post would just protect him from himself.
Weird isn't it? The only running outlet that provides a platform for page after page of personalised abuse about her, that the site owners could stop in a heartbeat (but don't, because the clicks of maladjusted teenage boys are more valuable to them), and she doesn't want to talk to them?
Can you please show me the page after page of personalized abuse about her? This reminds me of the Leah O'Conner situation where if anything bad was said, it was deleted but maybe not before she read it.
We have a report a post feature and unlike Instagram which she loves we have a phone number where she can call or text us with any complaints.
I'm done apologizing for this forum , particularly to people who live on Instagram. Which is worse - allowing sports fans to talk about the sport they love and occasionally criticize pro athletes on a forum - or simply the creation of Instagram? For the last 20+ years, we've heard how the media and model industry has been bad for creating unrealistic expectations for what a women's body should look like. Well, Instagram is the 1985 SI swimsuit issue on steroids. So now the average person goes to the coolest place they've ever been and takes the greatest photo of their life, edits it with a filter and everyone else wants to slit their wrists because they don't look like that and their life isn't like that.
Rojo - I've been one of your biggest critics with the Shelby/BTC situation.
So you'll know I mean it when I say you're 100% in the right here.
They just can't take criticism. That's all it is.
"Letsrun is a cesspool! They allow anything on there!"
OK, log off, lol.
Letsrun's anonymity and (somewhat) "everything goes" mentality is the reason for its success. It makes it fun and exciting in a world of overly processed and curated media.
"But there are racists and misogynists!"
Log off.
PS. For Quigley, this is all part of her brand. I'll give it to her, she does an excellent job at that. It's all for the brand.
Rojo, I've given up on you guys ever changing, but you have roughly 20 years of evidence (and, yes, I've been on the site 20 years, give or take). Your notions of "free speech on the forum" are laughable. Your powers of self-delusion are awesome. Among other things, the moderation is wildly uneven and still hugely biased to the right-wing politically, which of course represents your personal bent (even though you say you don't like Trump...it goes beyond that). I posted a long and I think well thought-out open letter to the forum a while back with a number of specific suggestions for improvement on the moderation front and saying that I would never pay $$$ for your membership program unless things changed...and of course the thread got deleted. It was a reasoned and totally non-inflammatory post, for the record. Quit trying to defend yourself because you just don't get it.
