Strava breaks DCRainmaker

Luxman

I only use free Strava so this doesn't impact me, but DCrainmaker is not a happy bunny.

https://youtu.be/s3szJ67iM1E

adrian522

Not due for renewal till June but cancelled until there is some clarity around how much its going to cost. Very sneaky the way they are going about the price increase.

dahat

Currently pay monthly via 3pay so effectively spending same money twice. Due to this I’ll continue with premium at current rate of €7.99 though will review if it goes up.

iwillhtfu

Cancelled my own premium, DC highlighting it made me log on and cancel as it just usually auto repeats payment annually. The premium never really made sense to me no idea why I paid it to be honest. I used it for some route planning but then moved over to komoot. Now back in training I use training peaks. There are so many options now if strava disappeared tomorrow it would be little noticed by myself.

magicbastarder

anyone got a quick summary of the issues dcrainmaker is facing/complaining of?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120109128#Comment_120109128

prices are going up in some countries and Strava have been very opaque on the communication of same

28064212

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120109128#Comment_120109128

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2023/01/strava-raises-prices-doubling.html

Large bottle small glass

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120109128#Comment_120109128

I got 90 seconds into the video to, I'd nearly have paid a yearly premium for him to stop talking

DeepBlue

Stupid question probably but if you have months still left on premium and you cancel your subscription do you still retain premium "perks" until your subscription runs out or are they pulled immediately. I'm about 99% it's the former but just be sure to be sure..........

Like others I'm not really sure why I'm paying Strava to show me my own data 🤔

CramCycle

I like the KOMs, mini challenges that kept me doing stuff during Covid. Is it worth the price, well, yes and no. No it's not, it's too much for what it is and they seem to persistently waste money on side ideas that don't actually give the users what they want. Yes it is, because no other platform I know has as many users which makes the KOM and mapping by both popularity and by being able to see heatmaps very nice.

I don't see a price bump for Ireland listed but well.

This said, unless they sort out ebikes and motorists filling up leaderboards, I might move on in July.

magicbastarder

A price rise wouldn't bother me too much I think. It's less than the price of a pint a month. That's not excusing the seeming dogs dinner they're making of communicating about it.

I don't see an easy way at all to fix the issue of e-bikes filling up leaderboards.

secman

My subscription renewed early jan 2023, €60 for the year , who would maintain and update a training diary for me for that sum ? €1.20 or so a week, works out about 30c a spin 🙂

Macy0161

What I took from the article was why am I paying monthly rather than annual, so did that.

I find being able to save others routes handy, and it's still the most commonly used to be able to share routes for group spins.

I used the suggested routes a lot when I was on holiday in France.

Are the premium features "worth it"? I'm not sure, but it is a an app I use most days.

CramCycle

I don't live near my club spins, don't know anyone local, so if it wasn't for the challenge of getting a KOM this morning (missed by 2 seconds), I'd have stayed in bed. Sounds stupid but it trains me in spreading my effort, keeping it in my pants and seeing the advantages of exceptional line choices which are all skills I know but never practice for racing. I also got to effectively race an A+ rider who was probably only on a training spin which does wonders for my ego. There are a few segments around where I am second place to him and that drives me to practice. It was also totally worth the bit of craic over Covid racing a few boards.ie posters, some I beat, some I didn't. Also as MB said, it's the price of a pint per month, I can live with that.

adrian522

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120110410#Comment_120110410

You keep the premium features until the end date,

G1032

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120110843#Comment_120110843

Intervals.icu would for 77c a week 😉

wheelo01

I dont use the features of premium as far as I'm aware, but I thought I'd like to make a donation to help with costs as I do like the basic premise of the app.

So what I did was use a VPN and subscribe through Brazil for 119.90 BRL (€21 ish), now, according to rainmaker, this will increase to 149.90 BRL (€25 ish), if this is the case, then I'll stick with it, but doubling to €50 - Nah, I'm out.

Paddigol

https://www.velonews.com/gear/tech-wearables/strava-responds-to-chorus-of-criticism-over-price-hike-policy/

shambolic management, being a continuation of their management and communication around the pull back of features from the free version a couple of years ago. Seems to be a recurring feature at Strava Inc

G1032

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120118313#Comment_120118313

:-) Same here. Still showing as 119.9 BRL renewal, but that's not until June so I suspect it will remain as such until a month before. I don't really use it tbh. The analysis side of Strava is appalling when compared to other platforms (albeit I accept that activity analysis is not it's primary function). No more than @CramCycle does, I used to use it for the odd KOM challenge at the end of a season but I don't even bother with that anymore. Too many motor pacing KOMs, E Bikes, etc clogging leaderboards. Besides, KOM hunting often isn't conducive to a good training session. Actually, come to think of it, Strava serves little purpose for me other than an activity backup utility!! But at €25 I might as well keep it as not. Have till June to decide in any case.

G1032

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120118468#Comment_120118468

I have no idea what I'm paying for because I don't really use any of this. Wahoo has it's own built in 'Beacon'. I use RWGPS to plot routes (and just in the last few days happened across Free Route Planner for Outdoor Pursuits - plotaroute.com which looks very good. Will def give a try and the €22 p/a on a premium subscription is probably money better spent than on Strava. I couldn't care less about global or personal heatmaps. My goals and progress isn't tracked, nor ever will be tracked, on Strava. This leaves segments for the month or 6 weeks a year I might use that feature. Not really worth my €150 BRL dollars.

CramCycle

The heatmaps are nice if you off road, found lots of random paths, but not a feature useful to most

Large bottle small glass

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120118468#Comment_120118468

Shambolic from a free user point of view maybe but Strava in spite of the complaints are one of the few social network sites to monetise users with subscriptions; which is where most of their revenue comes from.

The money men loaned them €115m in 2020 to grow their business due to Covid, I guess they need to be paid back one way or another.

They wouldn't need to charge so much or have as little on free platform if they could do what they liked with your data but they have had enough grief with that I would think.

I've never paid for it and never will but they have done something most larger social network companies have failed to do.

Bot1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120118843#Comment_120118843

This is the only reason I kept the premium version.

I don't use it as much as I used to though.

Large bottle small glass

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120118843#Comment_120118843

Is there anything on Strava that's not on OSM?

Do OSM not get that data anyhow?

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=14/52.3343/-7.7129&layers=C

If you use OSM Cycle overlay on rwgps it shows up a lot of tracks

CramCycle

Not sure, I thought the Strava heatmaps was their users only. I'm specifically looking at heatmaps and not trails/routes like on OSM.

cletus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120118957#Comment_120118957

I use OSM to pick out tracks and trails, and I use google streetview to get an idea of what it might look like. I then create my routes on the garmin app or website.

I have a rwgps account, but I don't use it much. What would the premium account offer?

I have a free Strava account, but apart from it logging all my activities, I don't actually do anything with it. I do find it useful as a way to populate statshunters.com. I find that site more useful/interesting.

Large bottle small glass

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120119017#Comment_120119017

Pretty sure they get all the Garmin uploaded data anyhow.

Ime what was once a rideable track can disappear/deteriorate depending on forestry operations or the time of the year.

Does Strava heatmap differentiate between gravel and MTB trails? They can be very different beasts.

magicbastarder

strava is unusual in that it's in a sense a social media platform where the free users are not bombarded with ads.

speaking as a paid user, who is essentially subsidising free users, i want to have power over those i am subsidising. e.g. adding 30s to what was a PR for them, being able to change their names, or reducing the metres they are recorded as having climbed. fair's fair.

Large bottle small glass

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120119048#Comment_120119048

"I have a rwgps account, but I don't use it much. What would the premium account offer?"

I only use it for plotting routes and there is useful feature on the paid subscriptions which are useful, especially if you are responsible for sending other people on them!

https://ridewithgps.com/choose_account

There seems to be an "off line map" tool which might be handy off road if it had access to your location, although the just "just figure it out and stop looking at your phone urge" would probably prevent me from using it!

seanin4711

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120117651#Comment_120117651

use this and trainerday,class in combination!

Large bottle small glass

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120119017#Comment_120119017

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Strava#:~:text=.com%2Fheatmap%2F-,Data%20Permission%20%2D%20Allowed%20for%20tracing!,datasets%2C%20please%20contact%20Strava%20Metro.

Strava heatmap was recently changed, requiring any uses to be logged into strava.com. In order to use it, you first have to create an account there and be logged in.

Zoomed in on Nottingham cycle paths. from a blog post comparing the data

Strava heatmap layer in JOSM in the Gbamgbama area, Sierra Leone. Red lines are already mapped roads, green "lines" are from Strava heatmap data.

Strava's Global Heatmap website: https://www.strava.com/heatmap/

Data Permission - Allowed for tracing!

OpenStreetMap users have permission (reconfirmed in November 2019) to use Strava heatmap data for tracing into OSM only. For all other non-personal uses, including tracing into other datasets, please contact Strava Metro.

The data is available on a purchasable license basis, so it is great that Strava allows the data to be used free of charge for the purposes of improving OpenStreetMap (similar agreements exist with aerial imagery providers). Please be aware that this is a great tool to find missing paths, but that the presence of heatmap lines does not necessarily mean that access on that location is legal for the general public.

Macy0161

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120118957#Comment_120118957

I use the the Strava heatmaps with Ride With GPS OSM and Satellite view to try to assess whether sections are rideable. rwgps isn't perfect either - I do a lot of route planning with "Walking" selected as it won't let me "Cycle" some of the most commonly used trails around me!

seanin4711

well thats me cancelling Strava!

oh wait I am on free Sub!

benneca1

After watching ditched my Strava account paid that is, I already have Kamoot, ride with GPS and Trainer road asked myself what I was getting and couldn't see it

JMcL

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120110916#Comment_120110916

I signed up for a years sub with 2 extra free months in January last year, but what I noticed when I logged in is that I've been flipped over to being billed monthly. I've until the end of February to make up my mind, but if I was very honest with myself, I make very limited use of the premium bits other than using it as a training log (certainly not challenging for any KOMs!)

magicbastarder

i currently see this:

Subscriber since 6 April 2017

Your annual membership will renew on 7 May 2023 for €59.99

jamesd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120134653#Comment_120134653

I think the new price if charging will show closer to the renewal date, mine says June. I have gotten the last 3 years free with the strava bug a few years ago where you could gift a strava sub purchased in Brazil so I bought 3 at the time.

retalivity

Ireland wasn't initially listed as one of the countries that is changing, funnily enough. It was mainly the UK, France, Germany, Canada and the US.

Mines due for renewal at the start of April, still says €59.99/

magicbastarder

just got this in an email from strava:

Strava + FATMAP: A match made for adventure

Bring your trail and winter sport dreams to life like never before now that the FATMAP app is part of Strava!

FATMAP’s high definition, 3D satellite views of the routes you’ve explored (and the ones waiting to be discovered) will be available on Strava in the coming months.

And if you want even more – like drawing 3D routes of your fave slopes, trails or streets – a Strava subscription will get you access to allllll of FATMAP’s best features soon.

We’re stoked to keep bringing improvements to Strava to inspire you to get out there. Check out FATMAP here and keep your eyes peeled for more updates.

JMcL

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120153570#Comment_120153570

I think they're losing the plot at Strava - first the nonsense with pricing, now they announce an integration with something that won't accept authentication with Strava credentials. They might have wasted the limited amount of curiosity I had about it

Paddigol

Yo!!!! Tech bro!!!!! "stoked"?? Gimme a break. Who do they think they’re kidding!? How many corporate heads did that carefully crafted release have to pass I wonder… I doubt many of them are familiar with the concept.

They lost the plot around the time that they thought the height of a global pandemic/ lockdowns was a good time to pull a huge amount of features from the free version with the aim of forcing people to sign up to paid subscriptions. Just completely brain dead, ill-timed and woefully communicated stuff. Its not the principle - no problem paying for something that has value or that you need and use - it's the way they go about things that alienates them for me.

magicbastarder

the act of removing features from the free option may have been sensible; they clearly offer a free option to get people using it, and to act as a lead in to them subscribing (very few people would sign up for a paid subscription without having used it first for a period), but if you make the free version too feature-rich, you're giving people reasons to not bother stumping up. there's a balancing act there in terms of how much is optimal for them to offer, and i suspect they decided they were offering too much.

if i was them, i wouldn't have been worried too much about customer loyalty from a section of their customer base who hadn't actually paid for the service.

magicbastarder

oh, and 'forcing people to sign up' - sod that, no one was forcing anyone to do anything. either pay up, or just accept that you're still getting a free service.

Paddigol

I've no intention of arguing the toss on the meaning of 'being forced to do something'. You're of course welcome to your view of how Big Tech should treat customers, but I'd have thought that a slightly gentler approach with staggered pull back of features, flagged in advance, possibly not at a time when most of your customers were relying on a bit of outdoor exercise to maintain sanity in a pandemic, might have achieved the same commercial result for the company without alienating a (sizable if online commentary then/ now is anything to go by) chunk of them.

By way of example. I signed up to Spotify. Used the free version for about a year. Was aware of what the paid version offered (didn't need to actually experience/ try it to be able to make a decision) and decided it was worth taking the plunge on the paid subscription. Spotify communicate clearly. There aren't constant changes. They couldn't care less about me and just want my money, but at least they don't make it as obvious as Strava. Strava seem to want to make people realise how little their monetised features are needed.

Worth also bearing in mind that Strava was built off the back of free user's data as well as paid subscribers.

As I say, my gripe isn't with Strava deciding to monetise their features. Its the way they go about dealing with/ communicating with their customers.

JMcL

I'd agree with both trains of thought. As they're probably answering to VC overlords requiring double-digit growth they have to generate revenue someplace. I do appreciate that my eyeballs have never been poked out by crass ads (I do accept the the challenges are ads by another name - but they're in line with the product and don't rankle as much). What does rankle however is that when they made the big push on paid subs, they had this "well, we know it hurts, but wait to see all the cool stuff we've got coming". I'm still waiting, and something aimed primarily at skiing freds ain't really it.

As regards a taster, I do like the approach taken by the likes of Flickr where you've got full access to most of the site features, but only your last 200 photos will be visible on the free layer.

nicksnikita

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120160250#Comment_120160250

"skiing freds" 🤣

Mr. Cats

Seems strava are providing a discount if you email their customer service

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2023/02/strava-ceo-michael-horvath-resigns-company.html

magicbastarder

just noticed on my bank account that i've a pending transaction from strava, for €59.99 - so no price increase for me?

JMcL

Cancelled mine as well. They'd flipped me over to monthly payments despite having signed up for an annual sub - probably something to do with it having been a black Friday offer of 2 free months.

Their stupid system of not allowing subscription type be changed without actually cancelling the old sub first must be losing them customers. It certainly lost me - when I had to cancel it anyway it gave me pause to think did I really need it anyway? Otherwise, I'd have probably just changed my sub back to annual and ran with it.

Also bizarrely I'd have expected a "We're missing you" email or somesuch, but nada, so customer retention isn't their strong point. It's not that I'm expecting them to send out offers of discounts (I read an interesting article recently that these will be thin on the ground in general as all the "free" money is no more), but even just the "Look at all the great stuff you're missing" kind

casion3

Mine went up to 79.99 or something.

Due to expire in Aug so cancelled.

I think if I sign up again it will be 59.99

JMcL

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120580874#Comment_120580874

Showing as €59.99 for me annually. Interestingly, they jacked up the monthly price. Before I cancelled it would have renewed at €7.99, but current price is €9.99