Strava changes

magicbastarder

i think what sometimes happens, especially on the southside, is that lads head up to the mountains on their fancy all-terrain BMX thingys, get back to the car, strap them on, and drive home, having forgotten to stop the GPS.

daragh_

Daroxtar wrote: »

Haha, that's gas, the top 5 and majority of the top 10 are dodgy or the area is full of world class athletes!!

Top 2 are total BS but I know a good few of the riders in the top 20 (as that road is close to me) and those times are fairly accurate.

CramCycle

magicbastarder wrote: »

i think what sometimes happens, especially on the southside, is that lads head up to the mountains on their fancy all-terrain BMX thingys, get back to the car, strap them on, and drive home, having forgotten to stop the GPS.

We should probably set up a sub forum for them :pac:

I just think its funny that they get reported and then nothing happens, rider says its grand, job done.

ED E

Which poster set a load of KOMs in the back of an ambo? Probably a few have but I think it was a mod (not necessarily a cycling mod).

Edit: Was Beasty

"Maybe he was trying to take some of RobFowl's KOMs down the M1. Not sure he would get one down that stretch though, as I had the Garmin in the ambulance when being transported to the Beaumont in that direction after my crash 5 years ago..."

magicbastarder

CramCycle wrote: »

I just think its funny that they get reported and then nothing happens, rider says its grand, job done.

that's the problem, how are they to tell from an office in san fran or wherever, that a ride is bogus? they're going to get some wrong no matter what, whether too strict or too lenient, or more likely both.
which is why i reckon my idea of the user choosing to hide riders could work, it solves the immediate issue for the user without much work for strava.

that said, i can see spats developing over who is the 'true' KOM, if i look like i have one in my view, and you see you have it in your view. but that's possibly less of an issue than what we see today.

CramCycle

magicbastarder wrote: »

that's the problem, how are they to tell from an office in san fran or wherever, that a ride is bogus? they're going to get some wrong no matter what, whether too strict or too lenient, or more likely both.
which is why i reckon my idea of the user choosing to hide riders could work, it solves the immediate issue for the user without much work for strava.

that said, i can see spats developing over who is the 'true' KOM, if i look like i have one in my view, and you see you have it in your view. but that's possibly less of an issue than what we see today.

This is why a local rep makes sense, I imagine you'd have people happy to do it for their area, same as you have on lots of social media sites. The system is automated, so no one in an office looks at it. You report it, it is taken off the leader board. The rider can then edit it, delete it or tick a box and say its OK, and then it is resolved and if reported again, you get a "this has been resolved" message. There is no work for Strava at the minute. Not all fakes are easy to see, I missed one of mine after I was picked up by my partner and left it turned on, took me awhile to realise what had happened as I hadn't uploaded it for a week but traffic was so busy that it wasn't unbelievable. It wsa when I looked at my HR I seen the issue.

Someone who can barely break 20kmph suddenly spiking 80kmph between lights (in a 50kmph zone by the way) is easy to see, or tipping along the M50 etc.

CramCycle

This said if your drafting someone and you have no HR monitor on, the estimated power thing is hilarious. I apparently done north of 1000watts for 500m this morning, whereas I was just going downhill with a tailwind.

buffalo

magicbastarder wrote: »

that's the problem, how are they to tell from an office in san fran or wherever, that a ride is bogus? they're going to get some wrong no matter what, whether too strict or too lenient, or more likely both.
which is why i reckon my idea of the user choosing to hide riders could work, it solves the immediate issue for the user without much work for strava.

that said, i can see spats developing over who is the 'true' KOM, if i look like i have one in my view, and you see you have it in your view. but that's possibly less of an issue than what we see today.

I've had a ride flagged from Rás Mumhan, where I crashed and had to ride a spare bike for a bit and was drafting in the cavalcade to get back on, so power data disappeared and speeds went up which looked dodgy. The ride was flagged, and one of the actions I could do was say 'no, this is fine*', and I think that was the end of that.

It seems bizarre for some outright definitely-in-a-car rides, that the rider can just say 'no, this is fine', and it can't ever be doubted ever again. Surely there's a way of counting the number of reported flags on a ride in a period, and having it nullified after some threshold is reached?


*whether drafting is fine for Strava KOMs is a discussion for another day

magicbastarder

CramCycle wrote: »

This is why a local rep makes sense

problem is, what's local? there are roads in wicklow i'd probably know as well as roads in patagonia. and i wouldn't want the hassle of policing other people's segments, which is why, uh, i agreed to become a mod here.

Daroxtar

buffalo wrote: »

*whether drafting is fine for Strava KOMs is a discussion for another day

So long as you are socially distant from the back of the tractor it's fine.

CramCycle

buffalo wrote: »

*whether drafting is fine for Strava KOMs is a discussion for another day

Its part of racing, no way to avoid it. Whether the DB on my commute is OK ot draft is another question.

magicbastarder wrote: »

problem is, what's local? there are roads in wicklow i'd probably know as well as roads in patagonia. and i wouldn't want the hassle of policing other people's segments, which is why, uh, i agreed to become a mod here.

I am not saying actively police it but have it as a reflag option. Strava could go as normal for the first flag. After the user marks it resolved, it gets flagged to a local rep who can quickly look over it and decide that it is fine, it is hard to tell or no they are clearly cheating. 9/10 its an obvious error by the rider and not intentional.

plodder

I pay for one of the Summit 'packs' but never use its features. More about just supporting them, which does make you question their business model. When we had the 2km limit, I noticed there was two running segments near me, one which I thought I could have a bash at, but the top five were all done on bikes. Started flagging and could not understand why the top guy wasn't disappearing. Turned out he cycled the same route literally dozens of times and each ride had to be flagged separately. I hope he didn't think I have a personal vendetta against him.

greendom

CramCycle wrote: »

I got two KOMs on the ride in this morning, nothing else seems to have changed so I obviously used very little or it will be tomorrow when they make all the changes?

Thinly veiled, I got two KOMs post

On a serious note, when you subscribe, can you re report rides that are marked as solved. For the price of it, I'd do that. I left my GPS on in the car before and was happy someone reported it but some people seem to ignore it, others even apparently driving around to get KOMs. It has put me off Strava some what as they don't police it, which I understand would cost more unless they hired local volunteers or reps. I'd pay if I could report rides that are doing 80kmph one way, stopping in Dunnes and then doing 80kmph in the opposite direction.

It's going at 6pm tonight apparently

CramCycle

greendom wrote: »

It's going at 6pm tonight apparently

Time for one last hurrah on the commute home

North of 32

I've got too much love for my motorway-overpass KOMs to let my subscription lapse.

godtabh

magicbastarder wrote: »

no, i tried to report one but got a message saying you can't report a ride that had been flagged and allowed stand.
i was toying of putting in a feature request to be able to block riders as a way around this.
FWIW, it's this one, someone doing the steep part of newtownpark avenue at a claimed 64km/h, at the end of a ride with some decent climbing.

https://www.strava.com/segments/17828072

I live next to there. The speed some people go up and down there is unreal

eeeee

godtabh wrote: »

I live next to there. The speed some people go up and down there is unreal

I've hit max non-roller cadence on the way downhill from the N11 down that road on the fixie it's great! It's a prick to go up though.

The thing that tells you your speed is my aim when on a geared bike. Wheee! I don't think it picks up bikes anymore though sadly. Plus there are cars that pull out in front of you from Holypark because they don't think a bike can go as fast as a car there.

j@utis

Segments and leaderboards make Strava. I wouldn't be interested in it at all otherwise. I signed up earlier this month to keep my motivation going. I only got back into cycling because gyms were shut, I can see myself cancelling the Strava membership when I can go back to proper training.

Regarding the leaderboards, I don't see a point to display data from year 2012 or so, it would be enough of 2-3 years back, current year is the most interesting though. I never even look at "all time" result, just go to filter "women this year" straight away.

triggermortis

I’ve been more interested in the segment times for the last 2 months as they have given me something to aim for (a higher placing not a KOM) so I doubt I’ll care again once we’re back to whatever normal is. I did pay a couple of years ago and didn’t really make full use of it so I can’t see me paying again now. Have to see how I feel once I see the new layout

Wishbone Ash

magicbastarder wrote: »

... and matching that segment to everyone who's ever ridden it and each time they've ridden it, is impressive.

They don't seem to match every time a segment is ridden. If I take a random segment on my commute, Strava will say I've ridden it 120 times for example whereas it should be way more than that.

magicbastarder

could be a glitch in GPS data which means the patterns don't match, but that would be rare enough i guess.

one thing which i might submit a feature request on (and which might be there but i've managed not to notice) - a favourite segments option. there are loads of segments i don't care about, but some i use as a test of my own fitness, or which i find interesting and like to track my progress on. would increase the signal to noise ratio when you get back from a spin.

cletus

magicbastarder wrote: »

could be a glitch in GPS data which means the patterns don't match, but that would be rare enough i guess.

one thing which i might submit a feature request on (and which might be there but i've managed not to notice) - a favourite segments option. there are loads of segments i don't care about, but some i use as a test of my own fitness, or which i find interesting and like to track my progress on. would increase the signal to noise ratio when you get back from a spin.

I think on the app there's a starred segments option

magicbastarder

duh. i should have expected that.

Leroy42

If they are going to start charging everyone, they need to solve the issue of bad gps.

It is the very core of the product yet if the gps signal drops are goes slightly off, you can lose out on a segment or even matching a ride.

I have no issue with them charging for extras, butvthis move seems predicated on the assumption that people will pay for what is essentially, at least for the vast majority, a nice to have.

It was interesting to see segments on a ride compared to previous, daily or whatever. But that is it, just something to look at and then forget.

I agree with DC Rainmaker. They have moved to a 'premium' product without giving people even the same level as they did for free.

Wishbone Ash

A feature I'd like see is that a segment doesn't become a real segment until it's ridden/accessible by at least say 20 riders. (I've a few accidental KOM's on very obscure segments that were created on private property by youngsters around my workplace. I took them without realising they were there. Feels like taking candy from a baby.)

It would also stop people creating segments that include some private property which others can't compete. For example, there's a segment in north Co Dublin which appears to be normal enough, eg Village A to Village B but it begins down a private laneway and there is only one person on the leaderboard who obviously has the KOM.

magicbastarder

They should stop telling you you set your second or third best time on a segment when it's only your second or third time on it. In that sense, they're also telling you that you've set your worst time on it.

buffalo

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

For example, there's a segment in north Co Dublin which appears to be normal enough, eg Village A to Village B but it begins down a private laneway and there is only one person on the leaderboard who obviously has the KOM.

Flag the segment so?

Chips Lovell

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

They don't seem to match every time a segment is ridden. If I take a random segment on my commute, Strava will say I've ridden it 120 times for example whereas it should be way more than that.

magicbastarder wrote: »

could be a glitch in GPS data which means the patterns don't match, but that would be rare enough i guess.

Yeah, I'd agree its GPS errors. For example, I've use Craugh Road for intervals a lot, but it would often only identify the segment for only three of the four ascents.

Leroy42

Chips Lovell wrote: »

Yeah, I'd agree its GPS errors. For example, I've use Craugh Road for intervals a lot, but it would often only identify the segment for only three of the four ascents.

It pretty common, in my experience, but of course depends on factors such as tree cover etc.

There used to be a 3rd party facility to amend a route to correct for errors in GPS, but Strava itself has never made it a feature.

I think if they are charging that should be a facility and would certainly make it more appealing to subscribe. As DC Rainmaker says, giving people something to want to subscribe to rather than forcing them to.

loyatemu

I'm not troubling the top 10 on any segment, my main motivation is to occasionally get a new PR - I assume we'll still be able to see our own relative performances on the free version?