What is happening with the forum?

[rentagreement]

Hey folks,

Maybe it is just me but recently I feel the forum to be more confusing than it used to be helpful before. The amount of “true vs false” discussions has skyrocketed.

I used to read into plenty pf threads trying to find the best way to plan my workouts…got loads of great information.

These days with so many threads being contradicting and focusing on …you know what… I am mostly left being confused as none of all that seems to be right.

Again, maybe it is just me, but I am just confused and not too motivated to read much further.

[Pasque]

Maybe it’s just the pandemic Not many other places left to have these silly debates.
Maybe it’ll pass in week or two.

[Captain_Doughnutman]

@Pasque

Maybe it’ll pass in week or two.

The pandemic or the silliness?

[Cleanneon98]

There’s a handful of members here who basically ruin every discussion by acting like condescending snobs. Wish the admin would clean things up cause every civilized discussion seems to turn into a contest of who can post the most jargon and link the most studies in an attempt to boost their ego while not actually being helpful to anyone but just trying to one up each other

[Pasque]

I’ll rephrase: “Move more into the background”
Neither is gonna disappear anytime soon

[dennenj]

Part of it is there is only so many things to talk about here. The forum has been around for awhile so many topics have been brought up multiple times (is this plan too hard, which tire for…,which wheels to buy, my bike pic, which plan, etc).

Since it’s the Internet and a forum you’re going to get a ton of opinions and information. Most of the time there won’t be a clear answer that everyone agrees on. You need kind of sift through it all.

[hubcyclist]

It’s definitely not just you, I’ve been around since the beginning and it feels less and less like folks are supporting other users in following and succeeding at doing TR plans (or modifying plans to some degree) and arguing over things to do besides TR.

Personally, I think there’s a lot of knowitallism going on and honestly don’t think many have any real credentials to back up anything, either as far as actual coaching, science, or racing success. So basically it’s just a bunch of Freds arguing on the internet, which is what I hated about other forums I’ve been on

[Captain_Doughnutman]

@hubcyclist

don’t think many have any real credentials to back up anything, either as far as actual coaching, science, or racing success.

What we do have is first-hand experience with the TR plans and platform. That counts for more than bringing a pro pal onto the podcast just to verify the business model. But that’s just me.

The TR forum isn’t the only place to gain information.

[TonyLPowell]

I’m in the “not just you” camp as well.

[ibaldwin]

I’ve learned to be particular on who I engage with. I’ve experienced being blown off, but beyond that, no one here has really ever disrespected me. I’m able to voice my opinion without too much negative push back. I guess for me I tie my experience here with the actual conversations I get to have with others, rather than the over-all theme of the forum.

With Covid, I clearly need some community that I’m not getting elsewhere, so sadly or not, I’m filling that here.

[ryanppax]

Yeah I imagine that the longer we are all here, and the more often a question gets repeated the patience of users dwindles.

[stevemz]

I think we are all going stir crazy and are a bit burnt out from Covid, so things have leaned a bit more negative.

[Pasque]

It’s time for pro racing to kick off for some distraction! And for the weather to turn warm for nice long outdoor riding (We had a toasty 15C today!)

[Cleanneon98]

And then there’s also those who think paying the annual subscription fee affords them the right to crap all over the plans, the podcast, the staff, other members, and use this as an extension of their social media in randomly injecting politics into topics that have nothing to do with politics

Somewhere in a village…

[Pasque]

Definitely some “I’d like to speak to the manager” vibes out there

[Power13]

@Pasque

(We had a toasty 15C today!)

What a coincidence…we hit 15*F and it feels like spring.

As to the topic, all forums have ebbs and flows. And some topics inevitably get repeated, so when you have been around long enough, it gets to be Groundhog Day sometimes.

[earena]

The last one would be news to me…when have politics been randomly injected into conversations here?

[Landis]

Systematic building of stress over time with appropriate rest is pretty much the name of the game. Different people respond differently to the same stress for many reasons and IMO that’s where debate and/or confusion start. Anywho…big picture rather than small. Long term rather than short. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

[mtbjones]

I’m going to sound really old* and say I remember the days of the Google Wattage forum which started off as an amazing resource with great information from well qualified people. Sadly it devolved into nitpicking, egos, and absolutists. Some of the people seemed like they forgot that we’re just riding bikes and had to jump into every thread and make their (negative) opinions known, which drove many people away. I hope this forum doesn’t go down that road.

*I also took part in Coach Chad’s Computrainer Classes long before TrainerRoad existed.

[trpnhntr]

I’ve also noticed a gradual change in the dominant ‘tone’ of the forum over the past six months or so. I’ve been reading and posting less because of increasing demands on my time, but I’m still here enough to feel like things are changing

I think it is largely that a lot of topics have shifted from a ‘how can we learn and improve’ tone to a ‘there is one way, and it is X’ tone.

As a recent example - there are parallel threads about polarized training (and Dylan Johnson) that are getting lots of posts. If you look at the one about Dylan Johnson and polarized training - there are a lot of people sharing positive and negative experiences with polarized and pyramidal training. It is a learning focused thread. However, if you look at the thread from this week about Dylan criticizing TrainerRoad many of the same topics are being discussed in a tribal and extremely defensive manner. People are ‘demanding’ a response, people are leaping to TrainerRoad’s defense, it’s just a fruitless discussion whereas the older thread (which is still active) is much more supportive and analytical. Less dogmatic, etc.

Don’t have a solution, just my observations