This website has been good for narratives by Gault and the Brojos but the message boards has become a petri dish for everything that hides in the daylight. It's all fun and games when it comes to flexing on Turkey Trots but most of these threads take things too far.
Leah O'Conner posted about this on Instagram, something that an athlete should never have to do:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B4yMCMEF0FI/?igshid=1xjoqbbpd0t5b
How can we wring our hands at the IAAF for changes in the Diamond League if we can't support our athletes even at the most basic level?
Editor's note: Our response to this is simple. Leah is right that no one should have to read someone belittling them for their looks. We are sorry that she had to read it.
The reality is it's very hard to moderate nearly 10 million messageboard posts.
Unlike facebook and twitter, however, we provide a phone number -844-537-7786 - that you can call to reach a real person if you have a problem with a post. We also have a "report post" feature that automatically deletes posts if they are reported enough. The reality is the posts she is complaining about were all deleted.
We're always striving to do better on the moderation front and are looking into having the software automatically require registration when posting about a high school athlete and have recently required that in several HS threads we have seen.
That being said, we don't believe in pre-screening speech. We believe in free speech and also anonymity on the internet. If you don't allow that, then you basically have become China where you aren't free and only approved speech is accepted.
We are requiring registration for this thread from now on.
Leah O'Connor is right
Report Thread
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Any idea who she is ?
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The profit wrote:
Any idea who she is ?
Yo moma -
Can we get a hot take from a moderator?
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She’s right in that there are some wildly inappropriate things said in these message boards and it needs to stop. But she also needs to chill. You can’t ban people’s free speech. Especially if it’s just based on whether people think you’re attractive or not. Who cares. I wish that behavior would stop, but I don’t think it’s worth banning the website as a whole. It’s probably one of the best/most comprehensive running sites there is as a whole, and I honestly would not have been half the runner I was/am without much of the information I’ve gained from this site, and I’ll be forever thankful for that. So while she’s partly right, I believe her ‘boycott’ plan is a little much. But things do need to change.
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Wish I'd seen this post before I just started a thread talking about this post. I was shocked at how negatively Letsrun was perceived by other pros and people in the comments. I know there's a lot of anonymous garbage but I've always found it easy to sift through and get to the actual discussions of training, pro racing, etc. Maybe I'm being naive but my thread was meant as a place to discuss the general view of the site based on Leah's post.
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I think this is trap that is too easy to fall into. Moderators regulating posts on a privately held for-profit website is not stifling free speech.
This is more about a culture change than an argument about whether or not someone is free from government persecution to speak their mind. -
Wow, what happened to Leah O'Connor? She was a stud, in the field of Quigley and Freirichs... did she just have a bad coach post-college? Bad group? Didn't evolve her training? tapped out her speed?
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Social-media disease
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The boards are a net positive for the sport. I don’t think boycotting them is the answer, but we should probably check our misogyny at the door with regards to this stuff.
It’s also a super easy target. Anyone who has ever heard of Letsrun acknowledges the depravity of it all. No one who is not aware really cares. -
Who Is Leah O’Connor?
Does she run? 🤷♂️ -
Leah seems like a massively talented athlete with no ability to translate that potential to the pro level. She clearly proved she can race well at MSU but really only had a handful of decent results as a pro.
I would guess her problems are as much mental as physical. Watching her at the trials in 2016 she cratered, finished next to DFL and then claimed she had suffered some major injury that didn’t match her late race fade and ability to keep slowly running.
After 2016 she pretty much disappeared or has had long stretches where she can’t even make it to the line. She’s still good for the periodic ‘I’m a victim’ blog or post like this current one aimed at letsrun.
Maybe too much expectation and pressure. She must have had a healthy Adidas contract that’s probably gone now. Maybe that will motivate her to make a big comeback. -
Because women totally don't comment on male physical appearances. Yeah. You don't see that anywhere. It's totally limited to LetsRun and Leah O'Connor...
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Next thing you know Centro's going to go crying about how letsrun thinks his gold medal was a fluke and that his quads are too big. Oh, wait he doesn't care.
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Ok Guy wrote:
Can we get a hot take from a moderator?
Our response to this is simple. Leah is right that no one should have to read someone belittling them for their looks. We are sorry that she had to read it.
The reality is it's very hard to moderate nearly 10 million messageboard posts.
Unlike facebook and twitter, however, we provide a phone number that you can call to reach a real person if you have a problem with a post. We also have a "report post" feature that automatically deletes posts if they are reported enough. The reality is the posts she is complaining about were all deleted.
We're always striving to do better on the moderation front and are looking into having the software automatically require registration when posting about a high school athlete and have recently required that in several HS threads we have seen.
That being said, we don't believe in pre-screening speech. We believe in free speech and also anonymity on the internet. If you don't allow that, then you basically have become China where you aren't free and only approved speech is accepted.
We are requiring registration for this thread from now on. -
wtf she removed my comment. Imagine not being able to handle anonymous people talking shitt online.
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Wait, if the posts she's complaining about are deleted, then that means shes had those comments screenshotted and saved for 4 WHOLE YEARS. No wonder she couldn't move on.
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LetsRun.com wrote:
Ok Guy wrote:
Can we get a hot take from a moderator?
Our response to this is simple. Leah is right that no one should have to read someone belittling them for their looks. We are sorry that she had to read it.
The reality is it's very hard to moderate nearly 10 million messageboard posts.
Unlike facebook and twitter, however, we provide a phone number that you can call to reach a real person if you have a problem with a post. We also have a "report post" feature that automatically deletes posts if they are reported enough. The reality is the posts she is complaining about were all deleted.
We're always striving to do better on the moderation front and are looking into having the software automatically require registration when posting about a high school athlete and have recently required that in several HS threads we have seen.
That being said, we don't believe in pre-screening speech. We believe in free speech and also anonymity on the internet. If you don't allow that, then you basically have become China where you aren't free and only approved speech is accepted.
We are requiring registration for this thread from now on.
Because the only two options are this toxic cesspool or becoming China? And isn’t the act of requiring registration on this thread, criticizing LetsRun, when far more toxic threads haven’t required registration the MOST CHINA MOVE EVER? No masks, protesters. Show your face before you criticize the State!
Rojo, you’re killing the site. I hope Wejo and Gault can move you to a more sensible position on this. -
Eyeroll wrote:
Because the only two options are this toxic cesspool or becoming China? And isn’t the act of requiring registration on this thread, criticizing LetsRun, when far more toxic threads haven’t required registration the MOST CHINA MOVE EVER? No masks, protesters. Show your face before you criticize the State!
Rojo, you’re killing the site. I hope Wejo and Gault can move you to a more sensible position on this.
We required registration on this thread as people were making comments about Leah's appearance. It's 9:30 at night and most of the staff is off so it's not easy to moderate late at night for that reason.
We think running fans deserve to have a place to share their opinions. This is our sports version of sports radio. Yes there are negatives to letting fans have a voice but there are also positives, including this one:
https://ibb.co/5R8ywWZ
I prefer to focus on the positive. In the end, I think the positive of free speech outweigh the negatives, particularly when unlike facebook and twitter, we provide you a phone number to call.
If you have ideas as to how to better moderate, let us know. I think one thing we could do is email the USTFCCCA - the coaches association - and all the agents and just let them all know what are phone number is if they have a problem. Those that call - their needs are met. But many may not realize how to contact us. However, in this case, the thread was deleted and hence someone had to send her a screenshot of it as it no longer exists.
Personally, I think the tone of messageboard may actually be better now than it was when we started (anyone remember when there used to hot or not threads) as the moderating tools are better but society is much more divided and society's tolerance for speech they don't like has drastically been reduced.
https://www.letsrun.com/news/2015/02/2014-letsrun-com-awards-choices-finally-revealed-athlete-year-race-year/ -
Ok Guy wrote:
Can we get a hot take from a moderator?
If Leah is reading, I've always been against the crap that you speak of. Report the the offensive posts/threads. I've got a sledgehammer.
