** ATHLETICS/RUNNING FEEDBACK THREAD**

Letyourselfgo

AuldManKing wrote: »

(2) Forum Design
* I don't see a real need for sub forums etc BUT if we could have a 'Coaches Corner' sub forum - maybe that would encourage coaches to share ideas.
This could lead to other coaches being more willing to post/share in an area thats outside all the other 'noise'.

Great idea


Knew I had one more, the like button (hypocrite bonus point 3)
hate it.

Now like if you agree

The Muppet

As a relatively newcomer to this forum and running I have to say I have found the forum a very helpful resource for information on everything connected with running.

I post very little as I'm a novice and still have lots to learn myself so would not be in a position to advise others really but i do read it most days.

I have not noticed any major issues with the forum except for "personality clash" others have mentioned. I just stopped reading that thread as it was of no interest to me, I do think there was fault on both sides of that issue.

I have noticed some very good contributors closing their account which is a loss to the community and a shame.

I wouldn't be keen on lots of new rules or sub forums really but if there was a way to categorize topics into novice , intermediate , elite etc it would be useful to help find information relevant to runners at the various stages of their development.

Perhaps its impractical but I feel it would be good if users could references a record of the 5k times as of runners posting logs as they develop .

Can't say I've noticed much mod activity on the forum which is as it should be IMO. I think the overall the forum is a great resource of information and that the mods do a fine job here.

dna_leri

I have not been posting much around here recently but that's been for my own reasons, nothing to do with petty disputes among former posters. There has been a lot of good stuff posted already on this thread so much of what I have to say is not new.

Mods
First - respect to the mods. It’s a tough and thankless job. I couldn't or wouldn't do it. I agree it will help to be direct and open about warnings with a short explanation for the logic - referring to the charter. Mods can decide themselves whether they need more volunteers - it depends on how much time they can each give to the role.

Forum structure
I think the current forum (and sub forum) structure is the best it has been and does not need to change. Coaching (or any other topic) does not need a sub-forum, a dedicated thread would be enough. If the thread can not survive, then there is no need for a sub-forum. In general I think mega-threads are a good idea and work well e.g. random running questions; best 10K workouts etc. A "beginners thread" would be a good idea. Although I recognise it may require more modding to combine threads.

Rant/Rave/Off-topic
I enjoyed both R&R threads when they first started. I stopped reading the Rant thread after a while, too much negativity. I think they have now run their course. To pick up on comments above, I'd suggest a poll on "Should the Rant/Rave/Off-topic threads be merged into one?" Take the majority view.

Recent Issues (Stazza-gate)
I followed the recent issues and am disappointed that it ended up with some experienced posters closing their accounts. Although I actually don't get the "closing my account" thing. If you don't want to post, then don't post, making a "closing my account" statement seems childish to me. I hope some of them come back, I hope some stay away, but either way this forum has been through many changes and controversies (M2M-gate and others) and has survived with new good posters emerging each time.

Banter
This is actually one of the most difficult issues to handle. Banter is part of Irish life (not the insurance company) and where groups of Irish lads gather it is always present, I think less so for women. Banter (aka slagging) can take the form of "good-natured teasing" and in a face-to-face situation (or when you know the person well) you can tell if it is received in the same way it is delivered and retract if there is a danger of it being misconstrued ("sure you know I'm only messing").
On boards that is harder to tell. To complicate it here, you can offend people to whom the slagging is not addressed, or even people who are third hand offended i.e. I may be offended by you calling him "a big girl's blouse", even though you did not address it to me and I am not even a big girl.
The solution, banter should be tolerated within reasonable limits on the main forum (this is Ireland, not North Korea) - more latitude should be given in the training logs as long as the target of the banter is not directly offended or no discriminatory law is broken. This needs to be written in to the charter. Good luck with that ! :rolleyes:


In summary, I think there are very few changes required. The AR forum has a very good community which will survive in the long run. Sometimes a few ups and downs on the road are even a good thing to develop strength. I might even update my old log again one of these days.

Edit: we need more smiley faces

pconn062

AuldManKing wrote: »

(4) Other
* I'd like if we could encourage other coaches to join or partake in some activity. We had the 'poster of the week' (or something like that) - maybe we could encourage a 'guest coach' from a club to take questions for a week.

* The recent posting from the DCM winner mgmt/coaching team was fantastic insight. Be great to hold onto posters like these.

I like this idea, could be very informative. But again I think the posters need to initiate this a little, contact coaches in your own clubs and see if they would be willing. I have a few people I might be able to contact as well.

adrian522

Most of what I had wanted to say has been covered already but no harm in reiterating it I guess.

I don't believe there is a need for wholesale changes. I think the forum is a great resource and I've learnt loads from reading here and posting here.

In fairness I probably would have quit running long ago were it not for the A/R forum here on boards. The advice generously offered has been invaluable to me personally.

I never felt uncomfortable posting on any threads or was ever made to feel unwelcome.

Some of the logs on here are really great and well worth reading from start to finish.

On the recent spats and what not I just think posters need to grow up and just get on with it. You are not going to get on with everyone, but at the same time you can't expect the mods to sort out all the problems either.

I think the mods do a great job, have generally been neutral in all the debates and have avoided handing out bans where possible, they are never going to keep everyone happy but have one admirably so far. You can't really expect the mods to read every post, if there is something post you on't like you should report the post not get into an on thread argument.

I don't get why people feel a need to close their accounts either, if you don't want to post don't, but what benefit does closing your account do? Hopefully some will come back but if they don't I'm sure the forum will continue to grow as there are still loads of great posers on here.

I'm happy enough with the rant and rave threads, they are a bit of fun an shouldn't be taken too seriously. Again if you don't like them, don't read them, none of the threads are mandatory. The only reason to close them I think would be if they are causing too much work for the mods but other than that they should stay.

Sorry for the rambling post.

Chivito550

I think the biggest challenge with the forum is engaging the whole athletics community. I get the feeling the forum doesn't hold much credibility among the better athletes in Ireland, particularly those on the track, and I've heard the term "competitive joggers" mentioned before in reference to the forum. I guess this comes from the fact that most threads are related to the participatory element of the sport, as opposed to the competitive and elite side. Also there really isn't enough discussion about track and field, which, in the end of the day, is the blue-riband discipline of our sport. It would be nice if the forum was a place where everybody involved in the sport could come to discuss all aspects of the sport, but the forum is not appealing to the more elite segment of the athletics community IMO.

Not sure how one would go about changing this though.

Netwerk Errer

Chivito550 wrote: »

I think the biggest challenge with the forum is engaging the whole athletics community. I get the feeling the forum doesn't hold much credibility among the better athletes in Ireland, particularly those on the track, and I've heard the term "competitive joggers" mentioned before in reference to the forum. I guess this comes from the fact that most threads are related to the participatory element of the sport, as opposed to the competitive and elite side. Also there really isn't enough discussion about track and field, which, in the end of the day, is the blue-riband discipline of our sport. It would be nice if the forum was a place where everybody involved in the sport could come to discuss all aspects of the sport, but the forum is not appealing to the more elite segment of the athletics community IMO.

Not sure how one would go about changing this though.

To be fair Chivito. The onus is on the elites to make this a better place for them to discuss their interests. If they don't do it, no-one else can do it for them. I agree that it would be great for this forum to be more inclusive but their view of this forum being full of competitive jogger's and that looking down on other runners attitude doesn't fly either.

If the elites start posting and showing distain for the slower runners, this place would turn into Letsrun. If the opposite happens, this forum would turn into reddit running. Striking a balance would be extremely difficult. IMO, a forum is a community that should accept everyone because at the end of the day, we all love the same thing and are all looking for improvements.

Chivito550

Netwerk Errer wrote: »

To be fair Chivito. The onus is on the elites to make this a better place for them to discuss their interests. If they don't do it, no-one else can do it for them. I agree that it would be great for this forum to be more inclusive but their view of this forum being full of competitive jogger's and that looking down on other runners attitude doesn't fly either.

If the elites start posting and showing distain for the slower runners, this place would turn into Letsrun. If the opposite happens, this forum would turn into reddit running. Striking a balance would be extremely difficult. IMO, a forum is a community that should accept everyone because at the end of the day, we all love the same thing and are all looking for improvements.

Don't disagree with anything there.

pconn062

Guys, thanks for all the responses so far. Going to keep this open for another few days so PLEASE keep it coming!

rom

Personally I do think the full structure of the forum has a lot to do it.
1. The main forum should be events. A naming convention should be used to give info about events

e.g. [Dublin|Marathon|27th Oct] Dublin Marathon
Then people could search for distance by thread title

[County name
|Distance|
Month]

I don't know why this forum can't be an advertising center for events in Ireland. If something like this happened then I would hope only events that that are AAI registered are added. Then there could be a template for the first post similar to http://corkrunning.blogspot.ie/ with cost, location, time, mapmyrun route, elevation profile etc. Possibly this could be a single stop shop for all races if the thread could be filtered by county or month or distance.

2. The forum is like facebook for many people (me included at times). There should be a sub forum called "chat" or something similar that contains threads like rant/rave, off topic or other threads that have no possible benefit to running community but have a place. They should not be on the front page to the forum. Looking at http://www.fetcheveryone.com/forum.php they have a chat forum

3. I joined this forum as a novice for DCM and I glued to the novice thread as it really helped me. Since then I have got help by members in training etc. but what happens after graduates finish? There is no natural progression.

4. Connected to point 3 is there really a benefit of the countless logs for people who all have similar goals. There is way too much noise and very little signal. I have started a training log a few times but given up. However if there was a training log similar to the novice thread with people following a plan with we all seeking a similar goal. Where is the P&D 55-70 autumn marathon thread or similar. Much of the benefit for the novice thread is from the other posters and not the person mentoring the thread. If 5-10 people are all following a plan to a marathon in the spring or autumn then they can bounce ideas off each other and learn for each other.

5. Who knows an elite may offer help on one of the faster threads.

6. I know people may say this is very marathon/distance centric but it is what the majority of what this forum caters for.

Just some ideas.

menoscemo

rom wrote: »

3. I joined this forum as a novice for DCM and I glued to the novice thread as it really helped me. Since then I have got help by members in training etc. but what happens after graduates finish? There is no natural progression.

There has been a mentored graduates thread for the last 3/4 years.
Here is this years version

rom wrote: »

4. Connected to point 3 is there really a benefit of the countless logs for people who all have similar goals. There is way too much noise and very little signal. I have started a training log a few times but given up. However if there was a training log similar to the novice thread with people following a plan with we all seeking a similar goal. Where is the P&D 55-70 autumn marathon thread or similar. Much of the benefit for the novice thread is from the other posters and not the person mentoring the thread. If 5-10 people are all following a plan to a marathon in the spring or autumn then they can bounce ideas off each other and learn for each other.

Something like this?

Ososlo

rom wrote: »

3. I joined this forum as a novice for DCM and I glued to the novice thread as it really helped me. Since then I have got help by members in training etc. but what happens after graduates finish? There is no natural progression.

Maybe you haven't seen it but we have a new thread and a new proper coach for the 2014 Graduates with a programme for progression for all.

Ososlo

menoscemo wrote: »

There has been a mentored graduates thread for the last 3/4 years.
Here is this years version

snap!

Murph_D

Yep, the graduate threads are great - I found it hugely beneficial last year. For one, it tends to be a smaller, more focused group than the novice group as quite a few people naturally fall away. Plus everyone has a marathon under the belt and is therefore a good bit wiser (or at least a bit less paranoid!)

RayCun

just on the point of events - a few years back Woddle posted a list of guidelines for creating Events threads, still stickied here Thread title should include distance and date, there should be a poll, a link to the race website, etc, etc, etc

few people do it, and the mods don't have time to go adding all this detail to every event thread. So I don't think a different set of rules would be any more successful.

Would post tagging be useful?

rom

I suppose I would rather see sub 3 and sub 2:50 etc mentored threads. (didn't want to sound too elitist)
The graduate thread should have a clear focus and generally falls apart. I was part of one a few years back also. I suppose a graduate thread from DCM should have a goal of a spring marathon so there is a clear direction.

pconn062

rom wrote: »

Personally I do think the full structure of the forum has a lot to do it.
1. The main forum should be events. A naming convention should be used to give info about events

e.g. [Dublin|Marathon|27th Oct] Dublin Marathon
Then people could search for distance by thread title

[County name
|Distance|
Month]

I think that's a good idea, I didn't know Woddle set up a convention a few years ago, will have a look at that and try to enforce it a little more.

2. The forum is like facebook for many people (me included at times). There should be a sub forum called "chat" or something similar that contains threads like rant/rave, off topic or other threads that have no possible benefit to running community but have a place. They should not be on the front page to the forum. Looking at http://www.fetcheveryone.com/forum.php they have a chat forum

Maybe a single thread for all chat would be OK rather than setting up a whole new sub-forum? We already have a lot of sub-forums compared to others one here.

3. I joined this forum as a novice for DCM and I glued to the novice thread as it really helped me. Since then I have got help by members in training etc. but what happens after graduates finish? There is no natural progression.

I think the Graduate thread this year looks really good and Clearlier is on board, who really knows his stuff.

4. Connected to point 3 is there really a benefit of the countless logs for people who all have similar goals. There is way too much noise and very little signal. I have started a training log a few times but given up. However if there was a training log similar to the novice thread with people following a plan with we all seeking a similar goal. Where is the P&D 55-70 autumn marathon thread or similar. Much of the benefit for the novice thread is from the other posters and not the person mentoring the thread. If 5-10 people are all following a plan to a marathon in the spring or autumn then they can bounce ideas off each other and learn for each other.

I think people really enjoy having their own individual training logs but the idea of a few more specialised logs for people following a certain plan or distance would be a good idea. Although these do kind of exist already with the sub 3 thread, sub 2.50 thread, the middle distance thread etc.

5. Who knows an elite may offer help on one of the faster threads.

6. I know people may say this is very marathon/distance centric but it is what the majority of what this forum caters for.

Just some ideas.

Thanks for the feedback!

rom

I am not saying to stop training logs but there could be more group ones that focus on training for the more experience people. Personally I would rather part take in a group one. Things like the 1000 mile challenge, 10 in 10, weight loss etc have proven popular in the past. I think a similar thing could be done in respect to people seeking a similar goal race such as with spring marathon season or if someone else has a better idea.

Setup a store where people can buy one off boards branded stuff. Yes it will be more expensive but some non club members like to be identifiable at races etc. Also they can buy it whenever they want also.

RayCun

rom wrote: »

Setup a store where people can buy one off boards branded stuff. Yes it will be more expensive but some non club members like to be identifiable at races etc. Also they can buy it whenever they want also.

This crowd will set up an online store for you with the designs you want. Price will depend on order quantity, but you can set it up so that production only starts when orders hit a certain level, or only happens once or twice a year. So people would put in their order and it would wait for a while, then eventually a batch is produced and their order is sent out.
Much easier than taking orders and money yourself and then doing the distribution.

BUT
agreeing designs can be a pain in the arse
boards.ie have to approve any use of their name and logo

Beasty

FYI, the last couple of Boards cycling gear orders have been done via the Boards office. I would suggest someone has a word with Dav (who as already mentioned has to approve any design anyway) to see if he can help in streamlining the process if you are looking to arrange an order

Beasty

Just on the idea of a "chat" sub-forum, I really cannot see this getting off the ground (particularly with the Admins) as the whole idea with the forum in the first place is to discuss the underlying topic in a way that is beneficial to the underlying community. Other forums have got round this usually with a single off-topic/chat thread

pconn062

Ok guys, going to wind this down now, if you have any more comments get them in or forever hold your piece! Going to close it at some stage tomorrow evening and then we will discuss the issues raised and start to implement some of the changes!

pconn062

...and 3, 2, 1, done!

Thanks to everyone who posted feedback, we are going to take this all and discuss it now and see what we can do with it. Will take a few days and then we will get back to you all.

Thanks again.