flotrack is crap
flotrack is crap
Yikes. wrote:
flotrack is crap
Did you really need to start another thread on this?
American quality?
I work for a race timing company and we cross paths with flotrack sometimes. We make it crystal clear that we are not there to assist the "fan-based media" and to pretty much need to stay away from the timing area at all times. Dorky and unnecessary as a group but not always bad people individually.
Flotrack is poison to the sport. They have completely redefined pure suckage.
flocrap is poison wrote:
Flotrack is poison to the sport. They have completely redefined pure suckage.
? To me that would be LetsRun. A below average web site with a way-rightwing forum run by a couple self-important guys.
tacomafan wrote:
? To me that would be LetsRun. A below average web site with a way-rightwing forum run by a couple self-important guys.
Please share with us a better free running forum out there!
My Thoughts: I am not a fan of Flotrack or Milesplit and am very outspoken against them. That said their strategy is likely working somewhat well for them. I do believe it should be free you can watch the national titles for pretty much all other sports for free OR included in regular cable/satellite/streaming services. I don't have to pay extra to watch the Football national championship and while our sport is not the same as football I also don't have to pay extra to watch other 2nd tier sports either. BUT if it can't be free I like several have mentioned on the boards think it might actually be smarter business and way less public backlash if there was a daily or pay per view rate. Some would gladly spend $10 to watch NCAA XC and I feel you'd make up the cost difference with way more viewers.
The main reason I don't feel you should have to pay for FloTrack is because I do not think they produce a high quality production. If I'm going to subscribe or pay I want 2 things: 1. The absolute best production possible(*) and 2. No advertisements ever being played over a race, put all the ads you want on the side but not over a race where I could pay and then miss something important.
*It's Cross Country, it's a weird sport to do a live production of. Today obviously there was weather complications and they have been getting better but it sounded like it still wasn't great. They could attempt to do better though, fly a drone, more cameras, better technology.
loveys33 wrote:
tacomafan wrote:
? To me that would be LetsRun. A below average web site with a way-rightwing forum run by a couple self-important guys.
Please share with us a better free running forum out there!
/r/running
/r/advancedrunning
Hubris.
They don't really add anything to the coversation to me. Their content is pretty flat and empty, I stopped going to that site a year or two ago.
It's funny how "amateur" this site is but they give great insight and thought-provoking analytics.
Some people approach a business as something that should exist only if there is a need for it in the community. Flotrack took the opposite approach and forced themselves into existing, which creates problems, like they now need to figure out how to be profitable. So they highjack previously accessible content and stamp a price on it. I don't personally care about the defense that it's a product so I should buy it. The NCAA provided this service elsewhere so let them do it here. The state high school system where I live even does it.
As far as Flotrack helping to grow the sport- bs. Making your sport as easily accessible as possible grows it, not making it exclusive. The passive or fringe fan is boxed out of ever being invited into your larger market because of the paywall.
There were 800+ people watching the pirated womans race this morning and it wasn't advertised. Think about what that means.
Flotrack- I don't care if you keep your jobs.
If you anyone think Flotrack is crap, then just please give us a better product! Otherwise, just politely give them recommendations to make their product better. If you can't, then STFU, but you are just a whiner who can't do better than they do, yet complain that it is not good enough.
Well, if you can give me a better product, then I'll send you money. Until then, you just sound like a whiner. Where is your product? And are you going to give it to me for free?
I will cancel my Flo subscription if someone, or some firm, can consistently give me a better XC/track product at a better price. Please let me know when it is available. Thanks!
"while our sport is not the same as football..."
No kidding. And, if you stop and think about that and are even half-way clever, you might get some insight into why the race is behind a premium pay wall.
worthless cartman wrote:
"while our sport is not the same as football..."
No kidding. And, if you stop and think about that and are even half-way clever, you might get some insight into why the race is behind a premium pay wall.
Yeah and when you only take that part of my post and ignore all the parts where I talk about other 2nd tier sports that are free and easy to access...
Stop saying "Put your money where your mouth is" or "Do it better". We can't! They purchased the rights and have full control and do a worse job than when it was free. That is why people are mad.
Ok you say offer some nice suggestions to improve their product, here you go:
1. If we pay for it don't put ads in it. Pretty simple.
2. Improve quality by:
a. Need to setup a wired or wireless LAN across the entire course. Depending on course this could be by running Cat6 cable or using the best Ubiquiti equipment available. Might need to use some lifts if going wireless to have line of sight.
b. With that done can have tons of cameras out there to always have good shots.
c. Using Ubiquiti as main option and then straight to internet(or super expensive wireless solutions) make your lead cart setup the best it can possibly be.
d. Fly a drone.
e. Have 2 independent options for your own internet so that the quality being sent out is high.
3. Improve commentary. I do think they do ok here but sometimes they focus on the same tired storylines. They aren't the only sports media that does this though.
4. And as I said above I would not complain if there was a daily or pay per view option. I would use it for big meets and championships and might very well spend more than $30 a year doing so, but I will never be ok with doing a subscription.
All of these technical things could be done for around $20k of equipment investment. A company specializing in Track/XC should have this equipment and know how and be familiar enough with the sport to come up with the best solution to present it but they repeatedly do not.
CoachHammel wrote:
Stop saying "Put your money where your mouth is" or "Do it better". We can't! They purchased the rights and have full control and do a worse job than when it was free. That is why people are mad.
Ok you say offer some nice suggestions to improve their product, here you go:
1. If we pay for it don't put ads in it. Pretty simple.
2. Improve quality by:
a. Need to setup a wired or wireless LAN across the entire course. Depending on course this could be by running Cat6 cable or using the best Ubiquiti equipment available. Might need to use some lifts if going wireless to have line of sight.
b. With that done can have tons of cameras out there to always have good shots.
c. Using Ubiquiti as main option and then straight to internet(or super expensive wireless solutions) make your lead cart setup the best it can possibly be.
d. Fly a drone.
e. Have 2 independent options for your own internet so that the quality being sent out is high.
3. Improve commentary. I do think they do ok here but sometimes they focus on the same tired storylines. They aren't the only sports media that does this though.
4. And as I said above I would not complain if there was a daily or pay per view option. I would use it for big meets and championships and might very well spend more than $30 a year doing so, but I will never be ok with doing a subscription.
All of these technical things could be done for around $20k of equipment investment. A company specializing in Track/XC should have this equipment and know how and be familiar enough with the sport to come up with the best solution to present it but they repeatedly do not.
That's what I call a very good post with great suggestions. I would have to assume those guys read these forums, so there's no excuse to not try to improve things as this poster clearly laid out.
they didn't invent the product, they tried to invent the need.
the old free NCAA feed was totally fine compared to Flotrack, current fans getting no value added for the $150! a year price.
you're telling me an organization with millions of students can't find some Media/Broadcasting grad students to provide free coverage, and a couple former NCAA champs to provide commentary?
Would it be worse? probably a little. But overall it would be much better since we would actually see it and have thousands of people discussing online it while watching it live.
But the Flo track bar is pretty low, especially for the price. Just removing the Bro-Jokesy attempts at humor would be a huge step up.
hence, they are going bust, soon
It seems like from 1997 to 2010 we saw a technlogy race between various passion fueled websites. We went from track & field news to Dyestat, letsrun, mensracing, trackshark and finally flotrack. Then we saw some sites die off due to finances while other sites acquired each other to beef up the status quo. Then 2012 to now everyone and their brother including the local newspapers throw a paywall in your face for what most understand as "only results". Then there is the fact that 90% of what is behind the milesplit pay walls isnt even complete information raising our skepticism.
I do see the other side, however. Many people (especially here) are totally unaware of how to operate profitable businesses and are also ignorant on how things magically appear on a web screen when it is done right. It takes time, equipment, money and skilled labor that clearly possesses too steep of a barrier to entry into understanding for the common person here. Plus this "community" hands out misgivings to just about everyone who tries from race director to photographer to webmaster or site head. Letsrun is notorious for spinning rumors out of control and host to daily vindictive flogging of others.
The result is we are now in a niche market of inferior web services who cant turn a profit because its target market feels entitled to accessing the human effort required to put things on the screen for free. Total self-defeating cycle due to both sides umbeing untrusting of the other and the sad part about the trash talking that ends up here is most posters arent prospective customers for much of anything. If there were suddenly pay per view options we'd be chasing down twitch feeds every hour of the day. Most of the complaining parties have a much bigger problem -- their running obsession is the reason they are broke and cant afford the $150 to see the content. If you and your college buddies want flotrack that badly go out and shovel some snow or become movers for a day as that ought to take care of the problem. One day per year that is it.