Strava changes - great analysis by DC Rainmaker: "Today, Strava sold its segmented soul."

zzzz wrote:

Je suis Francais wrote:

To your point about cheaters - there's good news about this update. Strava actually rolled out improved algorithms to detect "impossible" performances for a runner based on Strava's assessment of their fitness.

(Just my experience, but) when I look at an anomalously fast performance on a segment, it's mostly someone's GPS glitching, and they skip from one point to another, following the path of a segment by accident. Maybe I just live in an area where obvious cheats have been called out, because I don't see it happening much.

I was wondering where my best effort times went, and that's probably why. Their "impossible" times are not impossible.

Never mind. I clicked on "refresh stats" and they came back (after a months-long absence).

jhlkjhlkjhjlkhkl wrote:

no more training log (aka view your weekly mileage) either

I can still see mine. When does the switch happen?

zxczxcv wrote:

What seems to be missing in Strava, compared to other sites, are system-wide comparisons of weekly and total mileage, as well as pace. Am I just unable to find those things? The only comparisons, aside from segments, which I don't do, that I can see are comparisons within and between clubs. I'd much rather see, say, a top 100 list of weekly mileage for the whole site, and then the pros would come up as well, another bonus.

You wouldn't see any pros in a site wide top 100 leaderboard, just slow ultrarunners logging massive weekly mileage.

kudosmyass wrote:

Je suis Francais wrote:

This is a french phrase. It is written "c'est la vie".

Let's knock out another one while I'm here:

it's "voila", not "walla"

Thanks Frenchie! You have a certain, how do they say ..., Jay Nay Say Qwah.

The French creoles used in the caribbean are spelled phonetically. It's funny how difficult it is to read if you speak French, despite the fact that they're french words spelled how you'd think they "should" be spelled if you didnt know French. Obviously some words just arent French at all, but most of their words are identical sounding to their french counterpart.

Does Strava provide the ability to build a route and follow that with turn by turn navigation like in Google maps? Can some one with paid subscription let me know? I don't mind paying if it has that feature.

Alternatively are there any apps that provide that feature?

Okay, bro... wrote:

The advances they've made here are why I'm so surprised they've made this decision now of all times. In the last year, they've transitioned well into running/cycling-based advertisements through challenges, trophies, clubs, and specialized gear. Although they're not yet profitable, they're bringing more dough than ever.

Despite that, they decided now is the right time to squeeze their userbase.

My bet is that Covid has really crushed ad spending across the board, so they need to replace that revenue.

If indeed Covid forced their hand to make this change, then that could be bad sign about their cash position. I heard VC money was frozen for a month or two, but I wonder if it's loosening up again as the markets have stabilized -- some VC might be able to give them a cash infusion for a good price. On the other hand, their actual operating expenses can't be that high, can they?

I used both Strava and Nike run club, but due to numerous glitches I switched to SportMe Marathon Trainer. I run three times a week and monitoring my progress made me a less anxious and more self confident person. It's amazing what running can do for you!

oldnewbierunner wrote:

Does Strava provide the ability to build a route and follow that with turn by turn navigation like in Google maps? Can some one with paid subscription let me know? I don't mind paying if it has that feature.

Alternatively are there any apps that provide that feature?

Garmin connect has this and if you have a watch with maps you get it in your wrist. They let you do this for free btw.

Sorry, I didn't catch that at first, and acknowledged it in a follow-up post 15 seconds later ;)

WorkingHarder wrote:

If Strava reads this though I will give them a way to guarantee I sign up for a membership, start auto flagging blatant bs CRs.

I still won't sign up for a premium membership, but yes... I've been screaming about this for years. How is it that Strava can't program something that autoflags a segment where someone "ran" a mile+ at sub-3 pace?!

If they are only allowing you to see Top 10, are they also going to use that money to pay somebody to clean up all the cheaters and bikers 'running' in the top 10? I recently saw one with an individual who ran a 3:41 mile pace at 160 steps per minute. That was a bit of a head-scratcher. Out of curiosity, I followed through some of the Top 10 on that route and found at least one instance of a segment record that almost certainly was set in a car because even a professional biker would have struggled to match the pace. So, how hard would it really be for them to have a sanity check on running segments?

Yeah it’s ridiculous. Pretty much all the running KOMs near me are fake - it’s obvious when you look at the time splits or the user profiles.

Strava want users to report these but it’s a waste of our time - it would be much easier if they just built an algorithm that weeded out 90% of the garbage.

I don’t see why I should pay for a service where I’m expected to do the work for them.

Doug Heffernan wrote:

WorkingHarder wrote:

If Strava reads this though I will give them a way to guarantee I sign up for a membership, start auto flagging blatant bs CRs.

I still won't sign up for a premium membership, but yes... I've been screaming about this for years. How is it that Strava can't program something that autoflags a segment where someone "ran" a mile+ at sub-3 pace?!

This has always bothered me. I have had a premium membership for several years and have created around 20 popular segments. I check the leaderboards every few weeks just to see what is going on.

It is astounding the number of times I need to flag a 45 mph "run" because Strava doesn't have an autoflag for grossly unrealistic speeds. This has been a complaint on the Strava forums for YEARS, yet Strava has done nothing to fix it. So Strava has been profiting off the work of its users, even on its hallmark features. And look at "Segment Explore" on Strava. It has been broken for years.

I'm think of nuking all the segments I created. Discussions seem to indicate I am not the only one considering this option.

Stravazzi wrote:

1. Tailored feeds. Not interested in cycles / swims / how many burpees (seriously) people have done. Let me just see running only.

You can do this on the website with the browser extension Elevate (formerly Stravistix). It also provides some other website and data enhancements to Strava.

r2k83 wrote:

Stravazzi wrote:

1. Tailored feeds. Not interested in cycles / swims / how many burpees (seriously) people have done. Let me just see running only.

You can do this on the website with the browser extension Elevate (formerly Stravistix). It also provides some other website and data enhancements to Strava.

You can also do this by not following people who post cycling, swimming, and burpeeing.

my god the running community is so F'ing cheap and wants something for nothing. as someone else said skip the starbucks once a month and pay the fee

Stravazzi wrote:

Runner10287 wrote:

Whines about someone wearing better shoes and beating his CR. I lold.

Me too. I lol'd hard.

As I said, spending hundreds of dollars to run a Strava Segment and beat some dude's time by a couple of seconds years later.

It's hilarious.

You really suggesting someone bought Vaporflys or whatever iteration solely to take a Strava Segment?

It seems like its only grown is users with people discovering the app recently with no races and people using it to show off their accomplishments

People suck wrote:

I've been paying for Strava for 2 or 3 years now. I've been using it for around 3 or 4 years and I realized I was getting a lot for free, so I might as well support them. An annual membership is $60. The extra features haven't been that great, but who the hell cares? Buying annually, it's $5 a month for an excellent platform that most of us use every single day.

Not quite. Many many don't use strava. Only losers who need to think that being a KOM or something need to use strava for their daily ego boost