Hacker News Reader

Comment by steve_adams_86 | Hacker News Reader

It's such a drag how far Strava has fallen. 7 years ago I thought they were a stellar example of how tech can be helpful and innovative in simple but meaningful ways. Now nothing of interest has happened in several years and what has been added almost takes away from what was good in some ways.

I think Strava was a passion project for some people working there a decade ago, but I suspect they're long gone and the people there now have much different objectives and leadership.

I think I'll delete my account. Does anyone know of an up and coming alternative? This space seems to be loaded with great apps that kinda lost steam and fell into decline.

View on HN

Recommending an alternative is not so easy, it really depends on how you've been using Strava.

Have you been running, cycling, triathloning...? Did you use it for route creation and discovery? For data analysis to support your training? Just for keeping track of your own activities? For segment leaderboards and KOMs?

If you're talking about cycling: I'd say MapMyRide or Komoot for routes; TrainerRoad or TrainingPeaks for analysis and training support; Garmin Connect for tracking rides, and I myself just decided to give Velo Hero a try (I find Connect to be very confusing). Segments and KOMs was Strava's only real USP because of the network effect and the wealth of data they had.

(Look, I'm already talking about them in past tense...)

This is all made a bit harder since Tapiriik, the file syncing tool, was disconnected from both Strava and Garmin Connect, for reasons I do not know.

At least Strava provides a way to export all your data in bulk (which now also includes power data for cycling).

I've been doing a lot of route creation with Caltopo [0] these days, as it rivals Strava's own tool (except, sigh: for the Heatmap feature). If you want passion projects, that's it. Good import/export support as well. I can make an entire guidebook sans the narrative with it, basically (and do!) [1][2]

[0] https://caltopo.com/map.html

[1] https://justinsimoni.com/routes/backpacking-sawatch-14ers/

[2] https://justinsimoni.com/2018/11/10/how-to-access-every-14er...

I'm disappointed to hear Tapiriik isn't working with Garmin Connect! Is there somebody at Garmin I can yell at? I loved having my data backed up.

While I agree there have been no real features added for a long time, and there are significant gaps, it would be really difficult for me to leave Strava at this point. As a trail runner, all of my running friends are there and it is the only social network I use each day. I use it for daily motivation, route finding, comparison, running log and workout analysis. Most importantly, it has enabled me to connect with dozens of other runners in real life who I never would have met and run with.

I use ridewithgps.com. The managing & editing of tracks & routes has always suited my needs. I think they offer some of the more social-networky features too, but I don't use them and can't comment. I should also say, I've never used Strava so I don't know exactly what I'm comparing to.

Why does it need to have new things of interest? Strava works perfectly. I love that it hasn't significantly changed its model in constant search of squeezing out profits.

Strava is a horrible implementation that has done basically nothing for core functionality in several years. I'm tempted daily to make an alternative and just give it away for free, maybe ad supported. The cost to operate the features they currently have can't be bad -- there are dozens of videogame stats website that do essentially the same thing, with more data.

* It's pretty ridiculous that I can see others 12-week history, and even my own on the website or iOS, but I need Strava Premium to see my own on Android.

* No bulk updating

* Very unsatisfactory implementation of gear. Essentially nonexistent on mobile.

* Their postprocessing of routes for estimations are always way off

* I commute every day via bike, and track it on strava. I tag is as "Commute", and I expect that strava would do something to filter it so my friends don't see all those every day. They don't do anything with that extra metadata.

Hell, even Lance Armstrong abandon ship

The commute tag is totally bizarre. It's been there for ages and doesn't do the only thing it needs to do. I do not get what they are up to.

> Hell, even Lance Armstrong abandon ship

Well, to be far, I'm not sure if what Lance Armstrong does should be used to gauge what other people should do :)

The feed is terrible. No filtering, not ordered chronologically (which is incomprehensible to me, since instead of seeing activities as they happen, I see 5 of my buddy's activities all jammed into one batch). Challenges pollute the feed. Sponsored activities ("Tom ran with a Suunto!") are incredibly annoying. No way to disable "friend" recommendations, even people I've unfriended. And almost zero new features added since I joined. It's only marketing for Summit, at this point.

The activities on the feed are ordered by upload time rather than the activity time. Your friends are probably syncing several days of data from their watches in one drop.

It looks like they toned down the sponsored activities, rather than a brightly colored bar it's now a more subtle black on white (at least that's how it is on the website today).

I mean, one thing it could have is generating videos of your ride that integrate photos and video you take.

Strava is already contributing to the genre of pointless personalized videos, fortunately they limited themselves to end-of-year statistics so far.

If you like data and are a runner (or a cyclist.. I think they support cycling now) then I like https://runalyze.com/. To be honest, if anything it gives me too much data as I don't know what most of it means but it's free to use.

Last year with the new CEO they tried a big push to do all things health, like tracking your yoga, crossfit, etc. etc. I think the effort they've been putting in has been missed by the core community.

Not saying you should keep your account, but if features aren't getting traction, they don't get seen.

At the same time, there are features the community was asking for that didn't get built, so things probably started to feel stale.

For long distance travellers you can check out TravelMap (https://travelmap.net). I built it for my cycling and hiking trips and then opened it to the public ;)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com