Be Private but still compete for segments

[Safesegments]

Hello. Wondering if it has ever been suggested to make a way to have your activities be non-public, yet still be able to be part of the leaderboards?

A lot of the fun of Strava is segments. I hesitate to not make my activities public because I like being part of the segment leaderboards. I feel like I have to choose between safety and fun (and one of the biggest draws to the app).

My suggestion would be to give an option to have your activities private but still participate in segment leaderboards, etc. Anyone else agree?

[anchskier]

I disagree with this idea.  If your activity is private, then there is no way for other people to know whether the activity is legit.  How would someone know whether someone was driving in a car or riding an e-bike to take the KOM?  The only way these things can be addressed is if the activities are viewable by other users.

[whatislove]

This is not a fullproof way to tell if its legit at all. If possible I often go for segments at the end of a ride and split the activity in two parts. So you would only see a very short activity anyhow.

I really wish for segments to be public, but the rest of my ride to be private. I often compete on rides that contain pictures I only want my friends to see.

[zscs]

Totally agree. I can write an example as well. On a Segment (normal 'bike ride' segment) someone took the KOM with an e-bike last week. I asked the guy in a comment, he confirmed that, it was with an e-bike.

Tried to ask him to change his ride to 'e-bike ride' but suddenly his ride disappeared: when I click on it, I get an error message saying 'The requested activity could not be found'. But his KOM remained... Since it cannot be flagged, this issue cannot be solved.

Segment: https://www.strava.com/segments/23625513

[whatislove]

But you're the KOM now. Did you beat the E-Bike?😃

[zscs]

No I couldn't, so no idea what could have happened. Maybe the guy took too many other KOMs from other riders and someone reported this person, but I'm only guessing. (-:

[Soren · Accepted solution]

Hey @Safesegments, thanks for your post! There's actually already an idea in our ideas board that suggests the same thing, show your support by voting on it and commenting if you agree.