I unhid every Segment on Ride London

I'm originally from Shrewsbury and so align with Simon E!   Why would anyone attempt to ride competitively in a town of crowded narrow roads when it is surrounded by beautiful countryside? 

Similarly, now living in Altrincham I'm about 4 miles from open country, yet I see segments like the half mile through the centre of Alty on a narrow road with parking bays on both sides and 4 sets of traffic lights.   What's the point?   If you get a good time on a segment like this it's luck.

(A disclaimer - I have ridden this segment once and am top over 65! - if any OAP beats my time I'll have to go back in the small hours of the morning and have another go). 

I rode a 10 mile segment yesterday as fast as I could. Despite my efforts to make it disappear I believe the segment still exists on Strava. Have I failed?

Joking apart, I still don't understand the point of trying to time a segment that runs through sets of traffic lights or somewhere that you're likely to get held up in a queue. Trying to ride against the clock/Strava/whatever in those conditions must be horribly frustrating. I don't mind that they exist, I just cannot get my head around caring about them. Shrewsbury is a lot smaller than Manchester but the thought of trying to go fast along some of the roads here in the daytime is not something I'd want to do, for my sanity or my safety. So why do it? This is not to deride anyone's efforts but to try to comprehend them.

Could segment playlists become a thing on rides?

Share the best bits, cut out the s**t? Anyone?

I'm not sure why they don't do a time and distance minimum.  Some really popular routes should be locked out so no more additional segments can be created.  Last time I rode in Surrey it was stupid the number of overlapping segments.  

It seems people favour crap segments.  Several times now I've made some segments that are a decent length - a few miles - and actually go from one place to another, like from one road junction to another along a stretch that you can get along in one go without having to worry about junctions, etc.  Each time they end up hidden in favour of umpteen segments cataloguing each little bump along that stretch.  Clearly people want to sprint up each little lump and then have a breather, and don't like seeing that while they may have got a gold star for leathering it for each 0.1 of a mile, it took them half an hour to actually cover the 3 miles that make up my segment.

Could be worse...

https://www.strava.com/activities/668409122

how many segments does this 'loop' need?

11+ hours/day going around the same  11km (flattish) circuit for 80+ days..meh!

On my commute, someone has created a segment through the carpark of Guildford Hospital!! I mean, wtf? That's aKOM I'm chasing!!

Eeediots Ren, eeediots!!

I'd say the hide thing works as designed.   If you hide a segment, you don't see it;   If enough people hide it, no one sees it unless they go looking for it.  The community collectively decides which segments are bad.  However what might be judged bad by community might appeal to a niche, so they can still access and use segments that have been judged bad.  If enough people unhide a 'bad' segment then it goes back into general usage.

By going out of your way to unhide everything you have opted in to the rubbish.  It's like choosing to pour a bin over your head and then complaining that you have a banana skin in your hair.  If someone really likes bananas, they are welcome to go and rummage in the bin, but you don't have to unless you want to.

I think the hiding system is mostly fine and there is no need to delete the extra segments. The thing that bothers me is how often Strava ends up hiding the best segments and leaving the rubbish ones that don't start and stop in sensible places, or have really poor track accuracy. Also, the nonsense auto-created climbs (usually named after the road name) that result from some bad altitude data in someone's ride seem to hang around disproportionately - probably because they are given a category, which attracts people's attention.

My other pet hate with segments is the number I see that are named along the lines of "last X before home." The people that name them either have no idea that the segments and/or their names are public, or they are too daft to remember that the rest of the world does not live where they do! Please can everyone hide these silly segments?!  Then I think the auto-hide feature will demote them fom view for most people.

I've recently returned from a holiday in France, a 35 mile ride near Dieppe revealed 12 Strava segments while a similar distance into the Cheshire countryside has 80.

So, something  we can beat the French at. 

Yeah it's easier just to hide and star segments you want. Best thing about Strava segments is the freedom they give you. Otherwise it'd be a first come first served basis, and some div who creates crap segments would dictate to us all.

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I unhid every Segment on Ride London

Why did you do that?

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Strava do need to do something to remove duplicates, dangerous segments, impossible bad data routes, etc

Why do they 'need' to do that?

Surely that's what the 'hide segment' feature is for? Strava is a community site - people create segments they feel like creating. If you don't like them, hide them!

I'd find somewhere quieter to ride (without GPS).