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Strava launches ‘athlete posts’ aiming to become even more of an online hub for cyclistsStrava athlete posts (Strava).png

Strava launches ‘athlete posts’ aiming to become even more of an online hub for cyclists

Blogging feature to be made available for all users later in the summer
by Alex Bowden
Tue, May 02, 2017 10:59
2

Strava has launched ‘athlete posts’, a new feature that the firm says will allow users to “share stories, photos, questions, gear tips, race reports, recommendations, and workouts with other Strava users.”

Strava has long permitted users to post photos and comments to rides, but it sounds like the new functionality will provide much greater scope.

Set alongside the recently-announced Club Events feature, it’s clear that the network is keen to become a real hub for athletes.

In a statement, the firm said it was planning to build “a place where you can find everything you love about your sport,” and cited homemade energy bar recipes and “tips for fixing a busted IT band” as being possible subjects for posts.

“Strava is a place where athletes come to connect with each other, share their experiences and learn from one another,” said Aaron Forth, the firm’s chief product officer. “Until now, those connections have been based entirely on athletic activities. Our opportunity is to help athletes have conversations beyond their daily activities, sharing everything from favourite gear to injury recovery tips to travel recommendations.

“To open up those conversations, we are introducing the ability for members to post new types of content. Ultimately, when you want to engage with friends who share your passion for all things running, cycling, swimming, hiking, or any other sport, Strava is the place to do it.”

Athlete posts will be made available to the entire Strava community later this summer, but for now they’re being trialled by 36 athletes.

These include Phil Gaimon, who seems to be becoming something of a Strava professional. The ex-pro is also midway through a light-hearted video series in which he attempts to bag Strava KOMs.

Strava
Alex Bowden

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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2 comments

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tritecommentbot | 7 years ago
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Yeah I think they're making a misstep here, but I'm also glad they're experimenting. I subbed to Gaimon to see the blog feature earlier on and my feed shows two blog posts by him in a row. Which for me is already too much. I actually liked the idea of people I'm following being able to blog a bit - I only follow people I'm interested in, but now I think it's going to be too much spam unless you're super tight with your followers, chiefly because they've added spam, without getting rid of the existing spam.

They may need to go back to the drawing board and do what people have suggested all along - give options and checkboxes.

Show/Hide: Virtual Rides, Commutes, Rides less than [custom number] km, Manual Uploads, eBikes, etc.

Mute Follower. 

Make my commutes private.

I liked the idea of more significant rides making their way to the top. We really don't need to see everyone's commute twice a day. Really wish people would show some restraint and private their commutes and shitty rides to pick up some milk. It's just spam to your followers and it's led to this situation where Strava are now trying to find a way to deal with the resultant years of complaints, and probably made it worse.

But it's not Strava's fault to begin with, a lot of people are basically spammy, and don't understand that no-one gives a shit about your daily bollocks. Do interesting stuff, share interesting stuff. Stop sharing uninteresting stuff. What's so hard about that.

 

Anyway, will see. Doubt the current iteration will last more than a few months. No biggie. Let them collect some data and do their thing.

 

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andyeb | 7 years ago
1 like

And so the penny drops, with regard to the much-hated non-chronological feed: https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115000086764-Feedbac...

 

I think the whole direction Strava are headed in at the moment is going to loose them a lot of users. And rightly so, because they are doing what suits themselves, not what suits the (sometimes paying) customers.

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