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208 Comments
RanHug00
Shkhara

Difficult to imagine how Strava has decided this general idea hasn't been worth addressing.  People who follow more than a handful of friends, without even considering members who follow hundreds of athletes, get a dashboard feed that is the opposite of engaging by virtue of the inundation of posts.  Very few people have time or inclination to scroll through a dozen or more pages to find activities of interest.  But beyond that, the Strava servers are being beaten senselessly by queries to find such activities.

I have a hard time understanding why muting an athlete in the app doesn't get honored by the web interface, which is a variation on the theme.

While I'd really like an interface to specify an SQL-like query for the activities of interest (by athlete, activity type, date, and whether I've kudo'd them already), give us a analogous GUI to create such a query and add a corresponding item to the dropdown menu below the 'Following, [clubname], etc.' items.

arnaud_g
Mt. Kenya

I believe this will never change.

It's very likely that Zwift and other companies are sponsoring Strava to ensure that indoor activities will keep having maximal visibility.
Let's imagine if you only see outdoor activities from your friends, you will be attracted to ride outside. It would be a pity as you will not hide yourself from the sun and the fresh air when riding in your pain cave.

And it will be a drama for all the business of indoor sports...

vtaranenko
Shkhara

@arnaud_g zwift is just a part of the problem.

What about home/manual/gym workouts, treadmill runs? Those have nothing to do with big businesses, nevertheless clutter the feed a lot. 

Reggie22
Mt. Kenya

As a subscriber, I would expect to be able to be able to filter what appears in my Activity Feed; namely by type of activity (run, cycle (including 'real world' & virtual), swim etc).  Some followers like multiple activities which is fine, but I only want to see their 'real word' cycling activities.  Also I don't necessarily see all the various challenges followers have joined.

I'd also like to be able to select a default map type (in my case dirt for cycling), instead of having to edit every activity.

This should be simple enough to sort and if it isn't, I'm not sure how long I'll continue to subscribe; might as well 'drop' to free app.

mercerkg
Superuser
Superuser

Hi @Reggie22,

Your comment was merged here to thread about filtering activities, but I was interested in the line about an option on routing to select surface (such as "dirt"). I think this is a really interesting (great) idea:
1- The underlying data is there as when you save a route routing tells you how much is dirt, road or unknown.
2- How much is unknown depends on whether the openstreetmap contributor recorded the information (and this sometimes depends on whether they have done an "on the ground" survey or are working from satellite photography).
3- The mapping data comes from openstreetmap to Strava via mapbox who (I believe) also create the routing (which is updated differently to the displayed map). I'd be quite interested in a "surface" map so I could easily find the "unknown" for my local mapping efforts but I've not found this on any platform (and don't have any skills to code it myself). (Edit: although (obviously!) someone has had a go at creating something https://overpass-turbo.eu/s/1aCT ; if you go to the chosen area and hit "run" it does (I think) do something that relates to surface as an overlay).
4- "Dirt" covers a wide range of options from semi-unmade road to an otherwise indistinct right of way across a field or mountainside. The "dirt" trails you would be willing to ride on are not the same as those that I would (I'm a chicken).
5- In the UK it is far from clear which dirt trails can legally be cycled on and routing does not account for where there are barriers to cycling such as stiles or unreceptive landowners...

I think heatmaps and whether the segment is on or off a road will give you an idea of whether a route you're planning is what you're looking for, because others have also often been there. Have you used the "mainly off road" and "most popular" options? I think the openstreetmap data is a little way off saying that a trail that few people cycle on is a suitable surface and terrain for cycling without any obstacles (legal, physical or human) for an enjoyable journey.

I'm getting bored of my own reply now, so enjoy the trails 😎

HCF
Shkhara

Instead of scrolling all activities in the feed (walk to the shop, 15 min workout etc.), I would like an option to filter activities with a certain length, KOMs, distances above 30 km and so fort. 

Then I could see the activities that I usually consider giving a kudos.

ChrisBerry
Kilimanjaro

At least 10% of all the ideas posted here are about having the ability to filter your activity feed and Strava continues to ignore this request over and over and over again. I don't want to see every time someone walks their dog around the block.

HCF
Shkhara

Maybe, if many enough gives a tombs up 🙂

nesielheum
Mt. Kenya

I am sad to say that after nearly 10 years, I will not be renewing my "subscriber" membership to Strava this March 2024. One of the main reasons is that my feed has become overloaded with my friends dog walks, yoga at the "Y", morning ABs workouts, 20 minutes on the elliptical and only the occasional interesting cycling workout/ride either virtual or outdoor. My inability to filter the types of events that are displayed on my feed is very important to me and Stravas indifference to this request is my primary reason for cancelling my subscription. I have defaulted all of my activities to private where only I can see them unless I feel that I can share an interesting accomplishment, then I will change to where "everyone" can view. I really do love the app, but like this post, my feed has become a run on sentence with mostly useless and boring information.

Goodbye my friends.

bobcounts
Mt. Kenya

I am sad to say that after nearly 10 years, I will not be renewing my "subscriber" membership to Strava this March 2024. One of the main reasons is that my feed has become overloaded with my friends dog walks, yoga at the "Y", morning ABs workouts, 20 minutes on the elliptical and only the occasional interesting cycling workout/ride either virtual or outdoor. My inability to filter the types of events that are displayed on my feed is very important to me and Stravas indifference to this request is my primary reason for cancelling my subscription. I have defaulted all of my activities to private where only I can see them unless I feel that I can share an interesting accomplishment, then I will change to where "everyone" can view. I really do love the app, but like this post, my feed has become a run on sentence with mostly useless and boring information.

Goodbye my friends.

Sorry to see you go but I don't blame you.  I will suggest everyone that has posted or cares about this topic and feature to open up another ticket to the support desk at Strava.  That is what I did.  They aren't doing squat about it.  This is what I really don't like about Strava.  They're glad to take our money, keen to make non-useful features and ignore the ones that matter (like this).  I suspect that their philosophy is basackwards here - it's about them making more money or spending less budget.

Here's the BS I got back on a more recent support request where I referenced this thread.  Same thing they said many, many months ago:

 
Thanks for checking in on this Feature request.  We don't have an update to share at this time, however please know that the feedback has been reviewed and we will provide updates as they become available.  We're committed to delivering the best athlete experience, and that often means weighing various ideas against each other and fitting them into our overall roadmap. Your input is valuable and all ideas go through evaluation to ensure they align with both broader goals and our athletes' needs. We'll be sure to keep you updated as soon as there are any notable developments. Thank you for being a part of the Community and for helping us make our product better together!
Best, Robin Strava Support Team

DL_44
Shkhara

Unfortunately, Strava is like any other social media site. The strength of a social media site is to be the owner of it's algorithm. There is no way that Strava will ever allow people to have full control of what content they see. That was the downfall of Google + (plus). They will give you the 'illusion' that you have some guidance of what you can see, but you'll never be able to have the control.

So instead of repeating the same complaints, can we focus on trying to get Strava to improve navigation of the timeline stream? For example:

  • A stronger learning algorithm machine. In Settings > Feed Ordering > Personalized - If i truly don't interact with certain activity types, then why am I still seeing it on my timeline? If this setting is selected and the algorithm is stronger, then we would have less complaints.
  • The ability to allow users to create a personal upcoming event like a marathon, and the ability to 'correlate' the training activities to that event. Also, allow followers to follow that event - which should allow their algorithm to display the related training activities as a higher priority than a non-specific workout activity. 
  • The ability to collapse/expand related activities (ie warm up, run, cool down, stretch, etc)
  • The ability to create leaderboards/groups from within our own follower list
  • A setting that collapses/expand/hide photos/maps from the timeline
  • On the home screen of the mobile app, the ability to quickly toggle to group activities similar to what can be done on the web version. Currently takes 4 taps vs a 1-click toggle on web.
rtbike11
Mt. Kenya

Those are some great suggestions, but the first sentence or the post is super disappointing to read, I have abandoned all other social media platforms because of this same reason, just a ton of garbage I don't want to see.  Strava was the last one that seemed useful were I could see the meaningful activities friends posted, with all the devices out there I am sure some of my friends don't even realize they are posting some things to Strava like their Whoop recovery stats, as devices sync to one app or another then apps sync with each other.

I really don't see what value Strava gets out of showing me activity types (of my friends in my feed) I don't want to see?  The end result will be me canceling my subscription, Strava is the last stop for all my data anyway, it already goes to Garmin and Training Peaks and other apps first so there is no incentive to even use this app other than seeing and sharing activities with friends and connecting with new people I have met on ride.  This is the one thing that Strava did well that most of the other apps don't do.  





ChrisBerry
Kilimanjaro

@rtbike11 I agree with you 100%. I've been a Strava premium subscriber long enough to remember when it was a platform for cyclists and runners and it was a great way to share rides and get inspirations for new cycling adventures. Today the overwhelming majority of what appears in my feed is dog walking, yoga, Zwift rides and loads of other crap that I have zero interest in seeing. I walk 2 or 3 miles almost every day but I always mute those activities so they don't litter the feed with boring stuff that I know other people don't care about. Unfortunately, most other Strava users don't do the same. I know people who post 7 or 8 activities every single day, and they are always identical. Occasionally these people do an interesting ride that I would like to check out, but I don't want to see every time they walk to the end of the driveway to pick up the newspaper or meditate for 5 minutes. If it's not a real outdoor bike ride or run, I do not want to see it. Unfortunately, Strava would rather get paid to promote Zwift, Peloton, Whoop and countless others than give premium users the ability to see the things they actually care about. I see less and less value in Strava every day. RWGPS has much better route planning and there are numerous training platforms that provide better fitness metrics. Strava is becoming almost as bad as Facebook.   

DL_44
Shkhara

Chris:
I think a couple of my suggestions would actually work for you:

  • A stronger learning algorithm machine. In Settings > Feed Ordering > Personalized - If i truly don't interact with certain activity types, then why am I still seeing it on my timeline? If this setting is selected and the algorithm is stronger, then we would have less complaints.
  • On the home screen of the mobile app, the ability to quickly toggle to group activities similar to what can be done on the web version. Currently takes 4 taps vs a 1-click toggle on web.
rtbike11
Mt. Kenya

I don't even see why that filtering out certain activities from actual users would impact promotions, event invitations or other club and or sponsor post etc. 

What happened to Strava being fully funded by subscribers?  I thought I got a message a while back that that was the direction they were going, which I was happy about as there would be no need to clutter the application with adds or be beholden to sponsors.

I would happily pay for a Facebook or Instagram that was full of just my friends stuff.