Hating on Strava

They should shut it off everywhere except the bike parks.

Agree

I actually really like Strava... I like to keep track of which trails I rode, total distance, total elevation, routes taken, # of rides per month/year, etc. I rarely actually try to gun it down a trail to get a good time. If anything I like to challenge myself on the climbs, not the descents. 

I feel like most of the people who hate on it haven't actually used it (more than briefly). There's a lot of cool aspects to it aside from KOM's and leaderboards.

What I dislike about it:
1) People ride secret trails with it and make them visible on heatmap;
2) People out for KOMs and record descending cut corners and otherwise go off trail to improve their time;
3) There are hacks that will speed up your Strava time for digital doping; and
3) It can turn a fun time in the woods into something I didn't go there for.

I use it for skate skiing when its more important for me to know how far I went. Works well for that.

Do away with secret trails and one of your dislikes will be dealt with.

Posted by: switch

Do away with secret trails and one of your dislikes will be dealt with.

Never gonna happen, lol.

chances are stravassholes are just assholes, strava or not, they cut corners, made their own lines and rode secret trails and told everyone.

There is the possibility to email the folks at Strava and ask them to put trails/segments down.

Personally, I like it. It is nothing more than a fancy training log for free, sometimes I get the urge to hammer but compared to a lot of roadbike riders and xc riders in my are I am simply slow. And agreed, assholes are dicks everywhere, not only on Strava.
Reason and mature decisions, and abandoning them, has nothing to do with an app like Strava. If you can control your urge to shred hard on a multi-usage trail, well, why should you ride and act like a douche only on Strava and be reasoned in day to day life?

Posted by: DaveM

chances are stravassholes are just assholes, strava or not, they cut corners, made their own lines and rode secret trails and told everyone.

This is far too simple an explanation, it couldn’t be true.

Some people used to bitch about heart rate monitors the same way, but they didn’t make cool people assholes, assholes just had beeping watches use as an excuse for being an impatient asshole.

In my area I think Trailforks is a bigger threat to access. The amount of trail that’s mapped on there that’s illegal and contentious is astounding, and there are a couple users who seem to love mapping every single trail they find, no matter how hidden it should remain. My flagging has had no effect.

Posted by: Bull_Dozer

I actually really like Strava... I like to keep track of which trails I rode, total distance, total elevation, routes taken, # of rides per month/year, etc. I rarely actually try to gun it down a trail to get a good time. If anything I like to challenge myself on the climbs, not the descents. 

I feel like most of the people who hate on it haven't actually used it (more than briefly). There's a lot of cool aspects to it aside from KOM's and leaderboards.

Use the ride recorder function in Trailforks. You get all of the stats and none of the competition with other users.

All alcohol should be banned because a few people can't handle their booze.

Posted by: craw

Posted by: Bull_Dozer

I actually really like Strava... I like to keep track of which trails I rode, total distance, total elevation, routes taken, # of rides per month/year, etc. I rarely actually try to gun it down a trail to get a good time. If anything I like to challenge myself on the climbs, not the descents. 

I feel like most of the people who hate on it haven't actually used it (more than briefly). There's a lot of cool aspects to it aside from KOM's and leaderboards.

Use the ride recorder function in Trailforks. You get all of the stats and none of the competition with other users.

Is there a track recording thing in TF?  Currently I use Strava and have it set to load right to my TF ridelog. 

Although I’m not sure why I ask...I like using Strava AND Trailforks.

Strava couldn't care less about mountain bikers concerns on secret trails, their target market is roadies and runners. They won't work on their system to hide trails/areas. Trailforks on the other hand are concerned. The trail associations are the mods in their area and can hide whatever trails should be hidden. tashi does your area not have an association to do that?

Since last year (I think) Trailforks has the route logging facility so there is no need to use Strava at all. Hard to say if people will swap over though. I still use Strava or my commute but then Trailforks for mountain biking.

I’ve flagged a few trails as a test and the local trail director may have as well but I don’t know for certain about that, he wasn’t clear. 

They’re still up. Maybe not enough folks have flagged them. Maybe they’re popular enough that TF has decided to keep them up. The area in question is not legal but has become fairly established in recent years, with significant growth since TF got some momentum. We’re experiencing some new pushback from the parks folks (signage, lectures) and some local squeaky wheels (signage, trail blockage). The pushback from the squeaky wheels has often occurred immediately after the trail appears on TF.