We’re Changing Segments – For The Better

[Scout]

We’re renewing our commitment to keeping Segments clean by decluttering duplicate and unused Segments, adding verified Segments and introducing new rules on Segment leaderboards. With these changes, you can more easily find and compete in the places that your community is actually running, riding and moving.

We know that the state of Segments is far from perfect - impossible efforts on leaderboards and duplicates (and duplicates of duplicates) of the same portion of road or trail make it hard to get the most out of Segments. What are we doing? Check out the upcoming changes:

📂Segment Decluttering:  We’re combing through our Segment database, deleting any duplicate and unused Segments with bad GPS data. That way you can find the Segments you care about faster.

✅ Verified Segments: The most iconic and popular Segments will now have a ”Verified” badge to show that the distance and elevation stats have been verified and that Strava recognizes that Segment as the “official” Segment. Now when you’re going for the CR on “Hawk Hill”, you’ll know it’s the real deal. 

🧹Leaderboard Clean-Up: With an upgraded auto-flagging system, we’ll be able to remove even more impossible efforts. You can expect to see 33% fewer impossible efforts on cycling leaderboards.  We know 33% isn’t 100%, but that’s over 100,000 inaccurate efforts removed from leaderboards! 

We'll be rolling out these changes over the next few weeks. To learn more and and see our FAQs about how this will impact your experience with Segments, click HERE. You can also join The Strava Club to be sure you don’t miss any future updates or announcements.

[R8JimBob88]

I’ve noticed a number of my created segments have been marked as “Consolidated” and clicking on them takes you to another existing segment. 

Unfortunately the segment that remains is often inappropriate (silly start / finish locations) or the title completely unidentifiable. 

Please can we have our segments back?  

Surely it would have made more sense to do a mass effort to make them private rather than removing them. This isn’t a good move 

[AEROGUERO]

It appears most people are pretty supportive of these changes.  However, my concern is that it may cause more harm than good... hear me out:

LEADERBOARD CLEANUP: I ride really hard to get KOMs (its a fun challenge for me). Nothing is worse than coming home to see that my effort was auto excluded, or deemed by the algorithm as a duplicate.  I've seen duplicates and as much as they do clutter, you can have two people with two separate CRs. who gets the kill?  Hiding segments is BETTER. 

DECLUTTERING:  Also, the auto flag is possibly worse.  If people care enough about the KOM they've earned, they can flag it.. it is easy to tell when some guy forgot to turn off their garmin, or hopped on a bus, or got picked up by the sag car, or went 40mph for 5 miles, etc  Flagging is BETTER

VERIFIED SEGMENTS: also, when someone stars a segment, it does not mean the necessarily "like" it, it is now just activated it for live segments. so i unstar a segment if i am navigating a course and am not making an attempt.  Its not a vote to be verified.  

[Duffman]

Exactly my thoughts on the random algorithm.  I've suggested many times that regional moderators should be the ones in charge of monitoring segments.  Just as they are on Trailforks.  In our local area we have so many duplicates of segments and segments within segments its extremely annoying.

[Korania]

When can I create a segment? How long to wait? 

[Scout]

👋 Hello, 
For those who are unable to create segments; we are aware of this issue and are working on solving it as quickly as possible. You can follow along on THIS POST where we will add any updates that we get from our team. 

Thank you for your patience!

[SammyD1]

I have noticed that a segment I created a couple of months ago has disappeared despite it being one of the most popular segments on the island. I’m guessing it was removed as a ‘duplicate’ but I’d created it because of a recent change in road layout and the segment then made more sense. The segment that has been retained sends you down a one way street the wrong way. I guess the algorithm will catch up on this soon?

[SammyD1]

What happens to the ‘unpopular’ segments? Do they get deleted? This seems a shame!! For example  if you were the 1st to successfully ascend a mountain pass in the Himalayas on your bike etc? I know I am most proud of some segments that I am the only women to be on the leaderboard or only a handful of people have yet achieved.

[bpack88]

This is totall bs and has stopped segment creation.  Creating and using segments is the only reason I use the service over others( ride with GPS, komoot)  If this continues, I will be moving.

[anchskier]

@bpack88 - Based on the reply by Scout above, it appears that the issue with creating segments is a separate issue that is a glitch in their system they are working on fixing.  It is not an intentional change and not part of the new segment cleanup that was the subject of this thread.

[T0FU]

These changes still have not fixed leaderboards I’m on not posting in my segment list or on my activity. Got 2 new PR’s tonight but my activity shows nothing was achieved. Support tickets open past a week still unanswered. Fix your current issues before breaking the platform more. 

[MakeStravaGreat]

Great news Strava! 

Mayb an option to dispute a segment?
When someone tries to dispute a segment an email could be sent to the creator to review their segment up against the new one someone has created. If the original creator is happy with it they could accept and then press a delete button?

[Toshi]

My biggest concern is that this sounds like a one-way door, and your approach will be error-prone. Our urban area has a lot of popular shorter climb segments which, if deleted, couldn't be re-created because you instated a minimum distance requirement. If you do this, I'd highly recommend easing up on distance requirements.

[MakeStravaGreat]

I agree @Toshi . 

There should be a trashcan icon next to each segment that we can select if its no good. Perhaps the sum of this could be incorporated into the new cleanup algorithm.

[JonUll]

Ok, this seems good at first sight, but I hope it doesn't have to do with the kom that I have gotten and they don't add me to my list (I have filed a ticket). For example, if there is a segment from A to B and another from A to C, are you going to delete one of them?

[MPeloquin]

I'm not sure how you selected "Verified Segment" and if they were validated or not, but my local hill segment has a "Verified Segment" since this week, and for some reason, it doesn't work well on repeat climbs... Kind of a bummer since many people use this hill to do repeats.

Previously, we had a lot of segments for it and a few of them worked well for repeated climbs, now I'm stuck and I no longer know what is my time for each climb...

See my activity here: (only 2 registered verified segment, but actually did 4) https://www.strava.com/activities/12555906143

[Jan_Mantau]

@MPeloquin That's a very good example, obviously the only remaining of the many uphill segments was one that starts too early. I don't know if it works because of the new segment restrictions but can you create a new one that matches better than the "verified" segment?

[R8JimBob88]

Another frustrating example of a local climb near to where I live…. All segments have been deleted apart from one that is about 20 meters longer than the segment that has been used for a Hill Climb event up the same hill for many years. 

The hill climb event had the fastest times up the hill by quite some margin but they no longer hold the top spots as most didn’t complete the final 20 meters (from a 3.5km climb).

Strava please please please reverse this change until you come up with a better solution.

[JH_KANG]

Automatic segment deletion seems very bad.
I have been creating thousands of segments since 10 years ago.
10 years ago, GPS machines were not good.
So, there were many segments with inaccurate altitude.
But, the start and end are accurate, everyone can see them, and I made them safe.
For a long time, many people used the segments and bookmarked them.

But suddenly, many of them (about 160) disappeared.
It is very unfortunate.

If many people liked the segments, they should not have been deleted even if the altitude was inaccurate.

[arielven]

Hi. Two weeks ago i had 100 koms more than i have today. 
I regulary use veloviewer to scan my efforts (Strava doesn't notify you about lost koms in -0.3 or more segment .VV does) Nothing special there.  
Looks like that's the reason.