[Closed] Strava activity feed

If you do quit Strava what are the alternatives though?

Not so bothered about the new feed view, the chronological order is a bit annoying though, it seems to be based on when they uploaded them rather than putting them back in date order. What annoys me more is just lately strava flags up PRs but doesnt tell me the position on the leaderboard. I keep having to recompute the ride to get it to fix. I dont mind seeing myself and other peoples zwift because the few friends that do use it as well I like to give them extra encourgament for riding in the winter where previously they haven't bothered. I can see why other people would want the ability to hide them though!

I'm using Runtastic MTB pro. Just started so still using Strava but I'm fed up with the KOM crap and just want a yearly record of how much I've done. I believe Runtastic has a tracker function via Facebook which will be handy for my other half.

Well, there's no shortage of alternative activity trackers! I'm the opposite though - no interest in an annual mileage figure (don't even bother logging all rides/commutes), specific ride data/analysis is what I want, and there isn't really a decent alternative to Strava IMO. I'll keep using it but probably cancel my paid membership.

Golden Cheetah is very good for data analysis of rides if you have all your rides in a suitable format (ie .fit from Garmin sports devices) on a hard drive somewhere. Bit of a learning curve. Very good for tagging rides with keywords so you can later find them easily or compare etc.

Not particularly a fan of the new layout so far, but using the free Strava with free Stravistix plugin tells me a lot about my rides/segments.

Only extra thing I would really like at the mo is personal segment records for different bikes, so if I for instance beat my PB on the Wazoo going up a hill, it would tell me... All things being equal, my Cube road bike should slaughter the Wazoo (but not by as much as I'd expect, ~50secs slower up "Old Winchester to the top").

* Proper privacy so even if on a leaderboard but enhanced privacy set, you can't view that persons ride without being an approved follower.

Can't see that happening. If you don't want to appear on the leaderboard, keep the ride private. If you to want the leaderboard, then people have to be able to check out the ride otherwise they have no way to judge if it should be flagged.

EDIT: BTW, the new timeline and layout is rubbish. Some nice design elements, but rubbish.

Strava has self appointed judges? ^^ 😯

Shouldn't really surprise me. 😕

Those looking for alternatives. There's no need to quit strava. Just stop taking it so seriously. It's free and it's up to you how much importance you put on your stats. Caring about other peoples' is just weird.

UK units of measurement (Celsius NOT Fahrenheit with feet, miles etc).

'Display Preferences'
Units & Measurement

🙄

Anyway, as any fule kno, bikeriderists use metric. Additionally, Fahrenheit is a Dutch measurement and hasn't been used in the UK for over 55 years which, last time I checked is older than you deadkenny 🙂

May as well ask for subs that cost 3 pounds, 18 shillings and 10 pence

I think he wants Celsius, miles, feet not Celsius, metres, Km.

Ah. Well. Can't have your gateau and mange it.

Strava has self appointed judges?

Err - The users.

My point is that if someone wants to appear on the leaderboards, then they need to make their ride public. If you could keep it private, then others can't really tell if the ride that just took a bucket load of KOMs was in a car or a moped. If all you know is that your KOM just got beaten by 2s but you can't see that the rest of the activity included a 50 mile stretch of 100mph down the M1 how would you know if it was legit or not?

I'm fairly ambivalent about the feed order, and as an IT pro, I actually think the new layout is pretty good.

I have a bigger issue with them buggering around with data. I've got a support case open with them at the moment, as they don't appear to be able to import data correctly nor add up. Case in point, a 4.89 mile run from Garmin Connect yesterday appeared in Strava (via direct integration) as 5 miles. Since the start of October, the training log weekly totals have actually added up to [i]more[/i] than the sum of the individual runs. And yet Strava support have been telling me they actually round distance down to one decimal place... All they can tell me is "Strava is interpreting the GPS points differently to Garmin". I don't mind that when it comes to plotting the map, but if you're importing data from another source, take the data including the totals and calculated values such as pace and display it as is.

I refer you to the 5th sentence in my last post Matts.

Otherwise race.

if you're importing data from another source, take the data including the totals and calculated values such as pace and display it as is.

Don't agree. All they do is import the GPS track, if their cleaning algorithm is different to that of Garmin then it differs. I've got rides that report more distance or less at times. I'm not so bothered though.

For the last few weeks it's been chopping off my cool downs. It obviously looks at the difference in pace and removes data it thinks it out of bounds for the activity. So if you run for a number of miles, then spend quarter of a mile walking to cool down, it's stripping the quarter mile off. I've looked at the source Garmin data, and the distance is there, along with the pace, speed, calories etc. There's no reason for Strava to try and calculate their own. The only time they need to do this, if when processing data from their own app. And it's definitely a bug, as it's only started doing it since the beginning of October.

rossa - Member

If you do quit Strava what are the alternatives though?

Depends what you want. if you are training properly and have power data I believe training peaks is better

Mine still looks chronological (although hard to tell if they've hidden an activity completely).

Typography is easier on the eye.

Otherwise neither better nor worse afaic

If all you know is that your KOM just got beaten by 2s but you can't see that the rest of the activity included a 50 mile stretch of 100mph down the M1 how would you know if it was legit or not?

Part of my commute home is along a canal towpath which runs parallel to a train line, I'm in the top 10 for a section but the KOM holder managed to average 45mph for this section on his route home.

Hmm, I think the ordering is now by time of upload, the start times of the last few rides in my activity listing go 1700, 1000, 1100, 1600 0800, 1700. The last two are my commutes which I've just uploaded.

In one way that can be useful if someone goes away for a few days then uploads all their rides when they get home. Think I prefer proper chronological though. See how it goes.

Edit: I've just set the commute flag on both my last two rides and the activity map for both has a commute label in the top left corner. I'll need to check via a different account, like my wife's, if they show up in that.

TBH the non-Zwifters seem more precious than the Zwifters. It's not our fault our training is indoors, it doesn't suddenly make it less valid, or make it less important just because it's not outdoors. Why can't you non-Zwifters just accept, it's what some people do

I can accept it, some of my best friends are Zwifters. Live and let live.

I'd still rather not see it on my Strava feed though.

Ditto for commutes and running.

Not sure why you'd want to see ANY of your "friends" excercise data.
You were either there in which case you wouldn't need to see it.
Or you weren't there and there's even less need to see it.

If an actual mate in the pub starts telling you about an activity they did and then went on to include stage names, times, HR data etc. You'd laugh at them and probably tell them to STFU. No?

If you flag a ride as a commute it doesn't show up in the activity feed of others. The data such as distance, ascent do show up in Strava challenges

^ It does in my feed

@whitestone - it really does!

Be good if it could capture conditions of the ride too, dark or light, wet or Dry... Give you a bit of incentive when the weather dictates you can’t really compete?

@fifeandy & imnotverygood - curious. Checked again and they appear in my wife's activity feed but way down the listing and with no obvious ordering when compared to activities by people we both follow.

One thing that hasn't happened is that there's a couple of followers who give kudos to every ride and that hasn't happened yet. Next commute I'll leave one ride open and mark the other as a commute and see what happens.

I don't mind the new feed. Can still get to the meaty bits and the training log link is handy.

As for Zwift, segments on Zwift are unaffected by wind so there is actually more useful comparison in seeing how fast somebody ascended the virtual Box Hill or the Volcano or did three laps around the CCW loop than how well they drafted a tractor down the B4030 😆
Also useful for seeing how fast a race was on a certain course.

To be honest, the only thing I look at on people's real feeds is average speed and weighted power if they have it. Or to see who's been trespassing in 'my' woods 😆

atlaz - Member 

I think he wants Celsius, miles, feet not Celsius, metres, Km.

Ah. Well. Can't have your gateau and mange it.

Yeah 'Statute UK' measurements like Garmin have a setting for. It's the assumption that anyone who uses Celsius must be fully metric that gets me.

Though it's my age I think. 70s kid and parents all imperial and schools are teaching metric, so I'm half and half. They'd talk F but I'm used to C (I still call it Centigrade though), but then road signs are miles and yards so I'm used to that. Mixed up with weights though. I understand stones for bathroom scales but not kg, yet buy stuff in shops weighed in g and kg. Bike weight I understand more in lbs, because many quote it in that.

Confused 😀

Anyway, as any fule kno, bikeriderists use metric.

Always an oddity that. As said our road signs aren't metric. Of groups I ride with it's a mix of who's got their Garmin set in KM or miles. Makes it confusing when talking about how far we've gone.

And height, I can never visualise metres. Might be a skiing thing though as I'm used to places that quote their mountain altitudes in feet (okay, US in particular), and 14,000ft sounds a lot more impressive 😀

As said our road signs aren't metric. Of groups I ride with it's a mix of who's got their Garmin set in KM or miles. Makes it confusing when talking about how far we've gone.

Like you a 70s child so was taught in metric. I grew up on a farm and farming's been metric since I can remember but we'd still talk about "the six acre field".

Km on and off road for me. Weights in Kg. Things like personal height etc. is a curious mix, I'll use metric for my height but imperial for things like chest and waist. Temperature is always Celsius/Centigrade, Fahrenheit is just too weird.

I'm sure my Garmin (510) allows me to set different fields using different systems so you can have Imperial distance along with metric height and similar.

I'm not a fan of the new style activity feed. Visually it's ok, will take a bit if getting used to though, as with most changes.
They need to add the option to revert to chronological order though, because it's just a mess as it is at the moment.
An option to not see peoples turbo/Zwift sessions would be handy too, although personally I treat zwift the same as any other ride with segments in it etc.

I can't see what the fuss is about. It looks a bit different, but my rides are all still in order. Maybe it's because I don't follow anybody, although I can't see why I'd care what order other people's rides were in.

This guy ^^

Be like him.

Maybe it's because I don't follow anybody, although I can't see why I'd care what order other people's rides were in.

Sharing rides on Strava is little different to sharing photos. Some folk do, some folk don't. For most that do it's a record of where they've recently been, not a random collection in no particular order.

Fair enough, but surely you can't see the ride until they upload it anyway. Isn't it better for it to pop up at the top of your feed when they upload it rather than be inserted further down because they actually did the ride last week?

But I'm not trying to tell other people how they should use Strava 😮 Each to their own. I was just confused by all this talk of rides being out of order when mine look fine and it took me a while to realise people were talking about other people's rides not being in order.

You were either there in which case you wouldn't need to see it.
Or you weren't there and there's even less need to see it.

I was encouraged to join Strava by a couple of friends and colleagues for whom their only ride time is commuting (due to family, other commitments etc), whereas I'm fortunate enough to have a partner who's into riding so we get to some interesting places. If my ride is anything beyond a commute or dedicated training ride I'll try to post an interesting and relevant pic. Strava has become a travel diary (most of our holidays are riding-based, whether on or off-road). If you're stuck commuting or zwifting then seeing other people managing to get out on cool rides can be motivating/inspiring.

There's a wee group of us locally that ride in the same area and it's often useful to see where folk have been, see what new stuff they might have found and get an idea of what the current trail conditions might be like. So, if someone has just ridden a trail I might contact them to find out about river levels, felling etc.

If you're using the VeloViewer Chome Extension then a recent upgrade will let you re-order your Strava feed into chronological order (not tried it yet).

[quote=gwurk ]Out of interest. How big a group of riders is that? And are they the only riders you follow? or is your activity feed shared with lots of other folk not very local to you and you rarely ever ride with?

Sorry Gary. I wasn't ignoring you, I'd just not seen your question. I only spotted it when I came to post that bit about VeloViewer.

Half a dozen in the immediate group. A few more "friends of friends" locally.

As for wider sharing, I actually had no idea but I checked mine and I have 50 or so followers. That'll mainly be folk I've ridden with at some point - here, Edinburgh-ish or wherever else I've been. These are the ones I rarely ride with but it's still interesting to see what they're up to, even if the specifics of the route mean little or nothing to me. So, I find that Clare has been abroad in the sun, Jason has been buying cake again, that sort of thing. I guess that for these folk, the display order is less critical but the chronology is all part of the story.

to see who's been trespassing in 'my' woods

Errrrm 😳

Just noticed that there's now a "Chronological" button at the top of the feed. Given its size (massive) I'm pretty sure it wasn't there the other day. I'm not on a premium account BTW.

There was also an item in the feed about "posts" which seems to indicate that they are looking more to the social side of things. The page behind the item seemed rather confusing as it wasn't obvious if posts were attached to activities or appeared separately. There's a new menu item under the "+" menu to create a post.

Just noticed that there's now a "Chronological" button at the top of the feed. Given its size (massive) I'm pretty sure it wasn't there the other day. I'm not on a premium account BTW.

There's a new menu item under the "+" menu to create a post.

Could be that Colin but I've not updated (or been asked permission to update) any browser extensions. But ...

"[i]Sat 21 Oct, 2017 - Screen: Chrome Extension - Type: New

"Chronological" button added to Strava dashboard that, when pressed, reorders the activities currently listed by their start date.[/i]"

So it looks like it's that.

@fifeandy - +1 to that.