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Comment by __xtrimsky | Hacker News Reader

I'll add just one thing to this.

For me the web interface is essential and I think it is for a lot of other people. People like to share their life with everyone. When I go running, I post a live tracking to facebook (not necessary), and then when I finished running I post automatically the data to Facebook. I want everyone to know I just spend X calories and ran for X miles. I enjoy the fact that everyone can click on the link, and view the map of where I was running.

I'm sure this is not a requirement for everyone, but a web interface is for me.

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I'm not sure why the web interface is needed for that, or am I missing something?

The app has a post to facebook option, including screenshot of the map trace. I guess having the ability to scroll and zoom the map might be interesting, but it doesn't seem like it'd be a requirement.

I could very well be wrong on that though. Let me know if I'm missing something.

EDIT: Here is a screen grab of what the facebook post looks like for reference http://cl.ly/image/2O3d2Q1v2i1b

Not a requirement for me at all. I use both Runkeeper and Strava (long story) and occasionally post times to social media but mostly use them for personal tracking and connecting with friends around running.

Posting an image of my course + time to web would be enough for me and prevent the need for building a web version when some novel functionality might be a better investment.

That is my thought. We've already got the post a screenshot of map and times in there. I'd rather work on adding interval training stuff and more charts and graphs than build a web version.

I'll actually go one further and say that if something has a web gateway that is mandatory, I specifically won't use it. I've used MyFitnessPal in the past, but when I tried to use it again recently, opening the app presented me with a login screen, so I deleted the app. I think Endomoto also forces me to log in, so I deleted it. If I recall correctly, RunKeeper also has a login gateway and they imply that you won't be able to use it without signing in. I almost deleted that one too, but I think that once I got around the login screen they stopped asking me actively to sign in.

No, people do not like to share their life with everyone. You might like to do that, but please do not generalize.

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