Skimmed this thread and as a long time user/consumer/poster > 20yr now, here's what I think
In the past you would get threads that went on for 3-4-5 days with some of the leading researchers/inventors of things we take for granted like power analysis/aerodynamics, some of the top coaches in the world sharing thoughts and experiences explaining their how to, top athletes telling what they did/do and these people and others would be arguing, not arguing necessarily. that's not right, well it is but it's more nuanced than just arguing. They were explaining their thoughts, giving their how to do something and why, often diving deep into topics. It was some of
THE BEST learning one could access anywhere in the world for endurance sports. It's why people from every other endurance sport came here on the regular. Bike racing, ultra running etc
ST was like being an undergrad in college yet being able to take a PhD level course
and ask questions
and have the instructor stop class to explain the answer to you even though the instructor would sometimes/often be snarky. I myself have been guilty of an occasional snarky answer.
What I see on social media is a lot of influencers and a lot of people who give :30 infomatics on how to train for triathlon or marathon or whatever endurance sport. The overwhelming majority espouse bro science and they've never even made sausage. They haven't rolled up their sleeves and actually spent the time coaching, researching, debating, learning, challenging their beliefs, having their beliefs challenged. It's just Bro you need to do X and you'll be able to complete an Ironman in your best time ever. Or you can do it, you can go be an IM if you just do Y - You go you!!!!!!!!!!!!
There is a whole subset of endurance athletes who want that. They don't really care about how they finish. Their #1 concern is just getting across the line. IMO ST caters more to the crowd who not only wants to get across the line but wants to be more educated about how they get there. They want info and they want to understand it, even if not as deep as 15 years ago. They aren't going to accept that user A said X is the way to do it, they are going to come back to see if user B said it's more like X+A-C+D.
A lot of those FB groups are filled with people who don't realize if they trained more than 7 hours per week they'd get faster, even if it was two 45 min games of baseketball (because their training load is so low anything they do will increase their capacity to perform. It's also sidebars like this you almost never find except on ST). And/or they don't really want to get faster or don't want to improve, they are fine being pathetic and for some, even relish in that.
ST is still the leader, globally, for info about triathlon, how to, what should I do, etc. It's where the person turns when they want quality answers from people who have made more sausage than 10 people combined in a lot of these other groups or social media platforms. Not just some pathetic answer that is wrong as often if not more often than it's right.
The global tri scene is down, and with that the user base on ST is down, the threads are down, the content is down. If the sport grew 30% my guess is the user base goes up, more threads get started etc. Though there is so much more in-depth knowledge and content out there that you don't need ST to take a PhD course as an undergrad anymore.
Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching Insta