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Christ we are even gatekeeping dog breeds on strava now ?
I don't.
I have an account from back when it was something worth having to log rides but i don't use it.
Because its full off bullshit.
Mainly my mother logging EVERYTHING.
Just checking in here to see if anyone ride doesn’t use Strava or am I the only one?
I’m increasingly feeling like a complete luddite.
It's pretty ubiquitous now but I think there's degrees of 'engagement' with Strava. You can use it like many (most?) do (me included) as a bit of a passive data logging service with a bolt on social element. Do a ride/run/swim/walk and once you save on the Garmin the servers do their thing and it is uploaded and whatever settings you have applied dictate how annoyed/encouraging the collective user base of Strava will be...
As your mental health dictates pouring over your own and others activities, related postings and 'feeds' probably gets worse for you the more you do it (as this thread sort of illustrates).
Like FB a few minutes of "oh that's nice, well done to that fella, that's a shame..." Every couple of weeks probably isn't too bad. If you're checking it daily for more than 5 minutes and it's not related to your job, then I think it's a bit of a problematic habit..
So use FB as your barometer, if you've found it problematic in the past and fear you might get hooked on FB bullshit and lose time to it, stear clear of Strava they want engagement just like FB, if it's a tool to loosely keep track of friends and acquaintance then crack on, if you're getting angry about other people perfectly benign walks, delete the app.
Here’s one for the haters from earlier today, I don’t have many Strava followers on here anyway..
Like minded as IainC, here's one that will set off the lovers and the haters in equal measure - kudos or flame me in the comments. And I've made it viewable to all so Anagallis Avensis can give me kudos if she's cute enough wink emoji
https://www.strava.com/activities/13334302289
Here’s one for the haters
See, there you go - wasn't so hard. A nice photo, a little bit of context in the text - a perfect bit of interesting meat for your followers.
I've had some lovely ones today - someone walking their grandchild born earlier this week with some amazing photos of ice crystals. Another of a friend taking his son for his first ski tour up on the plateau. A group of friends cross country skiing on Dava moor, another with a very smiley selfie from the puffer. And finally.....a friend who has done her first FTP test in yonks ON AN INDOOR BIKE acknowledging there was a bit of work AND GOT SOME KUDOS FROM ME. It's not about what you post publiclly being 'epic'; just interesting to others.
And you know what, I saw all that in 30secs because I've filtered out all the friends and acquaintances who's accounts post automated chaff so didn't have to doom scroll... then I got on with my day (apart from wasting time posting this obviously which rather ruins the point!).
And you know what, I saw all that in 30secs because I’ve filtered out all the friends and acquaintances who’s accounts post automated chaff so didn’t have to doom scroll… then I got on with my day (apart from wasting time posting this obviously which rather ruins the point!).
See, what i am reading is "i wasted 30seconds"
See, what i am reading is “i wasted 30seconds”
That's certainly a view. But as I put on my first post to this thread, you could view Strava as an alternative social media platform into the lives of friends....but imo it only works if those friends give enough of a toss that the stuff they put in your feed is interesting - otherwise it's a bit dull.
Like FB a few minutes of “oh that’s nice, well done to that fella, that’s a shame…” Every couple of weeks probably isn’t too bad. If you’re checking it daily for more than 5 minutes and it’s not related to your job, then I think it’s a bit of a problematic habit..
Where it's definitely worth it is looking for potential new routes. I can scroll pretty quickly through the usual "frosty commute to work" or "Watopia blah blah" but seeing something a bit different from usual like "this friend lives near me but they're riding in Scotland this weekend" is often worth a second look.
Depends on the type of dog, lurcher,
Christ we are even gatekeeping dog breeds on strava now ?NN
No types not breeds, otherwise a lurcher wouldn't be with the correct group.
By the way that dog up there has a coat on despite not being a greyhound, whippet or smooth coated lurcher, so gets no kudos...sorry, rules is rules.
Sorry can't find out how to paste but I do find it a bloody chore 5 days a week and sometimes wimp out and drive. However I don't see the need for people to tell me how awesome I am. I know that!
Someone mentions something like anyone riding is doing more than most of the population. That doesn't make that person special, it shows that most people are lazy sods.
We applaud way to much. Bit like Ebay really. Neutral feedback is considered bad but surely it should mean things are as they should be? Or tipping in an eatery. You would tip service above and beyond the normal and that normal should be perfect.
People just expect to be special when most of us are plain normal.
Getting kudos doesn't make you special or mean the person giving it thinks so. It's just... someone clicking a button that says kudos, or "I like this". It's sometimes no more than a fleeting acknowledgement that what you've done is worthy of a single button click 😀
Look at it this way, in your response to someone you don't know on the internet you've gone to 682* times more effort than you have when you've given kudos to an activity.
* based on the number of characters in your post, not taking editing into account, not taking the thought processes that go into creating coherent** sentences.
** well done 😀
I am also a ludite, I don't use strava and don't even know what kudos is in this context.
Strava is a dick swinging exercise - I don't give a shit what people think of mine. I'll give kudos for a 10 minute walk or a 10 minute indoor ride if that's all the person can manage.
...but imo it only works if those friends give enough of a toss that the stuff they put in your feed is interesting – otherwise it’s a bit dull.
Isn't it the other way round? I thought you'd 'curated' your feed (sacked off anyone failing your attention threshold)... Why should your friends be fretting over what you find interesting, they can post what they like 'chaff' or otherwise.
Lots of things in life are a bit dull that doesn't mean they're not worth a little attention now and then.
Strava is a dick swinging exercise
It's basically what you choose to project onto it. People seem oddly exercised about what's a simple ride recording and sharing platform. If you view other people's rides/activities as some sort of ego projection, it probably says more about you than the platform or those who use it.
If I ride a bike up K2 without supplementary oxygen for reasons best known to myself - maybe I just like the views of the Karakorum - then record my ride on Strava with some ace pics, it's not necessarily because I want the world to kneel at my feet and lick my gear shifters in admiration. I might be doing it to... share an experience with my mates at the click of a button, record my ride so I can see what I've done over the year, complete a monthly climbing challenge, inspire others to do similar, put my innovative route in the public domain or whatever.
If your first thought when you see someone else's ride is, 'Oooh, look at them, bigging themselves up', then you maybe need to ask yourself why you're being quite so prickly and weird.
I'm not saying there isn't any 'dick swinging' on Strava, but mostly it strikes me that it's just ordinary people sharing what they get up to on bikes or on foot etc. In a way, it's intrinsically different from something like Insta where folk have a tendency to curate their lives so that only the best bits show up. People still post their crap, failed workouts and inconsequential weekend strolls on Strava in all their technicolour modesty.
TLDR: it's not the platform, it's you.
As a parallel, years ago, in northern Colombia, I contemplated trying to climb a big, pointy mountain in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, that happens allegedly to be the world's highest 'coastal' peak in the sense that it's within 20km of the shoreline, or something like that. It's in the middle of a giant shrubbery which is the territory of local indigenous tribes and surrounded by coca plantations run by drug cartels. As a result, you needed a permit to go near it and vanishingly few were issued every year.
It was, theoretically, possible to climb it without permission, but risky and you'd also have to keep quiet about it. I had a long debate with an American climber over whether you'd climb the mountain if you couldn't tell anyone about it. From my point of view, the answer was absolutely yes. The intrinsic value of mountaineering is in the experience, not the retelling of it and associated puffery.
His take was the opposite. As far as he was concerned, if no-one knew you'd climbed it, then it wasn't worth doing. I didn't really get that and I still don't. For me the value of mountaineering is in the moment of being there. I'm not saying it's not nice to share the experience, but if I couldn't, I wouldn't be overly fussed.
I sort of got his point of view, but it seemed ridiculous to me. I guess, ultimately, it comes down to how you're wired, as per how you view Strava.
Dear God – has it really come to this?
Only if you want it to 😉
I don't mind indoor rides, I still dont care for commutes, I now dont care for people who own a peleton and do the 10min arms, bums and tums or 5 min stretching and it uploads with a picture of the instructor doing something whacky...
I wish there was a filter I could put on my feed to not show commutes or Peleton stuff.
I only recently started recording rides on strava (last 5 or 6 months). A few weeks ago i did a reasonable effort on the gravel bike. I enjoyed it. I then noticed my strava had failed half way round and i just had a big straight line back home. I felt sad for a minute and it detracted from the ride. This is clearly a nuts way of thinking. Now i don't bother recording rides and am still a bit baffled why i ever started.
I record outdoor rides (don't do indoor), but also gym weight sessions.
The reason for the gym sessions are to see my total monthly/yearly activity on Strava, but it also syncs with Google Fit
I don't get, nor expect many Kudos for the gym stuff. CBA making it private though
Tend to get similar amounts for normal or ebike rides though and do see it increase if it's an epic ride or I get a load of trophies and/or post some nice pics.
I don't often give kudos for commutes or gym sessions and never for indoor rides