runners world says letsrun is a joke

your legs wrote:

The article's author was completely truthful. That just doesn't jive well here.

Really? I am the only one that is going to call this guy out for this?

Jive? Do you speak Jive?

I think you meant jibe.

Let's be honest- Running Times is significantly better than runners world.

Only Reason I Come Here wrote:

Running Times has Jason Karp.

That's not really fair to Running Times. He writes maybe one article a year for them, which means that in any given 36-month period they've only allowed him three pieces too many.

Barking Spider wrote:

The smart people who frequent the place are at their worst in this environment; it's as if the site is the Internet counterpart to the corner of the ballroom where dignified ladies go to let a few stinkyfarts out before returning to haute couture behavior.

Too true. I've perfected the art of minimizing the browser the moment someone walks into my office. What would they think of me?

Its a well written article , sets the facts straight on the highly assumptive letsrun boards.

German looks to maybe having a great year coming up.

Elitist wrote:

your legs wrote:

The article's author was completely truthful. That just doesn't jive well here.

Really? I am the only one that is going to call this guy out for this?

Jive? Do you speak Jive?

I think you meant jibe.

I'll call you out then. As a slang-ridden word "Jive" carries a definite connotation associated lying, deception, and foolishness. The poster's clearly citing the truthfulness of McCue to imply that LetsRun.com is nothing more than jive talk. Point made, extraordinarily.

We shall assume you are an Elitist with a second rate education.

Randy Oldman wrote:

Same sentiment in this month's RT about complete crap on here negatively impacting a runner's morale.

If this is true, then someone or something has a problem and it's not the Internet, it's the runners purportedly affected. Anyone who lets the random, anonymous chatter of others get them down is ultimately going to fail anyway.

The Internet is only the latest modality for people to take shots at top athletes. In other sports, the print and broadcast media have been regularly ripping jocks for many decades. Because runners historically haven't gotten much attention from mainstream journalists, they aren't used to being under a gun with an especially wide barrel.

For every Letsrun, there are a dozen unmoderated or MLB or NFL fan sites with posters far more merciless than those here. In addition, those athletes perform in front of at least 50,000 people every time out. If this board -- or fandom in general -- has the ability to influence runners' performance, it's a commentary on the amount of exposure distance running gets, not a sign of a uniquely pernicious fan base. (I'm not saying that elite athletes are emotionless drones who aren't stung by what's posted here. The idea, however, that it hurts the sports is either a touch sensationalistic or naive or both.)

this message board is a joke. way too many trollers and losers

The front page is fun with results, and decent commentary with fun pokes at certains things.

\"German will do what he\'s done in the past: run for the team and finish in the top 12 or so at the Nov. 21 NCAA championships, and inevitably some 24-minute 5K’er sitting in his parents’ basement in Iowa will opine that German \"doesn\'t have it\" anymore and a rush of message board posters will chime in and agree.\".......Yep. 



And they are wrong because...?

I've been posting on here since the very beginning, and I've been saying the same thing for the last 2 years.

BRG/253 wrote:

I've been here for 10 years and I must say, as much of a joke as RW is, their assessment of this site is spot-on. Nowadays, I come here only to get news about the sport. Everything else about letsrun has gone to hell.

I've been here since early on and i have to agree. I'm too lazy to find/start an alternatve, but anything useful is pretty few and far between.

Well I've never posted before even though I've been reading these boards for four, five years now. But I feel the need to defend this place. There is a need to distinguish between LRC (fantastic, up-to-date news, mixed with bad tabloid-type headlines) and LRC forums. So, in defense of LRC Forums:

1. As mentioned by many others, the boards are great because of the coaches/elites posting here. I will concede that they are disappearing, but it's still the only avenue in this sport to actually speak to someone on the inside. Besides, can you really think of another sport where elites/coaches post on a forum to fans? That's the magic of letsrun.

2. It's astonishing that the author holds an internet forum to the same journalistic standards as he adheres to. Firstly, posters are not being paid to do this, they don't have to cite references, compile a bibliography. Secondly, there are no rules here, and no one is claiming the information in these threads as fact. Thirdly, internet anonymity has been proven to encourage negativity. Finally, as others have pointed out: no one is forcing you to read this forum.

3. As mentioned by Wejo, many other sports have the same problem. I don't understand how track and field can struggle for publicity, and still sit on their high horse. THESE are the true fans of running. I willing to bet they can tell you off-hand Ritz's 5Km PR. How many Americans even know who Ritz is? Yes they are negative at times. But you are being naive if you want the sport to get more fan support, but only want fans that will be positive.

To sum it up, this forum is far from perfect, but in our attention starved sport, face it - this is as good as it gets. Should it aspire to be a positive force? Maybe - but that is putting too much hope in human nature. In the end of the day, this is just a forum. Take it for what it is.

I would appreciate a reply from Mr McCue, especially since he has revealed himself to be reading these forums. As a proper writer, it's not fair to just disappear from the argument you started (Btw, I bought a copy of your book - glad that you managed to become a writer in the end).

Honestly has anyone any kind of Football message board. The stuff on here is TAME.

A bit of LetsReflect.com here. LetsRun.com is simply an aggregator of running related news. The Jos throw some editorial work into the mix, but for the most part their site is fueled by all the Matt McCues of the eWorld...or iWorld depending on your OS. As far as evolution goes, there hasn't been any. This site is arguably the most archaic site online, given their length of stay and volume of action (hits). In a commercial world, this is not a successful venture. In truth, LetsRun.com's failure to improve and capitalize on the market that "they" essentially formed led to other sites offering variety and actually owned media content. The hard work promoting LetsRun.com came and went in a very short window--remember the guy who ran some races wearing an http on a singlet? What was his off-track competition? Menracing.com/FastWomen.com from NYRR? Their interviews and race photos were the best of the time. But Wejo's business background and a passion/niche yielded this site, and a decade later it is the same as it started. As a designer, I will never respect that. What was it 4/5 years ago a few of us started a thread and posted a bunch of new logos to replace the MS Paint sacrilege that this site holds to? And it is not an icon, Wejo. Google realized the importance of evolving and changing, hence their daily logo approach that mirrors their business model of expanse and world domination.

But...for all that. Fits of uncontrollable laughter, coffee spurting out my nose, and seriously "off" looks from others not reading what I am reading...well, that's where LetsRun.com is sublime. It was a cult following that eventuated to a culture and I've been here from the beginning.

LetsRun/LetsJoke/LetsJive/LetsRant.com.

Letsrun Forever wrote:Honestly has anyone any kind of Football message board. The stuff on here is TAME.

Who cares how insulting certain threads are? Doesn't make it any less horrendous to read.

I'm surprised that more people aren't interested in raising the standard of posting. Stricter moderation and forced registration would really improve the forum and benefit the community imo.

To the sarcastic 'bravo for setting the example' - i'm not registered because i generally don't post here and there is no benefit to registering unless it is enforced for everyone anyway.