Strava breaks DCRainmaker

seanin4711 · 17-01-2023 2:12pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120117651#Comment_120117651

use this and trainerday,class in combination!

Large bottle small glass · 17-01-2023 2:42pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120119017#Comment_120119017

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Strava#:~:text=.com%2Fheatmap%2F-,Data%20Permission%20%2D%20Allowed%20for%20tracing!,datasets%2C%20please%20contact%20Strava%20Metro.

Strava heatmap was recently changed, requiring any uses to be logged into strava.com. In order to use it, you first have to create an account there and be logged in.

Zoomed in on Nottingham cycle paths. from a blog post comparing the data

Strava heatmap layer in JOSM in the Gbamgbama area, Sierra Leone. Red lines are already mapped roads, green "lines" are from Strava heatmap data.

Strava's Global Heatmap website: https://www.strava.com/heatmap/

Data Permission - Allowed for tracing!

OpenStreetMap users have permission (reconfirmed in November 2019) to use Strava heatmap data for tracing into OSM only. For all other non-personal uses, including tracing into other datasets, please contact Strava Metro.

The data is available on a purchasable license basis, so it is great that Strava allows the data to be used free of charge for the purposes of improving OpenStreetMap (similar agreements exist with aerial imagery providers). Please be aware that this is a great tool to find missing paths, but that the presence of heatmap lines does not necessarily mean that access on that location is legal for the general public.

Macy0161 · 17-01-2023 2:43pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120118957#Comment_120118957

I use the the Strava heatmaps with Ride With GPS OSM and Satellite view to try to assess whether sections are rideable. rwgps isn't perfect either - I do a lot of route planning with "Walking" selected as it won't let me "Cycle" some of the most commonly used trails around me!

seanin4711 · 18-01-2023 9:48am

well thats me cancelling Strava!

oh wait I am on free Sub!

benneca1 · 19-01-2023 2:36am

After watching ditched my Strava account paid that is, I already have Kamoot, ride with GPS and Trainer road asked myself what I was getting and couldn't see it

JMcL · 20-01-2023 3:46pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120110916#Comment_120110916

I signed up for a years sub with 2 extra free months in January last year, but what I noticed when I logged in is that I've been flipped over to being billed monthly. I've until the end of February to make up my mind, but if I was very honest with myself, I make very limited use of the premium bits other than using it as a training log (certainly not challenging for any KOMs!)

magicbastarder · 20-01-2023 3:49pm

i currently see this:

Subscriber since 6 April 2017

Your annual membership will renew on 7 May 2023 for €59.99

jamesd · 20-01-2023 4:40pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120134653#Comment_120134653

I think the new price if charging will show closer to the renewal date, mine says June. I have gotten the last 3 years free with the strava bug a few years ago where you could gift a strava sub purchased in Brazil so I bought 3 at the time.

retalivity · 23-01-2023 7:39pm

Ireland wasn't initially listed as one of the countries that is changing, funnily enough. It was mainly the UK, France, Germany, Canada and the US.

Mines due for renewal at the start of April, still says €59.99/

magicbastarder · 24-01-2023 11:17pm

just got this in an email from strava:

Strava + FATMAP: A match made for adventure

Bring your trail and winter sport dreams to life like never before now that the FATMAP app is part of Strava!

FATMAP’s high definition, 3D satellite views of the routes you’ve explored (and the ones waiting to be discovered) will be available on Strava in the coming months.

And if you want even more – like drawing 3D routes of your fave slopes, trails or streets – a Strava subscription will get you access to allllll of FATMAP’s best features soon.

We’re stoked to keep bringing improvements to Strava to inspire you to get out there. Check out FATMAP here and keep your eyes peeled for more updates.

JMcL · 25-01-2023 4:36pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120153570#Comment_120153570

I think they're losing the plot at Strava - first the nonsense with pricing, now they announce an integration with something that won't accept authentication with Strava credentials. They might have wasted the limited amount of curiosity I had about it

Paddigol · 25-01-2023 4:42pm

Yo!!!! Tech bro!!!!! "stoked"?? Gimme a break. Who do they think they’re kidding!? How many corporate heads did that carefully crafted release have to pass I wonder… I doubt many of them are familiar with the concept.

They lost the plot around the time that they thought the height of a global pandemic/ lockdowns was a good time to pull a huge amount of features from the free version with the aim of forcing people to sign up to paid subscriptions. Just completely brain dead, ill-timed and woefully communicated stuff. Its not the principle - no problem paying for something that has value or that you need and use - it's the way they go about things that alienates them for me.

magicbastarder · 25-01-2023 5:14pm

the act of removing features from the free option may have been sensible; they clearly offer a free option to get people using it, and to act as a lead in to them subscribing (very few people would sign up for a paid subscription without having used it first for a period), but if you make the free version too feature-rich, you're giving people reasons to not bother stumping up. there's a balancing act there in terms of how much is optimal for them to offer, and i suspect they decided they were offering too much.

if i was them, i wouldn't have been worried too much about customer loyalty from a section of their customer base who hadn't actually paid for the service.

magicbastarder · 25-01-2023 5:20pm

oh, and 'forcing people to sign up' - sod that, no one was forcing anyone to do anything. either pay up, or just accept that you're still getting a free service.

Paddigol · 25-01-2023 5:40pm

I've no intention of arguing the toss on the meaning of 'being forced to do something'. You're of course welcome to your view of how Big Tech should treat customers, but I'd have thought that a slightly gentler approach with staggered pull back of features, flagged in advance, possibly not at a time when most of your customers were relying on a bit of outdoor exercise to maintain sanity in a pandemic, might have achieved the same commercial result for the company without alienating a (sizable if online commentary then/ now is anything to go by) chunk of them.

By way of example. I signed up to Spotify. Used the free version for about a year. Was aware of what the paid version offered (didn't need to actually experience/ try it to be able to make a decision) and decided it was worth taking the plunge on the paid subscription. Spotify communicate clearly. There aren't constant changes. They couldn't care less about me and just want my money, but at least they don't make it as obvious as Strava. Strava seem to want to make people realise how little their monetised features are needed.

Worth also bearing in mind that Strava was built off the back of free user's data as well as paid subscribers.

As I say, my gripe isn't with Strava deciding to monetise their features. Its the way they go about dealing with/ communicating with their customers.

JMcL · 26-01-2023 1:48pm

I'd agree with both trains of thought. As they're probably answering to VC overlords requiring double-digit growth they have to generate revenue someplace. I do appreciate that my eyeballs have never been poked out by crass ads (I do accept the the challenges are ads by another name - but they're in line with the product and don't rankle as much). What does rankle however is that when they made the big push on paid subs, they had this "well, we know it hurts, but wait to see all the cool stuff we've got coming". I'm still waiting, and something aimed primarily at skiing freds ain't really it.

As regards a taster, I do like the approach taken by the likes of Flickr where you've got full access to most of the site features, but only your last 200 photos will be visible on the free layer.

nicksnikita · 26-01-2023 11:24pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120160250#Comment_120160250

"skiing freds" 🤣

Mr. Cats · 15-02-2023 8:35am

Seems strava are providing a discount if you email their customer service

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2023/02/strava-ceo-michael-horvath-resigns-company.html

magicbastarder · 10-05-2023 9:51am

just noticed on my bank account that i've a pending transaction from strava, for €59.99 - so no price increase for me?

Weepsie · 10-05-2023 10:07am

They've increased the monthly, but yearly looks the same. I cancelled it a while ago

JMcL · 10-05-2023 12:45pm

Cancelled mine as well. They'd flipped me over to monthly payments despite having signed up for an annual sub - probably something to do with it having been a black Friday offer of 2 free months.

Their stupid system of not allowing subscription type be changed without actually cancelling the old sub first must be losing them customers. It certainly lost me - when I had to cancel it anyway it gave me pause to think did I really need it anyway? Otherwise, I'd have probably just changed my sub back to annual and ran with it.

Also bizarrely I'd have expected a "We're missing you" email or somesuch, but nada, so customer retention isn't their strong point. It's not that I'm expecting them to send out offers of discounts (I read an interesting article recently that these will be thin on the ground in general as all the "free" money is no more), but even just the "Look at all the great stuff you're missing" kind

Weepsie · 10-05-2023 7:52pm

They sent me a survey about third parties today. I'd wonder if partners and advertisers are wondering what they're getting out of it.

casion3 · 10-05-2023 9:03pm

Mine went up to 79.99 or something.

Due to expire in Aug so cancelled.

I think if I sign up again it will be 59.99

JMcL · 11-05-2023 4:58pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120580874#Comment_120580874

Showing as €59.99 for me annually. Interestingly, they jacked up the monthly price. Before I cancelled it would have renewed at €7.99, but current price is €9.99