We’re Improving Leaderboard Accuracy ✅

[mal]

Good news! We’re updating our algorithms to make leaderboards more credible, and taking steps to proactively prevent suspicious efforts from appearing on leaderboards – so you can trust that the results you see are accurate. We're withholding from leaderboards any activities that appear incorrectly labeled (e.g. a bike ride getting uploaded as a run) or have faulty GPS data.

With these and other ongoing changes, we can better ensure your efforts will get the ranking they deserve and you can trust that the CR, KOM or QOM (plus all the other times on the leaderboard) are the real deal. These changes will be for all activities moving forward – we can’t yet capture past activities. And of course, you can still report an activity if you think there’s one the algorithm missed. Learn more about that here.

This is a big undertaking – we saw around 26,000 1-mile running splits that would have been faster than the world record last week! – and the work will be ongoing. Here’s how we’re committing to cleaning up leaderboards right now:

The Details 📝

✔️ There’s a new threshold for flagging: Activities with too much erroneous data will be automatically flagged – which means all segment efforts from those activities will be withheld from leaderboards.
✔️ We’re doubling down on catching bike rides (or downhill ski runs, car rides, etc.) marked as runs with new run-specific parameters that will flag activities based on their distance and pace data.

[vmorande]

Well, If you don't process past activities righ after having a decent algorithm, we are doomed because they are piling and with 10 flags a day it's impossible to keep local segments clean.

[DannyDindia]

Look at these awesome activities that were not flagged automatically:

https://www.strava.com/activities/11162527264#3216134935065909580
https://www.strava.com/activities/11214927165/overview

400 km/h average speed!

[Alex_Michel]

Impossible!

(Sarcasm)
We’re updating our algorithms to make leaderboards more credible, and taking steps to proactively prevent suspicious efforts from appearing on leaderboards – so you can trust that the results you see are accurate.

(/sarcasm)

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@DannyDindia wrote:

Look at these awesome activities that were not flagged automatically:

https://www.strava.com/activities/11162527264#3216134935065909580
https://www.strava.com/activities/11214927165/overview

400 km/h average speed!

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- Strava

[bandit_74]

I often find that when using some Garmin devices (I test many of them) with the energy-saving mode activated, the GPS detects fewer points.
I have noticed that some KOMs appear on my profile but unfortunately (!) they are incorrect.
It's easy to identify them because they have a higher average speed than the maximum speed, which is actually impossible.
This occurs on very short segments.
I suggest implementing a simple yet effective check: a segment where the average speed is higher than the maximum is mathematically incorrect and impossible, it should be not reported in the KOM lists.
What do you think about this?

[Alex_Michel]

I think it's a great idea. But more importantly Strava does not seem to think so.

[kfulke]

segment matching seems to use a different algorithm from ride segment analysis, so it should be readily apparent. it's quite common in built-up areas and short distance efforts, the graph displays a very different set of metrics than the segment matcher.

[Gregor86]

Meanwhile in 5k Brooks Challenge...

 

[Bernhardt]

I'm good with doing my bit to help keep leaderboards clean, and I can clean a segment up over time myself with the flag option. The only problem is I feel like I'm the only one doing so, and after a few flag submissions I am 'capped' by disabling my ability to do so for a while. I get that leaderboard integrity is community-driven, and that the onus is on us to flag these times, but even then I get limited in doing so.

[anchskier]

@Bernhardt - I agree.  I am like you.  I will go through regularly and keep the local segments cleaned up, but it can be hard when they only give you 10 flags in a 24 hour period.  I have another post here (Modify Activity Flagging Process - Strava Community Hub) where I made suggestions to improve the flagging process such as resetting at a set time rather than just 24 hours after the last flag and also approving local ambassadors who would have additional flagging capabilities.  Feel free to check that thread out and add your support (kudos) if you agree with the ideas.

[ARoger]

Last month this guy took a cab to the airport and then TOOK A PLANE to another city (Avg speed 286.2 km/h - Max speed 872.3 km/h). Did Strava automatically remove this activity from the leaderboard? No!!! How come?!

https://www.strava.com/activities/11030771091/overview