General Discussion Triathlon Talk » It's time to do away with Triathlon Talk Rss Feed  
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2017-03-11 7:25 PM
in reply to: Goggles Pizzano

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Subject: RE: It's time to do away with Triathlon Talk

Originally posted by Goggles Pizzano
The fact that people are discussing the problem and the moderators have contributed is nothing but a good sign.
It's a good sign. TBT I didn't think it would amount to much. It's been discussed before. I just found myself "depressed" every time I checked on things here. Going as far back as last summer. I don't think it's FB, slow down in the sport or time of year. It could be debated what the problem(s) are but I don't think it's debatable something needs to be changed.

Eh......just wait, it'll come up again in a few months, and then again, and then again......I've never seen anything like it on any board.



2017-03-12 8:48 AM
in reply to: goforit

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Subject: RE: It's time to do away with Triathlon Talk
I posted here quite a bit a few years ago. I've done about 40 triathlons, bunches of century rides, and hundreds of running races. I gave my advice freely and even wrote training plans for some people here. One guy offered to pay me. I grew tired of answering the same questions over and over, so I gradually stopped posting. Too many times people would ask questions without providing all the information. Too many people want great results without doing the training required to get there. Too many people looking for shortcuts.

I now work in the running industry. Several of my coworkers and friends are elite runners and have won multiple races at the international level. I regularly work with high school cross country and track athletes and coaches. The work put in by high school kids would shock many people here.

So my energies are now invested elsewhere. It's much easier to work with people who get it, rather than having to justify effective training methods to Internet strangers who are more invested in trying to do the least they can.

This place should still continue to exist. It seems many of the questions could be answered by just reading the articles.
2017-03-13 11:00 AM
in reply to: goforit

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Subject: RE: It's time to do away with Triathlon Talk

Originally posted by goforit Bring back Adventure Bear! She can make BT great again! I agree with merging the mentor groups into TT. Lots of great input from all.

Suzanne will still post here occasionally despite having an awful lot on her plate and the aggravations she's contended with from other posters at times.  There have been a few instances where there was a thread that I thought she could provide particularly good advice, so I've texted her to bring it to her attention, and she's jumped in with some great stuff.

 

2017-03-13 11:20 AM
in reply to: Donskiman

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Subject: RE: It's time to do away with Triathlon Talk
Originally posted by Donskiman

Too many times people would ask questions without providing all the information. Too many people want great results without doing the training required to get there. Too many people looking for shortcuts.


I think that's just part of being new. I've noticed that a lot, especially when someone comes in with a background or aptitude at one or more of the three legs of this sport; they think they're going to come in and just steamroll it, and it's not the case. It takes a while (and some hard lessons) to realize just how much it takes, and that you need to learn to shut up and listen to those with more experience sometimes. I may or may not have been guilty of this myself .
2017-03-13 11:46 AM
in reply to: 3mar

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Subject: RE: It's time to do away with Triathlon Talk

Originally posted by 3mar
Originally posted by Donskiman Too many times people would ask questions without providing all the information. Too many people want great results without doing the training required to get there. Too many people looking for shortcuts.
I think that's just part of being new. I've noticed that a lot, especially when someone comes in with a background or aptitude at one or more of the three legs of this sport; they think they're going to come in and just steamroll it, and it's not the case. It takes a while (and some hard lessons) to realize just how much it takes, and that you need to learn to shut up and listen to those with more experience sometimes. I may or may not have been guilty of this myself .

This is a bit of a tangent, but...  sometimes it's a case of people don't have enough relevant experience to even know what they don't know, but they think they know what they're doing because they were successful as a swimmer, cyclist, or runner. Unfortunately, the single sport experience they try to apply to triathlon can be counterproductive.  Swimmers think they need to hammer everything all the time, and hurt themselves by trying to train running that way.  Runners don't know how to suffer in the water the way swimmers do, and hear so many people say it's about technique that they only work on technique without any of the hard training that's needed to get fast, then wonder why they're still BOP.

 

2017-03-13 12:48 PM
in reply to: TriMyBest

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Subject: RE: It's time to do away with Triathlon Talk

IMO, one of the reasons for the slowdown of BT is that is got way to hard to interact with people. In the old days, you could leave or receive a number of inspires really quickly, and that way you could interact more with people. When they made the change, it got more difficult and there were several more steps to go through to leave an inspire that it got tiresome.

I remember it was always really nice to get an inspire from someone after a good training day. Maybe it happens among the mentor groups, I don't know.



2017-03-13 1:24 PM
in reply to: jford2309

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Subject: RE: It's time to do away with Triathlon Talk

Originally posted by jford2309

IMO, one of the reasons for the slowdown of BT is that is got way to hard to interact with people. In the old days, you could leave or receive a number of inspires really quickly, and that way you could interact more with people. When they made the change, it got more difficult and there were several more steps to go through to leave an inspire that it got tiresome.

I remember it was always really nice to get an inspire from someone after a good training day. Maybe it happens among the mentor groups, I don't know.

I'd completely forgotten about the inspires.  That was a really neat thing.  Nowadays, kudos on Strava have a similar effect.  BT was really ahead of it's time with inspires.

 

2017-03-13 2:34 PM
in reply to: TriMyBest

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Subject: RE: It's time to do away with Triathlon Talk
Originally posted by TriMyBest

Originally posted by jford2309

IMO, one of the reasons for the slowdown of BT is that is got way to hard to interact with people. In the old days, you could leave or receive a number of inspires really quickly, and that way you could interact more with people. When they made the change, it got more difficult and there were several more steps to go through to leave an inspire that it got tiresome.

I remember it was always really nice to get an inspire from someone after a good training day. Maybe it happens among the mentor groups, I don't know.

I'd completely forgotten about the inspires.  That was a really neat thing.  Nowadays, kudos on Strava have a similar effect.  BT was really ahead of it's time with inspires.

 




hmmmm...how about BT has a live feed of everyone's workouts who have their training logs automatically linked. A sort of Strava board on BT....
2017-03-13 2:42 PM
in reply to: 3mar

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Subject: RE: It's time to do away with Triathlon Talk

Originally posted by 3mar
Originally posted by TriMyBest

Originally posted by jford2309

IMO, one of the reasons for the slowdown of BT is that is got way to hard to interact with people. In the old days, you could leave or receive a number of inspires really quickly, and that way you could interact more with people. When they made the change, it got more difficult and there were several more steps to go through to leave an inspire that it got tiresome.

I remember it was always really nice to get an inspire from someone after a good training day. Maybe it happens among the mentor groups, I don't know.

I'd completely forgotten about the inspires.  That was a really neat thing.  Nowadays, kudos on Strava have a similar effect.  BT was really ahead of it's time with inspires.

 

hmmmm...how about BT has a live feed of everyone's workouts who have their training logs automatically linked. A sort of Strava board on BT....

So, kind of like BT blogger, but with workouts, not with blogs.

Point being that many different people use this website in many different ways. I don't expect all of you to use it the same way I do. Which may account for traffic being different now than it had been in the past. 

2017-03-13 2:55 PM
in reply to: cdban66

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Subject: RE: It's time to do away with Triathlon Talk

Originally posted by cdban66

Originally posted by 3mar
Originally posted by TriMyBest

Originally posted by jford2309

IMO, one of the reasons for the slowdown of BT is that is got way to hard to interact with people. In the old days, you could leave or receive a number of inspires really quickly, and that way you could interact more with people. When they made the change, it got more difficult and there were several more steps to go through to leave an inspire that it got tiresome.

I remember it was always really nice to get an inspire from someone after a good training day. Maybe it happens among the mentor groups, I don't know.

I'd completely forgotten about the inspires.  That was a really neat thing.  Nowadays, kudos on Strava have a similar effect.  BT was really ahead of it's time with inspires.

 

hmmmm...how about BT has a live feed of everyone's workouts who have their training logs automatically linked. A sort of Strava board on BT....

So, kind of like BT blogger, but with workouts, not with blogs.

Point being that many different people use this website in many different ways. I don't expect all of you to use it the same way I do. Which may account for traffic being different now than it had been in the past. 

Or, if you go to your "Friends" page, you can see a feed of your friends' recent workouts, feed of your friends' upcoming races, etc. The recent workout feed only lists the logged sport, time and miles (and not their commentary) - but you could theoretically see if a buddy did something epic at a glance. 

I think BT has a lot of these neat features everyone is looking for, they are just not easily found or are in 10 different places. 
{shrug}

2017-03-13 3:10 PM
in reply to: lisac957

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Subject: RE: It's time to do away with Triathlon Talk
Originally posted by lisac957

Originally posted by cdban66

Originally posted by 3mar
Originally posted by TriMyBest

Originally posted by jford2309

IMO, one of the reasons for the slowdown of BT is that is got way to hard to interact with people. In the old days, you could leave or receive a number of inspires really quickly, and that way you could interact more with people. When they made the change, it got more difficult and there were several more steps to go through to leave an inspire that it got tiresome.

I remember it was always really nice to get an inspire from someone after a good training day. Maybe it happens among the mentor groups, I don't know.

I'd completely forgotten about the inspires.  That was a really neat thing.  Nowadays, kudos on Strava have a similar effect.  BT was really ahead of it's time with inspires.

 

hmmmm...how about BT has a live feed of everyone's workouts who have their training logs automatically linked. A sort of Strava board on BT....

So, kind of like BT blogger, but with workouts, not with blogs.

Point being that many different people use this website in many different ways. I don't expect all of you to use it the same way I do. Which may account for traffic being different now than it had been in the past. 

Or, if you go to your "Friends" page, you can see a feed of your friends' recent workouts, feed of your friends' upcoming races, etc. The recent workout feed only lists the logged sport, time and miles (and not their commentary) - but you could theoretically see if a buddy did something epic at a glance. 

I think BT has a lot of these neat features everyone is looking for, they are just not easily found or are in 10 different places. 
{shrug}




As a "relative" new comer to BT...I had no idea that BT Blogger even existed, apparently I didn't click on every possible link. After spending a few minutes there I do see what it adds and will try to use it now. It's definitely a neat aspect.


2017-03-13 10:40 PM
in reply to: 0

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Subject: RE: It's time to do away with Triathlon Talk

Originally posted by Socks

I have been on BT for many many years.  I would be crushed if every single bit of my training for the last 13 years got washed away and every single one of my race reports were suddenly gone.  The site has changed a lot.  I think there are a lot more options for people to get information RE: tris now than 13 years ago.  Mike leaving the site was bad, the format change was bad, getting rid of chat was bad.  Its a LOT less social than it used to be.  No more big meet ups of people at races and meeting people IRL.  Yes a lot has moved over to FB and people drift away from the sport as well. 

I think killing tri talk would be a big mistake.  This site has been a big part of my triathlon journey and I would be so sad to see it go. 

Originally posted by TriMyBest

Originally posted by jford2309

IMO, one of the reasons for the slowdown of BT is that is got way to hard to interact with people. In the old days, you could leave or receive a number of inspires really quickly, and that way you could interact more with people. When they made the change, it got more difficult and there were several more steps to go through to leave an inspire that it got tiresome.

I remember it was always really nice to get an inspire from someone after a good training day. Maybe it happens among the mentor groups, I don't know.

I'd completely forgotten about the inspires.  That was a really neat thing.  Nowadays, kudos on Strava have a similar effect.  BT was really ahead of it's time with inspires.

I'll try to make my thoughts coherent ... the three posters above (who all have given and given and given to the site and supported its members--jford, did you have a mentor group at one time as well?) really summed it up for me.

- resources indeed are better than ever, there are still tons of great people here (most of them not very active though, sadly), still a good draw especially for newcomers

- search function still abominable

- site and sections poorly organized (still have typos in descriptions, mentor program listed as full and was at 2013 until 2016 in the drop-down, multiple people have mentioned features they didn't know existed and/or were hard to find ... no use having the great resources/features if people don't know they exist or aren't easy to use) MERGING MOST FORUMS INTO TRI TALK as has been discussed would be a huge help. Merging PCOJ/COJ, although someone would need to volunteer to very watchfully moderate it.

- competition fierce (mentioned by others, FB, tri clubs, etc.) that's just the nature of triathlon and social media, and it's fine. However, if BT is going to stay alive, it needs to evolve, not devolve.

- beginner's handbook (there was one written by bruce_v or brucemorgan, very sorry I forget whom--comprehensive but simple, super easy to use) this could be expanded with a How to Use BT section and IMO needs to be first, topcenterfeature, when you click the BEGINNERS tab up top)

- friends bar in log (how to easily find and add friends)

- inspires: these were the lifeblood and circulatory system of BT, which Ron admitted he hadn't known. However, they remain seriously clunky and cumbersome to use. I've given up. 

- logging cumbersome (for example, if you don't track every single workout on your Garmin--swim workouts are notoriously difficult to do this with--or if you use Polar or Suunto, still have to do a lot of input by hand)

- beta testers free, then didn't implement (a number of the beta testers did super thorough jobs for the site revamp, before and after, and a lot of them felt like their critical suggestions were ignored

- responsiveness to bugs, queries low (really cannot have the site down for any length of time, but especially a considerable length of time, and not have anyone notice or post on FB about it)

- challenge forum dead (this was another major meeting/get-to-know-you place, and utterly died after the re-vamp. Eventually we, I mean collectively as mods, allowed cross-posting of challenges in Tri Talk but it was way way too late)

- mods who are active in forums

- need fresh content and a new promo every week (copy to FB): this is overall being well done IMO. Some of the content (copy is good) is pretty iffy, in the vein of things that formerly would have been called out by knowledgeable forum members. Problem is if someone clicks on iffy stuff and they know it's iffy, they're never going to click on articles again. Which is too bad, because most of them are decent.

To sum up my opinions:

1. Critical component missing is the personal connections. The only place it's still alive is mentor groups. Facilitating and promoting easy inspiring, challenges, logging (makes inspiring easier if a good log is in place), and consider paying moderators--a few key responders in an integrated Tri Talk might make a huge difference. It's the only thing that's made any difference at all, IMO, when people like TriMyBest or gsmacleod respond. Alice does a great job but she is wearing many, many hats and there needs to be more than one of her active in the forums.

2. Nearly as critical is site organization/ease of use. Merging into Tri Talk would be a good first step.

3. Finally, accessibility and quality of content. Quality is mostly good but a few poorly-considered articles here and there bring the whole lot down. Really need to have the Beginners Guide front and center, including (or separate) How to Use BT Guide.



Edited by IndoIronYanti 2017-03-13 10:41 PM
2017-03-13 10:51 PM
in reply to: IndoIronYanti

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Subject: RE: It's time to do away with Triathlon Talk
Originally posted by IndoIronYanti

Originally posted by Socks

I have been on BT for many many years.  I would be crushed if every single bit of my training for the last 13 years got washed away and every single one of my race reports were suddenly gone.  The site has changed a lot.  I think there are a lot more options for people to get information RE: tris now than 13 years ago.  Mike leaving the site was bad, the format change was bad, getting rid of chat was bad.  Its a LOT less social than it used to be.  No more big meet ups of people at races and meeting people IRL.  Yes a lot has moved over to FB and people drift away from the sport as well. 

I think killing tri talk would be a big mistake.  This site has been a big part of my triathlon journey and I would be so sad to see it go. 

Originally posted by TriMyBest

Originally posted by jford2309

IMO, one of the reasons for the slowdown of BT is that is got way to hard to interact with people. In the old days, you could leave or receive a number of inspires really quickly, and that way you could interact more with people. When they made the change, it got more difficult and there were several more steps to go through to leave an inspire that it got tiresome.

I remember it was always really nice to get an inspire from someone after a good training day. Maybe it happens among the mentor groups, I don't know.

I'd completely forgotten about the inspires.  That was a really neat thing.  Nowadays, kudos on Strava have a similar effect.  BT was really ahead of it's time with inspires.

I'll try to make my thoughts coherent ... the three posters above (who all have given and given and given to the site and supported its members--jford, did you have a mentor group at one time as well?) really summed it up for me.

- resources indeed are better than ever, there are still tons of great people here (most of them not very active though, sadly), still a good draw especially for newcomers

- search function still abominable

- site and sections poorly organized (still have typos in descriptions, mentor program listed as full and was at 2013 until 2016 in the drop-down, multiple people have mentioned features they didn't know existed and/or were hard to find ... no use having the great resources/features if people don't know they exist or aren't easy to use) MERGING MOST FORUMS INTO TRI TALK as has been discussed would be a huge help. Merging PCOJ/COJ, although someone would need to volunteer to very watchfully moderate it.

- competition fierce (mentioned by others, FB, tri clubs, etc.) that's just the nature of triathlon and social media, and it's fine. However, if BT is going to stay alive, it needs to evolve, not devolve.

- beginner's handbook (there was one written by bruce_v or brucemorgan, very sorry I forget whom--comprehensive but simple, super easy to use) this could be expanded with a How to Use BT section and IMO needs to be first, topcenterfeature, when you click the BEGINNERS tab up top)

- friends bar in log (how to easily find and add friends)

- inspires: these were the lifeblood and circulatory system of BT, which Ron admitted he hadn't known. However, they remain seriously clunky and cumbersome to use. I've given up. 

- logging cumbersome (for example, if you don't track every single workout on your Garmin--swim workouts are notoriously difficult to do this with--or if you use Polar or Suunto, still have to do a lot of input by hand)

- beta testers free, then didn't implement (a number of the beta testers did super thorough jobs for the site revamp, before and after, and a lot of them felt like their critical suggestions were ignored

- responsiveness to bugs, queries low (really cannot have the site down for any length of time, but especially a considerable length of time, and not have anyone notice or post on FB about it)

- challenge forum dead (this was another major meeting/get-to-know-you place, and utterly died after the re-vamp. Eventually we, I mean collectively as mods, allowed cross-posting of challenges in Tri Talk but it was way way too late)

- mods who are active in forums

- need fresh content and a new promo every week (copy to FB): this is overall being well done IMO. Some of the content (copy is good) is pretty iffy, in the vein of things that formerly would have been called out by knowledgeable forum members. Problem is if someone clicks on iffy stuff and they know it's iffy, they're never going to click on articles again. Which is too bad, because most of them are decent.

To sum up my opinions:

1. Critical component missing is the personal connections. The only place it's still alive is mentor groups. Facilitating and promoting easy inspiring, challenges, logging (makes inspiring easier if a good log is in place), and consider paying moderators--a few key responders in an integrated Tri Talk might make a huge difference. It's the only thing that's made any difference at all, IMO, when people like TriMyBest or gsmacleod respond. Alice does a great job but she is wearing many, many hats and there needs to be more than one of her active in the forums.

2. Nearly as critical is site organization/ease of use. Merging into Tri Talk would be a good first step.

3. Finally, accessibility and quality of content. Quality is mostly good but a few poorly-considered articles here and there bring the whole lot down. Really need to have the Beginners Guide front and center, including (or separate) How to Use BT Guide.




And would so like a like button.
2017-03-14 9:16 AM
in reply to: cdban66

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Columbus, Ohio
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Subject: RE: It's time to do away with Triathlon Talk
Originally posted by cdban66

hmmmm...how about BT has a live feed of everyone's workouts who have their training logs automatically linked. A sort of Strava board on BT....

So, kind of like BT blogger, but with workouts, not with blogs.




Would people want to see the blogs AND the workouts? Or have them separated but both accessible?

"Community" is the correct place in the navigation for this, right? (I ask because someone in this thread didn't know about BT Blogger, and it's in Community.)
2017-03-14 10:00 AM
in reply to: alicefoeller

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Master
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Subject: RE: It's time to do away with Triathlon Talk
P.S. We are currently working on making the state name in user profiles a hotlink to other users in the same state, ranked by recent activity, so that we can still find other people near us.

After that is active, we'll fold the state forums into Tri Talk.

I'm also updated the overall Terms of Use to make sure the medical disclaimer is clear, and then we will fold Injuries into Tri Talk as well.

And Gear.

I've put Classified in the drop-down menu in place of the store. (The store is now in the footer.) That way I can remove Classifieds from the forum list as well. It's also under the Gear tab.

Any objection to moving "Iron Distance Race Groups" and "Race Reports!" under the "Races" tab in the navigation? Or is that a bad idea?
2017-03-14 10:09 AM
in reply to: alicefoeller

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87
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Davenort, Iowa
Subject: RE: It's time to do away with Triathlon Talk
Originally posted by alicefoeller

Originally posted by cdban66

hmmmm...how about BT has a live feed of everyone's workouts who have their training logs automatically linked. A sort of Strava board on BT....

So, kind of like BT blogger, but with workouts, not with blogs.




Would people want to see the blogs AND the workouts? Or have them separated but both accessible?

"Community" is the correct place in the navigation for this, right? (I ask because someone in this thread didn't know about BT Blogger, and it's in Community.)


I think that is the correct place for it, for me, I was just unsure as to what it was. I'm wondering, and maybe this already exists, if there was some way to let new members know about it? Maybe a welcome letter or Beginners Handbook (mentioned by someone else)? It's completely possible that this already exists and I totally skipped it, I have a tendency to not look at or read everything.

One other thing that I thoroughly enjoy about this site.....The app! Not sure how many use it, but it comes in handy for my training plan!!! Kudos to whomever built it. Little slow at times, but all around wonderful!!!!


2017-03-14 10:24 AM
in reply to: IndoIronYanti

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Subject: RE: It's time to do away with Triathlon Talk
Originally posted by IndoIronYanti

I'll try to make my thoughts coherent ... the three posters above (who all have given and given and given to the site and supported its members--jford, did you have a mentor group at one time as well?) really summed it up for me.

- resources indeed are better than ever, there are still tons of great people here (most of them not very active though, sadly), still a good draw especially for newcomers

- search function still abominable

- site and sections poorly organized (still have typos in descriptions, mentor program listed as full and was at 2013 until 2016 in the drop-down, multiple people have mentioned features they didn't know existed and/or were hard to find ... no use having the great resources/features if people don't know they exist or aren't easy to use) MERGING MOST FORUMS INTO TRI TALK as has been discussed would be a huge help. Merging PCOJ/COJ, although someone would need to volunteer to very watchfully moderate it.

- competition fierce (mentioned by others, FB, tri clubs, etc.) that's just the nature of triathlon and social media, and it's fine. However, if BT is going to stay alive, it needs to evolve, not devolve.

- beginner's handbook (there was one written by bruce_v or brucemorgan, very sorry I forget whom--comprehensive but simple, super easy to use) this could be expanded with a How to Use BT section and IMO needs to be first, topcenterfeature, when you click the BEGINNERS tab up top)

- friends bar in log (how to easily find and add friends)

- inspires: these were the lifeblood and circulatory system of BT, which Ron admitted he hadn't known. However, they remain seriously clunky and cumbersome to use. I've given up. 

- logging cumbersome (for example, if you don't track every single workout on your Garmin--swim workouts are notoriously difficult to do this with--or if you use Polar or Suunto, still have to do a lot of input by hand)

- beta testers free, then didn't implement (a number of the beta testers did super thorough jobs for the site revamp, before and after, and a lot of them felt like their critical suggestions were ignored

- responsiveness to bugs, queries low (really cannot have the site down for any length of time, but especially a considerable length of time, and not have anyone notice or post on FB about it)

- challenge forum dead (this was another major meeting/get-to-know-you place, and utterly died after the re-vamp. Eventually we, I mean collectively as mods, allowed cross-posting of challenges in Tri Talk but it was way way too late)

- mods who are active in forums

- need fresh content and a new promo every week (copy to FB): this is overall being well done IMO. Some of the content (copy is good) is pretty iffy, in the vein of things that formerly would have been called out by knowledgeable forum members. Problem is if someone clicks on iffy stuff and they know it's iffy, they're never going to click on articles again. Which is too bad, because most of them are decent.

To sum up my opinions:

1. Critical component missing is the personal connections. The only place it's still alive is mentor groups. Facilitating and promoting easy inspiring, challenges, logging (makes inspiring easier if a good log is in place), and consider paying moderators--a few key responders in an integrated Tri Talk might make a huge difference. It's the only thing that's made any difference at all, IMO, when people like TriMyBest or gsmacleod respond. Alice does a great job but she is wearing many, many hats and there needs to be more than one of her active in the forums.

2. Nearly as critical is site organization/ease of use. Merging into Tri Talk would be a good first step.

3. Finally, accessibility and quality of content. Quality is mostly good but a few poorly-considered articles here and there bring the whole lot down. Really need to have the Beginners Guide front and center, including (or separate) How to Use BT Guide.




I'm PM'ing you for some follow up. Thanks for the specificity. I don't want to bog down the creative thinking in this thread by getting into technical details and execution.
2017-03-14 2:56 PM
in reply to: alicefoeller

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Subject: RE: It's time to do away with Triathlon Talk

Originally posted by alicefoeller
Originally posted by IndoIronYanti

I'll try to make my thoughts coherent ... the three posters above (who all have given and given and given to the site and supported its members--jford, did you have a mentor group at one time as well?) really summed it up for me.

- resources indeed are better than ever, there are still tons of great people here (most of them not very active though, sadly), still a good draw especially for newcomers

- search function still abominable

- site and sections poorly organized (still have typos in descriptions, mentor program listed as full and was at 2013 until 2016 in the drop-down, multiple people have mentioned features they didn't know existed and/or were hard to find ... no use having the great resources/features if people don't know they exist or aren't easy to use) MERGING MOST FORUMS INTO TRI TALK as has been discussed would be a huge help. Merging PCOJ/COJ, although someone would need to volunteer to very watchfully moderate it.

- competition fierce (mentioned by others, FB, tri clubs, etc.) that's just the nature of triathlon and social media, and it's fine. However, if BT is going to stay alive, it needs to evolve, not devolve.

- beginner's handbook (there was one written by bruce_v or brucemorgan, very sorry I forget whom--comprehensive but simple, super easy to use) this could be expanded with a How to Use BT section and IMO needs to be first, topcenterfeature, when you click the BEGINNERS tab up top)

- friends bar in log (how to easily find and add friends)

- inspires: these were the lifeblood and circulatory system of BT, which Ron admitted he hadn't known. However, they remain seriously clunky and cumbersome to use. I've given up. 

- logging cumbersome (for example, if you don't track every single workout on your Garmin--swim workouts are notoriously difficult to do this with--or if you use Polar or Suunto, still have to do a lot of input by hand)

- beta testers free, then didn't implement (a number of the beta testers did super thorough jobs for the site revamp, before and after, and a lot of them felt like their critical suggestions were ignored

- responsiveness to bugs, queries low (really cannot have the site down for any length of time, but especially a considerable length of time, and not have anyone notice or post on FB about it)

- challenge forum dead (this was another major meeting/get-to-know-you place, and utterly died after the re-vamp. Eventually we, I mean collectively as mods, allowed cross-posting of challenges in Tri Talk but it was way way too late)

- mods who are active in forums

- need fresh content and a new promo every week (copy to FB): this is overall being well done IMO. Some of the content (copy is good) is pretty iffy, in the vein of things that formerly would have been called out by knowledgeable forum members. Problem is if someone clicks on iffy stuff and they know it's iffy, they're never going to click on articles again. Which is too bad, because most of them are decent.

To sum up my opinions:

1. Critical component missing is the personal connections. The only place it's still alive is mentor groups. Facilitating and promoting easy inspiring, challenges, logging (makes inspiring easier if a good log is in place), and consider paying moderators--a few key responders in an integrated Tri Talk might make a huge difference. It's the only thing that's made any difference at all, IMO, when people like TriMyBest or gsmacleod respond. Alice does a great job but she is wearing many, many hats and there needs to be more than one of her active in the forums.

2. Nearly as critical is site organization/ease of use. Merging into Tri Talk would be a good first step.

3. Finally, accessibility and quality of content. Quality is mostly good but a few poorly-considered articles here and there bring the whole lot down. Really need to have the Beginners Guide front and center, including (or separate) How to Use BT Guide.

I'm PM'ing you for some follow up. Thanks for the specificity. I don't want to bog down the creative thinking in this thread by getting into technical details and execution.

Alice, I understand you don't want to get crazy technical in this thread, but is there any reason the logs can't be set up to auto sync with Garmin Connect / Training Peaks / Strava?  I stopped keeping my own logs here a number of years ago, because I was using TP for my athletes, and decided it made more sense for me to log my own on the same platform as they did, so I'd be intimately familiar with it's workings from their perspective.  As the technology has progressed, I don't even log directly to TP or Strava any more.  Everything uploads automatically to Garmin Connect then auto syncs to Strava and TP.  I receive kudos notifications about training sessions on Strava that just got copied over there automatically.  If something similar could be done with BT's logs and the Inspires featured more prominently, it might help energize people here more.

 

2017-03-14 5:36 PM
in reply to: TriMyBest

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Subject: RE: It's time to do away with Triathlon Talk

Originally posted by TriMyBest

Alice, I understand you don't want to get crazy technical in this thread, but is there any reason the logs can't be set up to auto sync with Garmin Connect / Training Peaks / Strava?  I stopped keeping my own logs here a number of years ago, because I was using TP for my athletes, and decided it made more sense for me to log my own on the same platform as they did, so I'd be intimately familiar with it's workings from their perspective.  As the technology has progressed, I don't even log directly to TP or Strava any more.  Everything uploads automatically to Garmin Connect then auto syncs to Strava and TP.  I receive kudos notifications about training sessions on Strava that just got copied over there automatically.  If something similar could be done with BT's logs and the Inspires featured more prominently, it might help energize people here more. 

like this?

I don't use it myself, checked it out and when I saw it cost some $ I decided to just keep using manual uploading, not that I'm really active and using a Garmin or anything!

2017-03-14 6:05 PM
in reply to: Goggles Pizzano

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Subject: RE: It's time to do away with Triathlon Talk

I will say I wish this site could adapt some FB features such as liking a post and replying to a specific post instead it being all linear and showing up at the very end of a thread.  Could have been handy in a few posts of this thread so far to encourage discussion, I think I forgot 2 or 3 of them already I wanted to reply to!

I have to say I do find a FB group such as Pathetic Triathletes (Oreo's anyone!) very engaging.  When a beginner does show up there asking beginner 'how to' question(s) I will direct them to BT and even provide a link to a specific article or Training plans page if I can.

I did the Mentor page stuff 4 times, I think.  2 were excellent (Marc and Shane and another in the very beginning) and definitely 1, maybe 2 sucked big time where nothing happened after a few weeks.  I did do 1 mentor in the beginning where I shared a lot of info I learned on TT!  I'm sure there were some great groups but being limited on time and focus there was no way I could have followed more than 1 at a time.  and ho wam I to know which one is the "good one" looking at a list of names/resumes.

I haven't checked it out the challenge groups in a long time, or any other group other that TT for that matter. Just don't have the time, I come to TT, check things out and go is there is nothing of interest.  That said, IIRC, do I see Slowman posting every year on ST the guppy challenge for swimming on the main page?  Also the 100 runs in 100 days and maybe more.  I don't see the need for so many different pages today if certain things of interest could be pinned to the top of the TT forum page.

I posted quite a while back in 'Training log & support site' why do athletes HR metrics need to be so buried in 'user/Settings/Traing log settings/HR Zones'.  Why can't this be accessible direcly from my training log.  Same thing for bike FTP/CP or CSS (Critical swim Speed) metrics, where are they?  Seems they should be right there in the log and easy to update.  I'm getting older I guess and wish certain things were simple in life, like why can't all beer tops be twist off!

2017-03-14 8:50 PM
in reply to: Donto

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Subject: RE: It's time to do away with Triathlon Talk

Originally posted by Donto

Originally posted by TriMyBest

Alice, I understand you don't want to get crazy technical in this thread, but is there any reason the logs can't be set up to auto sync with Garmin Connect / Training Peaks / Strava?  I stopped keeping my own logs here a number of years ago, because I was using TP for my athletes, and decided it made more sense for me to log my own on the same platform as they did, so I'd be intimately familiar with it's workings from their perspective.  As the technology has progressed, I don't even log directly to TP or Strava any more.  Everything uploads automatically to Garmin Connect then auto syncs to Strava and TP.  I receive kudos notifications about training sessions on Strava that just got copied over there automatically.  If something similar could be done with BT's logs and the Inspires featured more prominently, it might help energize people here more. 

like this?

I don't use it myself, checked it out and when I saw it cost some $ I decided to just keep using manual uploading, not that I'm really active and using a Garmin or anything!

I autosync from Garmin Connect. I believe I found it in settings somewhere.

 





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2017-03-15 7:33 AM
in reply to: cdban66

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Subject: RE: It's time to do away with Triathlon Talk

Originally posted by cdban66

Originally posted by Donto

Originally posted by TriMyBest

Alice, I understand you don't want to get crazy technical in this thread, but is there any reason the logs can't be set up to auto sync with Garmin Connect / Training Peaks / Strava?  I stopped keeping my own logs here a number of years ago, because I was using TP for my athletes, and decided it made more sense for me to log my own on the same platform as they did, so I'd be intimately familiar with it's workings from their perspective.  As the technology has progressed, I don't even log directly to TP or Strava any more.  Everything uploads automatically to Garmin Connect then auto syncs to Strava and TP.  I receive kudos notifications about training sessions on Strava that just got copied over there automatically.  If something similar could be done with BT's logs and the Inspires featured more prominently, it might help energize people here more. 

like this?

I don't use it myself, checked it out and when I saw it cost some $ I decided to just keep using manual uploading, not that I'm really active and using a Garmin or anything!

I autosync from Garmin Connect. I believe I found it in settings somewhere.

 

Thanks, guys.  When I switched my logging from BT to TP, autosync wasn't an option, and I hadn't realized they added it later.

It's Settings >> Training Log Settings >> Device Upload, then click the button to link the accounts.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=1504#GarminConnect

 

 

2017-03-16 6:36 AM
in reply to: cdban66

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Subject: RE: It's time to do away with Triathlon Talk
Originally posted by cdban66

Originally posted by Donto

Originally posted by TriMyBest

Alice, I understand you don't want to get crazy technical in this thread, but is there any reason the logs can't be set up to auto sync with Garmin Connect / Training Peaks / Strava?  I stopped keeping my own logs here a number of years ago, because I was using TP for my athletes, and decided it made more sense for me to log my own on the same platform as they did, so I'd be intimately familiar with it's workings from their perspective.  As the technology has progressed, I don't even log directly to TP or Strava any more.  Everything uploads automatically to Garmin Connect then auto syncs to Strava and TP.  I receive kudos notifications about training sessions on Strava that just got copied over there automatically.  If something similar could be done with BT's logs and the Inspires featured more prominently, it might help energize people here more. 

like this?

I don't use it myself, checked it out and when I saw it cost some $ I decided to just keep using manual uploading, not that I'm really active and using a Garmin or anything!

I autosync from Garmin Connect. I believe I found it in settings somewhere.

 




Thank you, cdban66 and Donto. It's gratifying that you both knew that this already existed AND could show quickly how to do it. I have tried hard to make it as obvious as possible that this is available. It is a feature of paid membership ... maybe we need to add something to the interface for free members so they are reminded that this is available for the pretty inexpensive price of a bronze membership.
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