Letsrun Depresses Me

outta here wrote:

The responses to the Hamilton threads have become something of a last straw.

Mommy playing Russian roulette with murder and disease by whoring with strangers; it's all a big joke or twisted female empowerment to the nihilistic, perverted Letsrun audience.

I'm glad someone around here feels the same.

I'm new here and really appreciate all the great advice and expertise and discussion about training and racing and all that. I just assumed LetsRun was always like this with the racism and misogynism and you just have to wade through that to get to the good stuff. I don't condone it and don't think it's acceptable, but I'm new to this community so I keep my head down. It sounds like things have been changing for the worse and thanks to the OP for pointing that out.

Also, fwiw, the SFH response is just pathetic. From my experience, runners were some of the more conscientious people and I figured the horrible sexism (and self righteousness) was representative of a minority of people here. Not sure if this is the case. My experience has definitely changes my perspective of the running community (for the worse).

Well, bye!

Add me to this list. I've been frequenting for years. At one point I visited this site so much I literally got wrote up at work for the "amount of time perusing running website." Seriously.

The racists and insensitive comments have been on this site for years. Recently, however, they seem to be increasing in frequency, filth, and pervasiveness. The ever-decreasing sense of respect and sensitivity is also becoming nonexistent. I honestly see it as a reflection of where our country's values are headed rather than an isolated event solely evident on LRC. The moderators and owners, I believe, are very focused on cleaning some of this mess up. They take the "report a post function" very seriously and seem to take action quickly and directly when you use that function. They don't take it lightly and neither should you.

There is some good stuff here. Less now than years ago, but still some fairly good stuff. And to be perfectly honest with you newcomers, the best part of this entire site is the search function. I'm willing to bet you can find whatever you are searching for (specifically running or training related) information that could help guide your running.

I truly pray that LRC is not a microcosm to the country in which we live, but I'm afraid my prayer may be too little to late.

Most of the time, I'm able to sift through and ignore the crap, but the SFH thread hit a nerve because it is singling out an individual. An individual who I used to admire and feel bad and sorry for. She obviously has issues which she has admitted to, yet people are justifying her behavior, encouraging it and saying disgusting, degrading things about her and women in general.

So what do runners talk about all day, every day, fartleks and appropriate training pace on a recovery day?

Come on fellas, it's a place where you can get your training and racing threads, and also observe and interact with people on current events, from a runner's perspective. Do you not think runner's should talk about an Olympian's fall from grace? Please. Turn on ESPN and people get paid 6 figures to talk about every aspect of the big 3 sports' athletes lives all day. This isn't a coaching clinic, its Letsrun.

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

outta here wrote:

The responses to the Hamilton threads have become something of a last straw.

Mommy playing Russian roulette with murder and disease by whoring with strangers; it's all a big joke or twisted female empowerment to the nihilistic, perverted Letsrun audience.

I'm glad someone around here feels the same.

TXrunnergirl...you are taking things way too personally.

As for encouraging SFH, damn right, she ought to have the freedom to pursue that itch as it were.

I think if you had traveled outside of this country you'd realize that in so many of them it is no big deal. Just practice safer sex practices, pay your taxes and it is no big deal.

I'd never hire someone doing what she was doing; nor would I sit here and condemn her. She has some things to clean up, and she messed up not guarding her identity...and maybe part of it is depression -- but a part of it may have been just to be sexually free...and pursue that prostitute fantasy...that is more common than you know.

Pretty Woman was a major #1 hit film where few in society batted an eyelash that Julie Roberts was a street level hooker...

As for the clear immature woman hating, stuff that goes on here...totally agree with you.

Just remember that a part of post feminism, feminism, is the full sexual liberation of women. There are professors in the USA making 200k a year writing progressive theory on this stuff...

It's a wide world out there, and unfortunately we don't get to make the rules for everyone.

Yeah, I support her. While her choices wouldn't have been mine, what right do I, or anyone have to condemn her?

In brief -- people tying to control other people and tell them what to do -- never works.

outta here wrote:

I've been watching and occasionally posting for years. Less and less about training appears on the boards.

The responses to the Hamilton threads have become something of a last straw.

Mommy playing Russian roulette with murder and disease by whoring with strangers; it's all a big joke or twisted female empowerment to the nihilistic, perverted Letsrun audience.

I am no better if I continue to visit this site.

Just letting the owners know that there is one freakish customer who is going to a differen store.

I totally agree, I just wish I had anything better to do.

I'm not defending SFH, who is an embarrassment, but it's truly disturbing that so many letsrunners find the story so entertaining,

reality in play wrote:

So what do runners talk about all day, every day, fartleks and appropriate training pace on a recovery day?

Come on fellas, it's a place where you can get your training and racing threads, and also observe and interact with people on current events, from a runner's perspective. Do you not think runner's should talk about an Olympian's fall from grace? Please. Turn on ESPN and people get paid 6 figures to talk about every aspect of the big 3 sports' athletes lives all day. This isn't a coaching clinic, its Letsrun.

This isn't talking with your buddies on a run. It's public.

I'm not talking about an Olympian's fall from grace. That's certainly sad, interesting and newsworthy. I'm talking about the reactions of letsrunners about how much they would pay, the kinds of things they would do, etc. Seriously? What would your wife or girlfriend say? What if your employer heard you saying that in the hallways?

It's not just the SFH threads. There have been a lot of threads that have degraded because the OP identifies herself as a woman. Come on. It's embarrassing. Grow up. This is not a boy's locker room.

If I had to guess, the decline is a result of female runners leaving over time and putting a subtle check on the machisimo. It's obvious there are few female posters here and even more obvious that this is a hostile environment to women. It might be more appropriate to change the name to "LetsRunMenOnly."

+1

Worse yet, look at the front page. That's beyond pathetic, IMO.

I agree that the site should clean itself up.I'm active on various other forums, as I have time, and they mostly keep a strict "stay on topic" policy. Or, one site has different forums for different topics .... Politics separate, etc. But even that is tightly moderated, and we NEVER see the kind of inflammatory, childish cra* that seems so prevalent on LRC.

Simply change the site so that ONLY registered users can post, and not allow users to post under so many names, etc. start removing posts where people call others idiots, etc, and the mood and content will change quickly.

Or don't, and try to shoot for volume over quantity ... The advertisers love that, eh?

Cheers

wtfunny wrote:

Simply change the site so that ONLY registered users can post, and not allow users to post under so many names, etc. start removing posts where people call others idiots, etc, and the mood and content will change quickly.

Cheers

+1

Well, when the owners of this website (one of whom is recently married himself) used the black screen of celebration to highlight the news about Hamilton, well, that pretty much summed up how degenerate this board has become.

Reading letsrun is similar to reading the deranged comments on the bottom of online news articles. You suddenly realize how the internet exposes the deranged, delusional opinions of the masses, most of which would go unexpressed except for a place of anonymity like the internet.

Nappy I'm a longtime runner, but new to this board. The sort of evolution described (racism, insensitivity, less focus on "core" board subjects and more heat than light) seems to happen on many boards-( I've seen it on pilot and numismatic forums, for instance). New blood is key to interesting discussions-otherwise the same old subjects often seem to have been exhaustively covered to many longtime posters.

The community can help by pushing back, appropriately, against the small minds.

And yeah-re SFH, that draws folks here. Just as lance and the usada case took folks to the cycling news forum, various accidents lead folks to flying forums, etc.

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

Most of the time, I'm able to sift through and ignore the crap, but the SFH thread hit a nerve because it is singling out an individual.

Yet you and your jerkwad boyfriend have had no problem singling out and harassing Flagpole, someone who has never doen anything wrong, on this website for years.

Who wants to bet that the original poster will return under another username in a matter of days? This place is very addicting.

By the way, the nihilism, sexism, etc., is not unique to LR and is not unique to the internet. It's way a lot of people in real life actually think, but the only place they can reveal without repercussions is the internet.

reality in play wrote:

So what do runners talk about all day, every day, fartleks and appropriate training pace on a recovery day?

Come on fellas, it's a place where you can get your training and racing threads, and also observe and interact with people on current events, from a runner's perspective. Do you not think runner's should talk about an Olympian's fall from grace? Please. Turn on ESPN and people get paid 6 figures to talk about every aspect of the big 3 sports' athletes lives all day. This isn't a coaching clinic, its Letsrun.

"from a runner's perspective" That's the problem. It seems that a runner's perspective is pretty sick. Racist and rude with no morals, or at least if you're judging them based off this cesspool. I hate runners because of this site.

the rate of autism diagnoses has increased to 1 in 88 in america.

"An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older — about one in four adults — suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year."

Steve Wilson wrote:

By the way, the nihilism, sexism, etc., is not unique to LR and is not unique to the internet. It's way a lot of people in real life actually think, but the only place they can reveal without repercussions is the internet.

Bing bing! We have a winner. This is how MOST people think who have access to an internet and are willing to post in an online forum.

But some people are complete pansies and don't actually put down what their first thoughts are. And how can you dismiss runners as rude and racist? My god, i bet more than half the people that frequent this site are just recreational runners. Which compromises about 75% of the US population. Everybody on Earth uses running as some form of exercise.

In a sense, we are all runners. This isn't high school and collegiate track starts posting racists comments. That's absurd. This is mainly regular people who take running as their primary means of exercise.