Strava breaks DCRainmaker

Luxman · 14-01-2023 05:50PM #1

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

adrian522 · 14-01-2023 06:04PM

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 · 14-01-2023 07:46PM

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 · 14-01-2023 07:50PM

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 · 14-01-2023 08:33PM

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

14-01-2023 08:38PM

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

14-01-2023 08:40PM

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

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

Large bottle small glass · 14-01-2023 09:24PM

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 · 15-01-2023 03:39AM

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 · 15-01-2023 09:42AM

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 · 15-01-2023 09:48AM

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 · 15-01-2023 11:54AM

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 · 15-01-2023 12:16PM

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 · 15-01-2023 12:32PM

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 · 15-01-2023 12:34PM

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

You keep the premium features until the end date,

G1032 · 16-01-2023 10:25PM

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

Intervals.icu would for 77c a week 😉

wheelo01 · 17-01-2023 01:25AM

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 · 17-01-2023 08:01AM

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 · 17-01-2023 10:30AM

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 · 17-01-2023 10:39AM

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 · 17-01-2023 10:42AM

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

Large bottle small glass · 17-01-2023 10:51AM

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 · 17-01-2023 10:53AM

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 · 17-01-2023 11:08AM

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 · 17-01-2023 11:23AM

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 · 17-01-2023 11:30AM

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 · 17-01-2023 11:33AM

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 · 17-01-2023 11:44AM

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 · 17-01-2023 11:52AM

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 · 17-01-2023 02:12PM

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

use this and trainerday,class in combination!

Large bottle small glass · 17-01-2023 02:42PM

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.

Strava breaks DCRainmaker

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Data Permission - Allowed for tracing!