Originally Posted by
SethAZ
That one or two of the probably tens or hundreds of thousands of people who hold a KOM on Strava have become "Internet famous" thanks to how they marketed their exploits does not make Strava segment KOMs suddenly a competition.
There's a guy out there who is moderately famous for his ability to eat the most hot dogs in one sitting. That does not make eating hot dogs a competition. If so then I suck at it, because on the rare occasions where I eat a hot dog I usually stop at one.
I like your analogy, in that many users don't intend to seriously compete, but actually, Strava IS a competition. Everyone who makes their rides public is included in the rankings and eligible for a trophy or crown. It's just that not every participant is a bona fide competitor. There are tons of spoilers, both willful and inadvertent. Most of the time nobody pays any attention to how many hot dogs we eat, but Strava DOES pay attention to every ride we record. If you turn it on, you are necessarily entering the competition, pinning on a virtual number.
Maybe this wouldn't be a question if the default was for rides to be private.