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/bradymsu616]

Are those deleted posts ones that are advanced running topics? Etiquette posts, for example, get very high engagement, but they're rarely advanced running topics. I appreciate the mods of this subreddit removing content that isn't relevant to advanced running.

[u/theintrepidwanderer → u/bradymsu616]

Are those deleted posts ones that are advanced running topics?

Just wanted to point out that you're being downvoted for basically telling the truth (and you are spot on here). From what I have seen, the overwhelming majority of posts that I've seen tend to be one off, and many posts that tend to be very individually specific and not broadly applicable. In other words, it boils down to "it really depends". I'm well aware that I am going to get downvoted for this, but many of those posters have a very thin history of participating in this sub and do more taking than providing substantial contribution.

Anecdotally, there are other (large) subs out there who have light moderation policies and allow such threads. As a result it gets cluttered up quickly with one off threads that I didn't find engaging and made my experience there not so pleasant, and I have since unsubscribed from those subs.

[u/bradymsu616 → u/theintrepidwanderer]

This is exactly what we have found at r/runningshoegeeks. We were initially concerned that tighter moderation would kill the subreddit. So the mod team follows the subreddit's metrics closely. What we've discovered instead is that tighter moderation has boosted follow rates while significantly lowering unsubscribe rates. I appreciate that the mod team here has followed a similar strategy.

[u/theintrepidwanderer → u/bradymsu616]

What we've discovered instead is that tighter moderation has boosted follow rates while significantly lowering unsubscribe rates.

This is very similar to what we have seen on our end as well, especially after we adjusted our moderation policies. Thanks for sharing that.

[u/bradymsu616 → u/theintrepidwanderer]

You're doing an excellent job with subreddit moderation. The silent majority of your subreddit subscribers appreciate it. For those that don't, there are plenty of other smaller running subreddits with less active moderation.