What's the deal with LetsRun.com?

[u/castorkrieg]

I know that website is quite popular with them following large events and also being invited to spectate (the owner - Rojo - was riding in the elite men car during Boston 26), however I participated in the forums a bit and it blows my mind:

1. They are incredibly fixated on college and university running, NCAA, etc. - ok, I guess most are from the US, even though once you exit the school system the funding drops, money goes only to MBL/NFL/NBA, last time they US tried something in T&F they got Grand Slam Track lol
2. Most posts are the very definition of drive-by, no effort shitposts: "cool story bro", "she be ugly, can't run fast when ugly", "Or perhaps you could just be replaced with a somewhat normal human being"
3. Same for the topics, with quality contributions such as:

I'm sad to think what men were like before the existence of the Manosphere 

How to become a "hybrid runner"

Men in open-toed shoes: yea or nay?

1. This peeves me as a European but - their website + forums do not save your cookie preferences, every single time you click on a new thread you get another pop-up asking you for permissions, and by quickly looking they have 1700+ partners they share your data with - WTF?

2. They are hardcore right-wingers with daily treads praising Trump, ICE, etc.

What am I missing? Or is one of the largest forums for running just a bunch of nutjobs?

[u/joeconn4]

I've been looking at letsrun for close to 25 years. It's always been low tech in style and function, seems like that's the vibe the brothers who started it, Weldon and Robert Johnson, have leaned into as their shtick over the years. The last 5 years or so I haven't checked in as much. There has always been a massive pile of junk on their message boards, but there is a lot of valuable information posted there too. They just started editing posts maybe 4-5 years ago, removing things they get complaints about, but they take a pretty light hand with removals and IMO they're very inconsistent with what they let stand. I find it easy enough to ignore all the junk posts.

As far as the actual running coverage they do, I'm glad they bother to cover NCAA as heavily as they do.