this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2024
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In a move similar to reddit or twitter, Strava is restricting API usage, and other policy changes.

I think an alternative to strava, which is also federated, would be really cool

EDIT: I know you can record teacks and keep them offline and there is plenty of ways to do so. I think the main aspect of Strava is the possibility of sharing the activities with contacts on strava itself. Like for peertube or pixelfed, the fediverse has the potential to allow any user to share what they like and the other users can see, boost, comment, from their mastodon, pleroma, froendica or wharever accounts. The fact that someone wants to share a track is his own business.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago

And like that, pro account cancelled!

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago (4 children)

What do you use Strava for? I tried it for a bit until realising it doesn't actually offer anything useful, just publishes your training habits to the world which is kinda creepy

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Back when I was using it it was cool to track my progress on different segments of my rides. I could see my progress over time on different sections like a particular hill or whatever. And they also have king of the mountain badges that you can win by being the fastest over certain sections, so it offers a little bit of competition and gamification

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

That's primarily why I use it. It's fun trying to improve my times

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

The king of the hill part makes sense I guess, fun to see you being on the top :D. for the rest my watch app already does that sorta stuff + coaching and whatnot so not very interesting.

Honestly I kind of assumed other sports trackers would have something similar so you wouldn't need Strava for it

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah absolutely, this could easily be replicated on an open source / federated app

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I think the first and more important part would be to have FOSS fitness tracker, at very least in software.

Pinetime and infinitime are doing great work on the smart watch side but it's lightyears behind something like Garmin or Suunto

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago

I'm still using Strava, but I also use FitoTrack which is available on F-droid. It was my replacement for Samsung Health, since they started sharing my health info.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

For me personally I just want like a thing that will tell me my distance automatically, and of course my time.

For >90% of my runs I just do familiar routes and could get away with a $5 watch timer tbh. But running with friends it’s expected someone will gps it

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I see. The Suunto watch/app does all the fancy data stuff for me, so having Strava on top of it is pretty redundant

It also has some social media bullshit on top, but luckily it stays out of the way and iirc all trainings are private by default.

Thinking further though, would be great to see pinetime or other Foss project develop further to provide similar features as Suunto, Garmin and other sports tracking focused devices

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Yeah I might look into getting a watch, I just carry my phone currently but it seems all the apps are pretty invasive

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

just publishes your training habits to the world which is kinda creepy

You can lock down those settings, so you're able to use the data to benefit your personal training.

I'm part of a club that uses Strava to organize rides, but what Strava is doing will impact every other app that syncs with Strava, and that's just a major PITA.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

I don't use it any more, but back then I liked the segment thing an the sharing of actibity wit "friends"

If there was a frferated option I would use it forvthese 2 reasons

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Not federated but a really good selfhosted open source project that's coming along nicely: https://wanderer.to/

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Seems only for hiking and there's a whopping one single trail in all of Germany listed.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

You upload your own gpx data from outings to your own hosted instance. its got a specific scope of features, I like it for what it is. Use it for mountain biking. Certainly not a strava alternative without other apps helping.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago

Openstreet Map has a trip recording feature that has pretty detailed data points. I usually use that for drawing my rides on maps when I remember to turn my location on.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I have this really cool app called "ride the damn bike" which operates completely offline.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Why are even using piefed and the fediverse? There is an app called "write with a damn pen" and it is completely offline!

Do you see the point?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Hm, was I the only one who thought that there was an actual app called "ride the damn bike"?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

I guess I'll have to get to work on making that. If anyone beats me to it, at least used 'damned'...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Yeah, especially with all those upvotes.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I doubt it. If there was a Federated option, there would probably more security concerns considering all the data.

Best option is probably to use something other than the Strava app to record activities and keep backups up the activities locally.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Best option is probably to use something other than the Strava app to record activities and keep backups up the activities locally.

The problem really isn't people looking for an alternative to Strava, it's that so many other apps rely on Strava, so people may need to look for multiple alternatives to other apps, just because of what Strava is doing.

This move guarantees that I'll never pay for Strava. Ever.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Exactly this. As OP I'd wish there was a serious FOSS alternative to it but (1) it seems highly improbable such alternative will have a nice Garmin/Wahoo integration, the latter which I happen to use; (2) niceties like when you share an activity you can choose to put a picture you took on your ride as its background; (3) being able to use it on desktop and mobile, without having to set up a self-hosted instance or something (I don't happen to have a PC working on 24/7 at home!); (4) and maybe this one is just me, but have been using Strava for 11+ years (just checked out, 1007 activities) and I don't know if there is something that lets you export all of your data from it to be used flawlessly with another app.

[–] starshipwinepineapple 5 points 1 month ago

I deleted my 12 year old account over the latest privacy policy update which auto opted-in to using your data for unspecified AI purposes. There was some discussion here, and while a strava rep did give specific examples in their response, the privacy policy was not updated and continues to be both broad and auto opted-in with no way to opt out.

Regardless of the current use of AI, the broad privacy policy creates the potential to allow them to do many things with your data without telling you about it in the future. And that thread discusses some potential problematic uses that you could be opted into without ever knowing it.

The privacy policy needs to be more specific, and allow opting out (or better yet, make opt out the default).

And yeah, API change is pretty crap too.

[–] Mihies 4 points 1 month ago

Goldencheetah for me. It's a desktop application that does a shitload of analysis besides the recording stuff

[–] eksb 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

this makes me think of those silly guys that were making manga fan translations, doing all the graphical and text work in powerpoint