Hello,
I would like to comment on Strava's algorithm for hiding segments. From what I understand it's based, among other things, on how often the segment is viewed. This unfortunately leads to bad climbing segments being promoted over good ones for two reasons:
1)Longer segments are more likely to be clicked on because users want to see "the whole thing". Unfortunately this means that segments that starts too early (before crossroads etc.) or finish too late (after the summit) are more likely to be clicked on that better ones (containing the whole climb).
2)Segments that start too early and end too late are more likely to generate top10 places because of two reasons: fewer people do them and a lot of people stop at the top before the descent. This means those bad segments are going to be clicked on more often because people get top 10 places on them.
This is frustrating because perfect segments (those that start at the beginning of the climb after last crossroads and end at/just before the summit) are hidden over time in favor of not so great segments that require you to descend after the climb is done, sometimes for quite a bit for them to count).
The solution could be to promote segments that don't have gradient change from negative to positive (and vice-versa) at the start and finish. That would make segments like "the whole climb X" visible. Another could be to let people vote on segment asking them if they are made according to the standards. Thank you for your attention!
