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Strava cuts off leaderboard for free users, reduces third party apps

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Re: Strava cuts off leaderboard for free users, reduces third party apps

#21

Post by kingosticks »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #7
nsteel wrote: post #2

Giving zero days notice to your 3rd-party developers is one way to anger a relatively powerful bunch of your users. Many people will find today that their hobby/side-project is now dead in the water. I hope nobody was relying on any income from software using these APIs. But the 'best' bit: "We realize these changes could be especially challenging for some of you, so they’ll be non-breaking for 30 days, returning emp…

> Giving zero days notice to your 3rd-party developers is one way to anger a relatively powerful bunch of your users. I understand the frustration, but I also understand Strava's desire to rip the band-aid off and just shut it down. When it comes to free APIs, a sunsetting period gives a lot of people the idea that they can change the company's mind if they complain loudly enough, make enough noise on social media, o…

I agree, I don't think they have much power. But what I said was they are relatively more powerful, and I meant compared to regular free users. Some 3rd-party devs will have apps with many, many users and those users will likely value the work the developer has put in. They will be forced to relay the news to all their users right now and I imagine they'll still be pretty angry about it.

And I also entirely agree Strava needs to change. Their strategy has been non-existent for years. I was a paid subscriber for around 2 years. In that time I dutifully (naively) submitted bug reports and feature requests since I wasn't really getting much use out of the premium features but I wanted to support it. However, I never saw any value in the few changes they made so I figured my support was misplaced. I've been a happy free user ever since. I use their platform as a way bring together my data that's spread across 9 years and various Garmin, Wahoo and TomTom devices. I put quite a lot of value in that data and I trust Strava with it all. I definitely trust them less now. I think they could have handled this a lot better.

Re: Strava cuts off leaderboard for free users, reduces third party apps

#22

Post by lincolnq »

lykahb wrote: post #11

Their front page tells nearly nothing about the app. Instead, one half of it solicits registration. This tells me all I need to know about their respect to the users.

With Strava, you record your workouts (run, bike etc) and it will show you where you went, how far and how fast. Then it finds commonly-run “segments” within your ride, and ranks you on those segments against your friends and the world, so you can see yourself improving over time and compare your speed to others.

Re: Strava cuts off leaderboard for free users, reduces third party apps

#23

Post by alteria »

fredley wrote: post #15

I think this is fair. Strava summit is a cheap subscription, and running a very cheap sport to participate in. Segments in my experience appeal to spreadsheet heads who get a kick out of meaningless drilling down into data[0]. I imagine most casual runners are not that. In many ways I can see this making Strava more appealing to casual runners, as for people starting out on a fitness journey, the last thing you want…

Interesting take, and it does track with my experience as a data nerd. Also, my first time looking at myself on the leaderboards was throughly depressing

Re: Strava cuts off leaderboard for free users, reduces third party apps

#24

Post by chihuahua »

davidw wrote: post #17

I think the route builder is better in https://ridewithgps.com/ - and it seems to work better with my Wahoo Elemnt Bolt

There was a topic/thread in the Strava support forum about routes exported from Strava to Wahoo Elemnt missing all turn directions (for both paying and free users). The thread kept going for years with over 1000 responses. Every one of them said "I need turn directions, it works for Garmin but not Wahoo, please fix". Strava ignored it completely, no response.

Re: Strava cuts off leaderboard for free users, reduces third party apps

#25

Post by dewey »

mrosett wrote: post #20
dewey wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nike Run Club does something really annoying which is that they keep the GPS locations in their app and there's no way to get it out. They could easily give it back to HealthKit (on iOS at least) like all the other workout apps but they decided to lock people in that way. As far as I know then you can't use the location on Strava.

I'd been wondering why runs recorded with NRC don't have GPS data in healthkit. That's really disappointing, since I love the app overall. The guided runs with Coach Bennett in particular are great.

Yes, that’s also my main reason to use it. I really like the guided runs too.

My workaround is to remove the HealthKit permissions from NRC and use the iOS Workouts app in parallel. So before the run I start both apps, but only one is writing into HealthKit. It feels a bit silly but it works.

Re: Strava cuts off leaderboard for free users, reduces third party apps

#26

Post by fredley »

markus92 wrote: post #19
fredley wrote: post #15

I think this is fair. Strava summit is a cheap subscription, and running a very cheap sport to participate in. Segments in my experience appeal to spreadsheet heads who get a kick out of meaningless drilling down into data[0]. I imagine most casual runners are not that. In many ways I can see this making Strava more appealing to casual runners, as for people starting out on a fitness journey, the last thing you want…

Afaik Strava is more used by cyclists which is a more expensive sport. Everyone who is sort of serious uses it.

Here in the UK at least it's very popular with the running community, although I remember a few years ago it was definitely cycling-first. Would be interesting to know what the breakdown is by activities, users' primary activity type.

Re: Strava cuts off leaderboard for free users, reduces third party apps

#27

Post by lykahb »

freehunter wrote: post #16
lykahb wrote: post #11

Their front page tells nearly nothing about the app. Instead, one half of it solicits registration. This tells me all I need to know about their respect to the users.

I’m looking at their front page right now and I see “ Connecting the world's athletes” which sounds like a social network for athletes? Scrolling the tiniest bit but still without changing pages pages, I see “If you're active, Strava was made for you. We're the social network for those who strive” and it shows a map and details of someone’s workout. That tells me everything I need to know. It’s a social media app to…

The only text the front page displays is "The #1 app for runners and cyclists", on top of a screenshot and registration dividing the screen in two. Might be A/B testing going on.

Re: Strava cuts off leaderboard for free users, reduces third party apps

#28

Post by davidw »

chihuahua wrote: post #24
davidw wrote: post #17

I think the route builder is better in https://ridewithgps.com/ - and it seems to work better with my Wahoo Elemnt Bolt

There was a topic/thread in the Strava support forum about routes exported from Strava to Wahoo Elemnt missing all turn directions (for both paying and free users). The thread kept going for years with over 1000 responses. Every one of them said "I need turn directions, it works for Garmin but not Wahoo, please fix". Strava ignored it completely, no response.

Yeah, that's exactly what I noticed. I mean I could make do with it because I could switch it over to the map to see, but it's kind of nice to not have to do that.

Also, went on a long ride which ended up longer 10 days ago because the Strava one routed me onto some motorcycle trails on my gravel bike. I should have double checked, and I got to see a lava cave, so it was all good, but I'm going to stick with Ride With GPS for now.

Re: Strava cuts off leaderboard for free users, reduces third party apps

#29

Post by winkeyless »

abalashov wrote: post #10

I don't much care about these changes one way or another, but it would be very sad if they went away. For better or worse, they created far and away the best fitness platform for cyclists, if only because of the mindshare and network effects. Their analyses are also quite good. It would be a real pity if they went away, and I hope they stay solvent. I've been a paying subscriber since I first joined in Aug 2018 and a…

As a cyclist and DAU I haven’t been a paying user for the past few years. Just subscribed today. This application costs a lot to run and it’s been mostly ads-free unlike Instagram. Pay if you can. Nothing comes free.

Re: Strava cuts off leaderboard for free users, reduces third party apps

#30

Post by coronadisaster »

heynk wrote: post #6

As a non-paying user, this seems to be mostly fair. I used to do pretty remote trail running, and the route building feature was great for putting together a route and exporting it to my watch. If I get back into that type of running, then I'd probably be willing to pay just for that feature. Hiding the "friends only" leaderboard seems like a bad idea on their part. That feature definitely drove engagement and friend…

Why don't you use something like gpx logger ?
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