That Brazilian segment is in the University of Sao Paulo. I believe it's so popular as it is the training and racing space for the University's cycling team. I found out about it after reading this article a while ago:

https://www.bicycling.com/rides/tren...w-about-strava

Effectively an outdoor track, isn't it?

I don't like when people curse in the title of their ride, especially when it is about the wind or getting a flat tire or some other irrelevant inevitability.

If you get that upset about things which should have been accepted as a fact of life after the first six months of riding then you need to find a different hobby.

So yeah, just felt like saying that.


-Tim-

What would James [3] have said about the keyboard?
Not so much new under the sun, except forums are still kinda new.

On the topic of titles, I like that Strava now displays the description underneath the title in the activity feed (at least on the mobile app, not sure the desktop app does the last time I checked). Which means (hopefully) people will use the description field more often now instead of entering overly long multi-sentence talkative/descriptive titles for their rides.

it amuses me.

Yup, descriptions are now visible via the mobile app. Not the browser version.

I'm still writing long, silly titles because

Have y'all been getting kudos from the Strava Floozies ("dating" site spammers)? I have. They seemed to have moved over from Flickr.

Strava is gonna run into problems if they do not tackle this issue soon-ish, because every spam agency is going to realize that Strava's platform is wide open -- they don't have any efficient reporting tools to deal with problematic users like every other social platform has. There is no built-in interface to report a user directly, you cannot ignore/blacklist/block users, heck even their flagging system is very primitive (treats flagged rides as guilty until proven otherwise without any form of moderation; and then the guilty party just needs to re-upload the offending ride afterwards).

A guy I follow quotes great works of literature as his titles. Rudyard Kipling was particularly memorable...
and that sort of thing.


-Tim-

You can block users on Strava.

I have also got a couple kudos from Strava "floozies". I was looking for a report button, not to be found. It will be a hassle blocking these, I hope they get it straightened out soon.

I can see it now:


-Hey baby, I noticed you gave me Kudos! I'd like to give you one back...where the sun don't shine

Damn! I thought I was special.

Yup. Strava is morphing into the social media-ish platform it always was. With that, and the generous free entry with access to most of the good stuff, will come all kinds of trouble.

The date spammers are only the beginning. This year I've seen the spammers go from merely giving kudos to posting fake activities with lewd titles.

Pretty soon they'll figure out how to dominate the KOMs by posting fake activities with URLs in the titles.

The problem with giving users tools to report activities is they will tend to abuse the tools to be petty, to harrass other legitimate users over their activities and KOMs or top tens.

For example, when Phil Gaimon snagged a KOM (some climb in or near LA), he was criticized by some folks for using a leadout man. With well intended but carelessly conceived reporting tools, users would report perceived enemies and competitors en masse, including setting up multiple accounts to flood the system with abusive reporting of abuse. Pretty much the same thing Facebook has struggled with for years.

Now, if you watch the video, you can see why Gaimon did so, and why the previous KOM holder did the same -- apparently it was part of a group effort because the segment begins with a sprint on the flats.

The segment is set up stupidly, as are too many Strava segments. It's necessary to blow a traffic light to even crack the top ten. If I'm recalling correctly Phil Gaimon's video shows a false start because they miscalculated the traffic light timing.

There are some local segments I ignore because they're just stupid. They demand blowing stop signs without even hesitating to look -- the side views are blocked on one popular climb in particular. And the segment ends too close to a traffic light. It's impossible to finish the segment at full speed if there's more than one car stopped at the light.

Some users report those segments as dangerous. I just created my own versions in private segments that suited me better. I'm a slug on climbs so those KOMs were safe anyway.

Monday I cracked the top ten on a couple of popular rural roller coasters of 2-5 miles, and came close to a KOM. I'm pretty good on inclines and curves because I'm kinda reckless, not because I'm fast. Most of the stronger riders I know are more sensible.

But the reality is I benefitted enormously from a 17-20 mph tailwind, straight out of the west on a mostly eastbound route, the final 2.5 miles of which are dead perfect eastbound, roller coastery but no deviations off line. Couldn't ask for better conditions.

And I was still nearly a full minute behind the guy with the KOM. Because I'm not really that fast. A genuinely fast rider, like the local pro whose QOM should rightfully also be the KOM, could easily have beaten not only me but the guy with the KOM. His KOM was heavily wind assisted too. But the local pro? Her QOM and top ten was weighted as the most difficult of the 10 best times, because she had the only head wind. The rest of us either had tailwinds, side winds or neutral winds. (I checked the data via the Weather Underground archives and a Strava wind app.)

My 2nd place time really shouldn't even be there. In terms of actual effort, it might rank number 10 on the list. By the final 2 miles I was spent. My number 6 on the previous 3 miles was earned. Tougher segment, more rough pavement, turns that lost the tailwind, etc.

If I can figure out this stuff, anyone can. And it'll lead to more jealousy and turmoil for Strava to deal with, especially among paying premium subscribers.

If Strava isn't careful about creating tools needed to facilitate its aspiration to be a social media site, complete with forums, etc., it'll sink itself the same way I've seen photography sites sink, bogged down by the petty jealousies of members.

In that context, a few spammers aren't the worst thing that could happen to Strava.

Excellent!

Some of his attempts he removes a brake making his bike not compliant for any road discipline in any country. In many states he could get a ticket.
At least the recumbent, eBikes are labeled so (I think - I don't pay attention).

I wish the software would figure out - that was not a bike. Too much time fagging 2X KOM speed segments.

Yeah, huge safety risk for marginal gains. I know, I know, grams are grams. But still.

Yeah, you'd think there would be some automation. Maybe have Strava auto-generate "Can you confirm the accuracy of this segment?" to users posting unusually fast times.

But I see lots of stuff that was obviously the result of users not using auto-pause/resume, or failing to stop and finish a ride before getting in the car. I'd assumed everyone knew how to crop rides but a friend recently posted a question about cropping the end of a ride to eliminate the car ride home.

I stand corrected.



I understand the concern, and rightfully so because the way Strava handles it is very primitive. Its problem is that it treats user flagging as guilty until proven innocent, it is up to the flagged party to prove his innocence (which is also primitively handled by just saying "the activity is fine, trust me". And then any second follow-up flag is deemed guilty and the flagged party has no say -- although once again he can just bypass the flag by deleting and re-uploading the ride.


And then there's no way to report a user too. Looking at the bigger picture, it's like Strava developed their flagging tool in some sort of isolation, completely oblivious to every other social media and internet forum out there. Imagine if on this forum, I could just flag any one of your posts above and it's gone just like that! And you have to prove your innocence but there's a two-strikes-you're-out. But hey, just delete your flagged post and repost again!


But no, that doesn't work because here (and on practically every other forum and social media platform out there), the act of flagging (reporting) isn't arbitrarily decided by the user. The reporting system goes through a community of moderators (and often site administrators too). If the (mod) community is good, can't just report willy-nilly. If the moderation team is good, you can't just bypass genuine reports and keep submitting crap -- you'll get warnings, bans and (eventually) permabans.


But on Strava, no... people have been asking for the ability to report users for more than a year now: https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/...Strava-Athlete


The official response to that? "Oh hey, that sounds like a really cool idea." Hello, that's practically the norm on any internet forum or social network worth their salt! Did you not even do your research before you guys developed your very own version of a common reporting system?


On one hand, I kind of get why Strava did it the way they did. They claim to be a small platform. Features take a very long time to roll out (anyone remember how long it took just for a very simple upload-pictures-from-desktop feature to get done?). So features requiring participation of staff, election of community moderators, oh no that's a handful and we're understaffed for that kind of thing. But hey, that's thinking short tem and not considering long term. And now here come the spammers...


Anyways, sorry for that rant. As a software developer myself, it's kind of a pet peeve when people decide to reinvent the wheel rather than look at what's already out there to see what's considered the norm.

All valid points. I was a moderator for a decade on a once-thriving niche hobbyist site and watched the place decline because they failed to adapt to the changing web and user expectations. They had plenty of feedback, plenty of notice, plenty of opportunities, but just couldn't buy a clue. And I saw some of their competitor sites go through the same challenges and declines as users fled to the next big thing that promised to fulfill all their needs.

Strava could probably avoid some of those pitfalls by not cultivating a social media platform, with discussion forums and higher user expectations. At least not until the owner(s) and mods have a better handle on responding to the core mission and challenges from spammers and abusive users. I'm not sure the web really needs another discussion forum or social media platform. And one of the pitfalls is mods tend to become extremely possessive and defensive. If they're distracted by feeling they must defend Strava from user complaints on a discussion forum, they'll invite all kinds of grief. Often it's better to give users the impression of a detached, mostly automated site, rather than making admin a handy target.

Maybe they just don't care if someone's legit ride gets flagged, because they don't really need it. If someone has 'enemies' flagging their rides, that's their own problem. The only thing that matters is that bogus segments get excluded.

What I find interesting is how VeloViewer is "powered by Strava." It is WAY, WAY, WAY more informative than Strava alone. Although they have the "rivals" views, it has no social media features to speak of. It's just a way of comparing data.

Damn, how does one obtain Strava Floozies? I'm (getting) old, so I'll take free kudos from anyone. While stopped at a light in illustrious downtown San Bernardino, an older (I think?) homeless woman with about half of her original number of teeth told me I was beautiful, and I don't care-- I'll take it.

I got a floozie kudo sometime overnight and it went away on its own by late this morning.

My guess is that Strava is working on the issue.


-Tim-

Or something. I thought there was something wrong with me that I didn't see any floozies, but then this morning I noticed one. Went back to confirm which ride it was on and now she's gone.

Typically I'll get two or three kudos from total strangers, but I don't pay any attention to any outside the folks I'm following myself. I take it as an indication that they have recently uploaded an activity, and if they kudo an indoor ride, I'll return the favor on whatever their most recent activity was, where usually I only kudo outdoor rides over 5 miles or shorter rides in inclement weather or surprising routes.

Got a kudo from Thorfinn-Sassquatch today. Funny thing is it was for a Zwift ride but he wasn't on the ride and I'm not in any clubs. Probably just trawling for likes.

For those who haven't heard of Thorfinn then read this article on arguably Strava's most infamous rider:

https://cyclingtips.com/2016/03/who-...strava-legend/

I'm new to Strava and noticed some absurd speeds (120 mi/h) on a segment of my commute that led to me discovering a lot of logged segments crossing the SR-520 bridge that predate the opening of the trail that made it even possible to ride across (outside of sanctioned events) -- everyone would have had to get on a bus or other vehicle. The fastest "riders" were hitting north of 50 mi/h across so I started flagging them, including the history of the bridge in the explanation field. Am I being over-zealous? It's not like I'm even close to KOM anything, so there's no skin in it for me, and some of these segments have been around for over a year so seems that no one else bothered.

I hate it when folks forget to turn off the Garmin and get in the plane.