Will any of us still be alive (or at least surviving on ST) on March 30th, 2030 - NEW ?
'No more aero' will surely be around 6 years hence.

Lionels coaching business after retiring from racing
Dev
no change

I was around on March 30th, 2003, with Fleck and many others around here.

We're still around in a small way, but as our attachment to the sport wanes, so does some level of engagement, so you need new crop passionate about participating in and building out the next wave of the sport (if there is one).

I think some of what is missing is more single sport threads. The entire discussion about pro cycling which has and will be around is buried in a single thread with maybe 5-10 posters. Wout Van Aert is out from Flanders with a broken collar bone and ribs. That in itself is a thread relative to the Giro and Paris 2023. Tour of Flanders is on, NO THREAD. NCAA swimming is on and fortunately Monty started a thread. World XC running on, NO THREAD. Matteo Jorgensen wins Paris Nice (was he first American winner for that....can't remember anyone winning it) ZERO thread. I started a thread about Sam Long in Miami, just becaue it was ridiculous for that not to be recognized on its own

One of the big things that creates engagement is discussion about pro sport, but we're doing a piss poor job and I don't think Ryan and Eric are actively engaged as endurance pro sport fans, so they create that culture around here.

Also no one posts race reports on here any more. Sure there was some dick swinging in those reports, but they still created engagement and you actually got to know some of the posters.

Generally the content generation on here is down. Maybe its just because we got so used to taking pictures and single click uploads on other media, that we got too lazy to write.

I see it in my company. The people who can generate content (be they coders, product marketing people, sales people, finance people)...does not matter, those people are value add people.

I don't think the concept of a forum is dead. You just have to look at comments threads on mainstream media to know that written engagement is still out there, but that is "fighting oriented" vs "collaboration oriented".

Also the ITU stuff is buried inside one thread.

Open a new thread per event, and open new thread for specific topics of discussion from a race that likely merit their own banter.

We're killing engagement with these large monolithic things that only a few people open. If no one opens them less people reply which means less content is generated for others to read.

Without content generation this place is dead, but content generation come from engagement. No engagement = no content generation = nothing useful to read and it is a negative cycle.

I think there’s a lot less engagement (don’t know if the numbers actually support that) because there’s many other avenues and sites to talk tri, cycling, running, etc. People came to ST 10 years ago to discuss tri. Now they go to YouTube, Facebook groups, Reddit, Strava, instagram, etc. Those sites have evolved with the times and ST hasn’t. But I’m not sure what ST can do this at this point. I think forums in general are less popular than ever because of those sites above.

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Hang on there.

I hear what you are saying. But keep in mind that ST was around before facebook and ST actually grew dramatically while facebook was growing. I agree that there are other places to go. I put my race reports on my own facebook feed to my friends, not here. 3/4 of the people who engage on them have zero clue. I literally can't have an articulate conversation on my own fb on how the race shook out, because 3/4 of my friends don't have clue about triathlon. But here we can have a useful discussion.

I think there is a way to leverage social media to pull the heavy lift triathlon discussion here, because if it is happening here, most people will come. I can't read about your race report on your facebook, but love to hear how your race went if you post about it here. But you don't, I don't, the other guy does not. He just post in a place where our mother or great uncle who thinks we are heros for doing tris can comment.

Youtube, facebook were all around in 2010, but ST was growing while those platforms where exploding.

Couple of thoughts --

1.) I *think* it's probably better for season long threads for ITU, versus individual ones for PTO and IM. ITU actually has built a season narrative. I don't think PTO and IM are there yet. And it just makes it easier for people to navigate to certain discussions. (That may or may not be a better reason for decent sub forums, but that's another concept.)

2.) The post-2016 environment of Facebook groups, in particular, have done a lot to bring discussion elsewhere. Facebook sign in for stuff makes it a *lot* easier versus registering for discussion in a different place -- we see that in our own Analytics, where we have a ton of readers who never register for an account / contribute to a discussion (probably a 10:1 ratio of non-contributing readers to contributors).

3.) I'm admittedly more invested in amateur sport than I am the pro side. Probably stems from working in run shops to race production -- I'm all in on the athlete experience for the paying customer. But we're also investing on our pro coverage this year -- David's our beat writer on that, and you'll see more there next week.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

interesting stat :

March 30 2016 -> 33 "partners" listed on the the site
March 30 2024 -> 14

One of the clever ways that pros got cyberink on Slowtwitch was by featuring their bike. Most here are suckers for sexy bikes. Leads to awareness of the athlete which is a start.

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http://www.fitspeek.com the Fraser Valley's fitness, wellness, and endurance sports podcast

I am saying these season long threads on any topic kills engagement.

Literally each race can have multiple theads....a live "watch thread", then all kinds of threads on different key performances, etc. More threads means more content for people to open and comment on.

I just posted a thread based on the NCAA swimming results very specific to the 100 butterfly and some of the players. Now if some people want to discuss that specific race, there is a thread for that. It is still more engagement on that topic than if it is being discussed only in an NCAA swimming thread.

As for pro racing, I think Ryan and Eric have to get on top of that. It is the number one thing fans discuss. For ST creating engagement out of pro race is far easier than creating engagement out of a new derailleur or a new race wheel. A website that just talks about gear, won't create as much enagement than a website that creates engagement around pro sport. So I think beyond the front page, you guys can create more enagement around pro racing inside the forum because pro racing is here on three fronts (Ironman, T100, ITU)

It's interesting, as one of the most frequent complaints I receive is that the forum is too hard to navigate with too many threads about similar topics (such as individual ITU races). So, it's always that fun balance.

Ultimately, we have some changes planned across the entirety of the site.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

Don't worry about people complaining about a shrinking pie. If they don't provides suggestions on how to create more engagement and content, then just walk out the door. Lots of squeeky wheels who don't contribute and just complain

Think about what will make the pie larger. More content and more enagement will. Having the best kept secrets inside 5 threads will ensure you make the pie smaller

Topic: "Ocean temp for Ironman Copenhagen is going to be 75* ... wetsuit legal?"

Topic: "Epic drought brings wildfires to Lake Placid"

Topic: "Travel restrictions between United States of America & Untied States of Trump"

Topic: "Pics of Your Tri-Bike"

Topic: "I just shit my pants"

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

You need new friends on fb ;).

Are you aware of the triathlon specific Facebook groups? Like Ryan said, those didn’t start until 2016/17 timeframe. Go check out “pathetic triathletes” fb group or any of the Ironman race groups (there’s at least 1 for each race. Pathetic triathletes has 85k+ members. Lots of discussion in those groups. Often times, there are things started over there that make their way over to here. And vice versa. The whole thing about Gatorade going away at IM events was started on a fb group and then made it over here.

YouTube didn’t really have tri content until 2016ish… I think. Since then, it’s really grown and there’s more interactions over there than ever. Same with instagram.

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I don’t know what helps or grows more members and interactions but it does annoy me when there’s 2-4 threads on the first page about the same thing. I don’t want to follow multiple threads and it kicks things off the first page and who ever goes to the 2nd page? I know I dont.

When I go to letsrun, it’s insane the amount threads they have. It’s impossible to keep up with anything over there. Hence why I don’t go there very often. It’s not intuitive or easy for a user.

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Some people are going to want a BIGGER pie
Some people are going to want a BETTER pie
Some people are going to want their FAVORITE pie
Some people are going to want a DIVERSE pie

Dr. Tigerchik just wants ... pi 😉

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Also, their site is ugly as fuck ... at an existential level, which is reflected in the interface

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Changes to the forum and the podcast which reflect 30÷ Canadian content as required by the CRTC Fleck and Dev will back me up on this.

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http://www.fitspeek.com the Fraser Valley's fitness, wellness, and endurance sports podcast

The "no spoilers" entitled bozos hold the rest of us from having an open discussion. End the insanity.

I've become a lot less active here and it has a lot to do with many value-add contributors leaving. Pros and industry experts mostly left, due to arm chair idiocy and in some cases borderline bullying. We have a few such people left here, but they post rarely. What's left is mostly discussions at a lower level, especially when it comes to equipment.

To your point, pro racing discussions are still interesting and important, imo. The other topics I enjoy are product/tech discussion, but with most industry experts gone, their value has dropped significantly.

You mean march 2024 ;-)

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Owner at TRIPRO, The Netherlands

Read the thread

I’m a 20 year slowtwitch follower and agree with Dev.
I think the site (front page and forum) could do a lot more on simply reporting race results or short articles on some interesting YouTube posts by pros similar to what Tri247 is doing where they have daily articles (even if short) and a place I frequent to save me surfing around social media for tri content and results.
Slowtwitch use to be my only tri go to site.

The gear stuff is good but the engagement on that vs pro/race content is going to be much lower as Dev as suggested.

I also think over the years many people wanting content or basic advice have stopped coming to slowtwitch given the often hostile nature of the forum which I know the moderators try to manage but seems more a result of how people interact online now in general vs years ago and not just a slowtwitch issue.

 

I'll still be here running a monthly fish thread (we've been doing it since I was in college, which was '05-'09) and weekly check in thread

I'd like to think that by 2030 we'll have figured out how to make flat coke

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD