[HN Gopher] Endurain: Self-hosted Strava like service
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Endurain: Self-hosted Strava like service
        
       Author : thunderbong
       Score  : 234 points
       Date   : 2023-12-23 08:40 UTC (14 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | nicoco wrote:
       | I like the idea but the README is lacking screenshots.
       | 
       | Also, I think it would make sense to base this on XMPP or
       | ActivityPub, for federation and interop with other services.
        
       | cedilla wrote:
       | For anyone else wondering: Strava is a tool helping cyclists,
       | runners etc with tracking and routes (or so)
        
         | ReleaseCandidat wrote:
         | The actual purpose of Strava is to compare your time with that
         | of others. Or at least to show off your activities.
         | 
         | Especially the free version is (nowadays, 10 years ago when I
         | really used it that wasn't a problem) lacking features to be a
         | useful training (tracking/logging) tool on it's own.
        
           | pflenker wrote:
           | That might be true for many, but it is surely not true for
           | everyone. The progression analysis across multiple
           | activities, or the heart rate analysis of each individual
           | activity, are immensely useful tools on their own.
        
             | ReleaseCandidat wrote:
             | This has been true 10 years ago, nowadays the free version
             | is just about useless for training tracking purposes.
        
             | iamacyborg wrote:
             | I suspect most folks are getting that data from their watch
             | provider now rather than from Strava.
        
         | jraph wrote:
         | And Strava is actually a social network. It's not only your own
         | runs. You see your friends running and which runs they made. It
         | must be a privacy (and security? You're specifically telling
         | people "hey, I'm not home right now and I'm not back before N
         | minutes" [edit: apparently not quite true, see comments below])
         | nightmare.
         | 
         | And it's prone to the network effect, because now, people
         | expect and want to see what their friends are up to and
         | motivate each others.
         | 
         | During a job interview, I was once asked "oh, but you don't
         | actually run too much, right?" (I had this in my resume). Which
         | was somewhat right, I only occasionally run. I asked why they
         | assumed this. "You are not on Strava!"
         | 
         | Ah, yes, but for different reasons xD.
         | 
         | I have played with the ForRunners app on F-Droid in the past to
         | track my runs locally. I liked it, but I'm not disciplined
         | enough for this stuff, and don't even have a smartphone usable
         | for this anymore. So now, I just run without knowing anything
         | and that's fine.
        
           | Cockbrand wrote:
           | There's no realtime tracking, the activities are uploaded to
           | Strava after finishing them. It can become a potential
           | security issue if you upload activities from far away from
           | home.
        
             | constantly wrote:
             | It does have a real time tracking feature. I don't use it,
             | I use the built in Garmin. But you can enable this and
             | anyone following you can see your activity in real time.
             | 
             | I find the bigger security issue is recording close to
             | home, so people can theoretically see where you live and
             | know what sort of expensive sports equipment you might
             | have.
             | 
             | https://road.cc/content/news/248798-cyclist-who-had-five-
             | bik...
        
               | speedgoose wrote:
               | People publishing an online catalog of fancy sport
               | equipment for thieves isn't good indeed. I find military
               | people running around infrastructures in secret military
               | bases a bigger strava security issue.
        
               | Cockbrand wrote:
               | Last time I checked, the real time tracking was disabled
               | by default and could only be enabled only for specially
               | selected contacts, but it's been a while since I checked.
               | 
               | And if someone shows off their expensive bikes on social
               | media (and that's what Strava is, among other
               | functions)... well, it makes it known to others that they
               | own expensive bikes. Social media has been around for
               | long enough that its users should be aware that this kind
               | of behaviour may impose certain risks.
        
           | ReleaseCandidat wrote:
           | Not exactly. You can see all public data and the data your
           | "friends" (person you follow) share to followers. There
           | exists really private data too.
           | 
           | Btw. Strava did add a "don't show GPS 200m near my home (or
           | any other location)" feature some time ago. But I guess that
           | still isn't the default.
        
             | kleinsch wrote:
             | It's the default
             | 
             | https://support.strava.com/hc/en-
             | us/articles/115000173384-Ed...
        
               | ReleaseCandidat wrote:
               | Good, thanks for the heads up.
        
           | andylynch wrote:
           | It's doesn't show live data, but yes this kind of service
           | does have privacy concerns. If you're say, a Russian
           | submarine commander _, don't use it, or at least see your
           | rides private like it shows you.
           | 
           | _https://taskandpurpose.com/news/did-ukraine-just-
           | assassinate...
        
             | Moru wrote:
             | It's not only russian submarines, all sorts of soldiers are
             | using it to track their fitness in secret army training
             | camps that now show up glowing on the global hotmap.
        
               | ReleaseCandidat wrote:
               | Yes, there have been quite some problems with Strava and
               | military secrets, like:
               | https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/21/strava-
               | users-s...
               | https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/19706949/special-forces-
               | leak-s...
               | https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/28/fitness-
               | tracki... https://www.wired.com/story/strava-heat-map-
               | military-bases-f...
        
             | toyg wrote:
             | More commonly, if you are a woman running alone on regular
             | routes at predictable times, broadcasting this fact is
             | likely to put you at significant risk.
        
           | matsemann wrote:
           | You can decide who you share things with (everyone,
           | followers, no one), and also decide who can follow you. So
           | it's not really too bad in that sense.
           | 
           | Of course, many, including me, have most public. It's needed
           | to be on the public leaderboards ("segments"). But even then
           | it's not live tracking publicly, and you can wait a few days
           | to publish the activity if you're doing things abroad and are
           | afraid it'll show people you're not home. (And I'd be more
           | worried about Instagram etc in that aspect).
           | 
           | One cool feature, which unfortunately got severely nerfed due
           | to privacy, was the fly-by. During your activity, you could
           | see who else you met on the way. The cyclist blasting past
           | us? Yeah, that was a semi pro, cool! Or during a race, could
           | later see how everyone did in a cool visualization. The guy I
           | biked next to for some kms and then lost track of, how did he
           | end up?
           | 
           | But this could also be misused. Biked past a girl? Use fly-by
           | to figure out who she is and stalk her. Could even upload
           | fake activities to track everyone passing some spots etc.
           | 
           | Also, you could use Strava to figure out where people lived.
           | And use that to targeted breakins for expensive cycle gear.
           | However, now each activity will fuzz your start and end
           | locations.
           | 
           | I feel Strava had taken privacy very seriously the later
           | years. It's sad that it's needed, because some cool features
           | aren't as usable anymore, but they've prioritized privacy.
        
             | iamacyborg wrote:
             | Fly-by is still very usable. I raced in the Southern Road
             | Relays earlier this year and the fly-by for it is ace.
        
               | nsteel wrote:
               | Fly-by is a shadow of what it was. I never bother
               | anymore. A shame they couldn't figure out a way to make
               | it work and provide some basic privacy.
        
           | prmoustache wrote:
           | That is a bold assumption. Many people I know, including me
           | when I was using strava, were using pseudonyms or fake names.
           | 
           | Now since I am not an elite cyclist nor race anymore I prefer
           | my ride to be without a computer/screen and just enjoy the
           | ride and the scenery and I don't need to publish everything I
           | do.
        
           | Booourns wrote:
           | Years ago secret military and intelligence bases were outted
           | based on Strava heat maps.
        
           | rapfaria wrote:
           | > "You are not on Strava!"
           | 
           | What a creepy, american thing to say.
        
           | johannes1234321 wrote:
           | > During a job interview, I was once asked "oh, but you don't
           | actually run too much, right?"
           | 
           | That would be a massive red flag for me. If they checkout my
           | private life to that degree, even if running is on the C.V.
           | (unless maybe running is a property of the job, like a pro
           | running team or applying for Strava community person)
        
             | abraae wrote:
             | Wait until you learn that it's incredibly common to look
             | candidates up on Facebook to learn more about their
             | personal life during the recruitment process.
        
             | jraph wrote:
             | Not a red flag. This company is amazing and the guy just
             | happens to be strongly into running, so he was genuinely
             | interested and curious, most probably. He runs _a lot_. It
             | was also not at all a criterion.
             | 
             | This was also a side discussion during a technical
             | interview. It was fine, really.
        
       | Lio wrote:
       | Great name. I take it it's a play on the word endurance and the
       | name of the great Spanish cycling champion Miguel Indurain.
       | 
       | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_Indur%C3%A1in
        
         | comprev wrote:
         | Or if you live in Ireland - "endure the rain" - because we have
         | no other choice /s
        
           | Lio wrote:
           | Reminds me of childhood holidays in county Wexford. We'd
           | always be told it'd been constant sunshine the week before...
           | as we stared out the window at the driving rain.
           | 
           | Wexford's ace though so we never really minded. ;)
        
           | constantly wrote:
           | Works for Seattle too :)
        
         | toyg wrote:
         | Best of the best at a time when almost everyone was doping like
         | mad. Worked with EPO pioneer Dr. Conconi. He was never caught
         | but chances are he wasn't clean.
        
           | 4ndrewl wrote:
           | Istr he was also some sort of physiological freak - huge lung
           | capacity combined with a ridiculously low resting heart rate.
           | Won all his tours by hammering out huge TT leads that were
           | unassailable in the the mountain stages.
        
             | mft_ wrote:
             | I don't want start a doping argument on HN, and I don't
             | dispute what you've written, but a very low heart rate can
             | be a result of EPO usage.
             | 
             | There's an interesting account in (IIRC) Pantani's
             | biography of riders having to sleep with heart rate
             | monitors. An alarm would trigger if their HR dropped into a
             | dangerous territory, whereupon they'd wake up and have to
             | jump on a bike (which would already be set up on a trainer)
             | in their room to bring their HR back up again.
        
               | 4ndrewl wrote:
               | +1 on doping, but the context you provide is very
               | interesting, thank you for the info.
        
               | davidw wrote:
               | Realistically, it's probably a "yes, and" situation. You
               | don't get to that level without having a lot of natural
               | talent, but... those years were what they were.
        
               | dogmatism wrote:
               | that's not why they had to get up. It's because they were
               | hitting the EPO so hard, their hematocrits would be like
               | over 60% (60% red blood cells/mL of blood) and thus when
               | their heart rate/cardiac output would drop during sleep
               | (to very low levels typically of highly trained
               | athletes...not _because_ of the EPO) the blood would be
               | too viscous and start to clot
               | 
               | so the low heart rates caused a problem for those abusing
               | EPO, but wasn't a _result_ of using EPO
        
               | alfu wrote:
               | "Medlife Crisis" has an interesting video about this:
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT8GZlBBv5k (Cyclists'
               | hearts: can you be so fit that you die?)
        
               | zh3 wrote:
               | Also in Obree's book "Flying Scotsman" [0] where his
               | attitude to "medical assistance" makes him "not a team
               | player", and recounts how he'd hear certain teams running
               | through the hotel at night to avoid the potential blot
               | clots associated with EPO usage.
               | 
               | * https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flying-Scotsman-Graeme-
               | Obree/dp/190...
        
             | latchkey wrote:
             | George Hincapie was also kind of a physiological freak. I
             | remember watching him at junior nationals one year just
             | completely decimate the field. It was a criterium and he
             | had a slow leak on his front tire and still won the race. A
             | really strong and talented rider long before he was a
             | doper.
        
         | pvg wrote:
         | It is a fine name but Endurian - become one with, _be_ the
         | durian was also right there.
        
       | pflenker wrote:
       | One thing is missing and can't be done with a web app, and that
       | is automatic tracking of activities recorded by smart watches.
       | The work around here seems to be auto-importing them to Strava
       | and connecting Strava to Endurain.
        
         | Xylakant wrote:
         | One path forward could be integration into RunGap which
         | integrates with tons of services.
        
         | tcmb wrote:
         | Wait, the smartwatches don't upload activities directly to
         | Strava, do they? They connect to their manufacturer's cloud
         | service (Garmin Connect etc), and Strava has API integrations
         | with them, doesn't it?
         | 
         | So what's missing are the integrations from Endurain to the big
         | manufacturers' platforms (if they are missing, haven't checked
         | the code).
        
           | navanchauhan wrote:
           | Not sure about others, but for Apple Watches:
           | 
           | Apple Watch -> Health App <- Strava
           | 
           | Strava can directly import workouts from the health app if
           | you don't like using their app to record your workouts
        
             | heavenlyblue wrote:
             | I don't think that's how Strava on Apple Watch works
        
               | dwrowe wrote:
               | It works like this if you're simply using the Apple
               | Workouts app on your watch, instead of the Strava app. If
               | you use the Strava app, it'll upload directly, as well
               | as, write to your Health data. If you use Apple Workouts,
               | it'll detect the workout for Import (if you don't
               | automatically import), and read that from Health.
        
           | ReleaseCandidat wrote:
           | Could be that they do that directly now, but some years ago
           | you had to "route" the data through their (Suunto's and
           | Garmin's) servers, yes.
        
           | _boffin_ wrote:
           | I guess I'm tangentially working on doing that for Apple
           | Watch for some personal stuff. I can do a blog post on it
           | sometime.
        
         | ReleaseCandidat wrote:
         | Has been quite a while since I used one, but you could
         | configure custom data uploads in Suunto's app (that's also how
         | you would uploads to Strava back then). Garmin could do the
         | same IIRC. Don't know about the modern versions though.
        
         | Lio wrote:
         | A webapp can definitely import activities from Garmin
         | smartwatches automatically. Garmin provide a REST interface to
         | Connect to import FIT activities.
         | 
         | https://developer.garmin.com/gc-developer-program/activity-a...
        
           | moooo99 wrote:
           | Theoretically, practically, the Garmin connect developer
           | programm is only open for businesses and not hobby projects.
           | From my past experience this is also enforced, no hobby
           | projects.
        
             | llimllib wrote:
             | I have also experienced this. It's very frustrating that my
             | own data, while available for download on the site, is not
             | available via API
        
               | jcdavis wrote:
               | There are a few usable libraries now from folks who have
               | reverse engineered it. I've used
               | https://github.com/matin/garth successfully, there should
               | be libraries available in most other popular languages
        
               | llimllib wrote:
               | That's really handy, thanks
        
             | nsteel wrote:
             | From my past experience (during COVID when everyone was
             | trying to get access to do hobby projects) they were
             | providing access, you just had to email nicely and ask.
             | Maybe that's now changed again, I've not tried since.
        
       | folli wrote:
       | Also, check out https://github.com/r-follador/cubetrek
       | 
       | Not yet ready for self-hosting as there's a tangle of
       | dependencies, but working on it... The managed version is
       | available on https://cubetrek.com
        
         | notnmeyer wrote:
         | this looks very cool!
        
           | folli wrote:
           | Thanks!!
        
         | mft_ wrote:
         | Ha, funny - I was playing with a slightly similar idea (3d
         | plotting of Strava segments) a while back too. Congratulations
         | of getting (far) beyond the ratty-Python-script-PoC stage :)
        
         | tarasglek wrote:
         | That is the coolest thing I've seen for hike visualization.
         | Uploaded one: https://cubetrek.com/view/199784
        
       | janwillemb wrote:
       | > I'm not a developer by profession (my dev concepts are from
       | university ten years ago) so this work had a lot of help from
       | ChatGPT and the main purpose was to learn new technologies and
       | new concepts, so please be gentle. If you have recommendations
       | for any topic please let me know.
       | 
       | Well done, then, to have created such a seemingly complete
       | system.
       | 
       | I don't know if you are the original developer, but aren't you
       | afraid to have made mistakes that will bite you later? Such as
       | security stuff or other errors that will be hard to correct.
        
         | flipgimble wrote:
         | Not the op or the author but any and all developers will make
         | mistakes. Experience just moves the threshold of obvious
         | mistakes into less obvious ones. What's impressive is that the
         | author built a system and presumably opened it to community
         | feedback which could potentially lead to better result than an
         | experience developer working in solitude and worry over
         | security for years. I appreciate the honest disclaimer at the
         | top as well.
         | 
         | On teams I work on I usually socialize the ideas that it's not
         | mistakes that matter, but the speed of discovery and fixing
         | that is important. Then it's important to establish self-
         | enforcing systems that make sure they never happen again. That
         | is linters, unit tests, type systems, CI/CD etc. I jokingly
         | call this humility-based development.
        
         | boplicity wrote:
         | I've been an amateur programmer for a long, long time. I've
         | never had the time to really get fluent in coding. (I'm the
         | type of coder who can lose an hour to stupid typos and similar
         | bugs that should be easy to spot.)
         | 
         | I use ChatGPT to help with projects, generate code, point out
         | problems with my code, etc.
         | 
         | It usually gets more "edge cases" figured out than I would
         | without it, especially for implementing common functions. I
         | also ask it to plug security holes in my code, and again, it
         | does better than I would without it.
         | 
         | Just yesterday, it gave me seven different strategies for
         | dealing with bots filling out forms. I implemented a couple in
         | just a few minutes, and the bot problem immediately stopped.
         | 
         | Will mistakes happen? Of course -- but AI tools can help
         | prevent them, especially when combined with one's own critical
         | thinking. (I often correct the AI, ask for assistance in terms
         | of preventing specific types of problems, or use prompts based
         | on my own pre-existing knowledge, which then gets better
         | answers than I would get otherwise.)
        
           | davnicwil wrote:
           | > I'm the type of coder who can lose an hour to stupid typos
           | and similar bugs that should be easy to spot.
           | 
           | Oh, a seasoned pro then :-)
        
             | Tyr42 wrote:
             | Yeah that's me too. I lost a week on the datasets test/
             | folder being completely empty too.
        
           | goalonetwo wrote:
           | I realize that most people think "professional coders" are on
           | top of their profession and can find bugs with advanced
           | debugger features.
           | 
           | The reality is that MOST people in the professsion never
           | reach that level and are probably on the same level that you
           | are right now.
           | 
           | It feels like there is a really long tail of really good
           | coders but the median coder is actually pretty... average.
           | 
           | I'm putting this out there so that you can get over imposter
           | syndrome. What you did here is amazing and a lot of
           | professional coders would give up pretty quickly and get
           | stuck on the first implementation steps.
        
         | al_borland wrote:
         | "aren't you afraid to have made mistakes that will bite you
         | later? Such as security stuff or other errors that will be hard
         | to correct."
         | 
         | If you let this fear control you, you will never actually make
         | anything. Even the most experienced developers will make some
         | of these mistakes. Anyone who thinks they have progressed
         | beyond them needs more experience to see the truth.
         | 
         | The best way to learn is to work on projects and make those
         | mistakes, then figure out how to fix them. The harder it is to
         | fix, the more likely future projects will consider it in the
         | design from the start.
        
         | Dachande663 wrote:
         | The OP looks to be using sha2 for password hashing at a cursory
         | glance at the PHP so I'd say highly likely. I suppose
         | everything, AI or novice, is just a matter of degree of
         | wrongness.
        
         | mattlondon wrote:
         | I wonder if ChatGPT suggested PHP, because that is a very
         | bizarre choice.
        
         | hallqv wrote:
         | Afraid of what..? What's the risk?
        
       | arcza wrote:
       | Agree with others. Need screenshots in the readme.
        
       | badrabbit wrote:
       | I have no idea what strava is, perhaps a sentence describing what
       | it is without mentioning the competition and forcing people to
       | google strava would be nice at the top of the readme and/or
       | title?
        
         | InCityDreams wrote:
         | A lot of my fun on hn is learning new stuff. I often have to
         | searchx various things - just because I didn't know about them
         | previously.
         | 
         | It's the same on reddit, even on topics i (supposedly) know
         | about and follow.
         | 
         | Nb - if you're into sports and fitness tracking, take a look at
         | http://intervals.icu - great for fitness, but also a geeks
         | dream. And a Ux with A1++ customer service to die for!
        
           | BytesAndGears wrote:
           | Another giant recommendation from me on intervals.icu !
           | 
           | I have hundreds of workouts to pick from in there across
           | swim/bike/run, and used the site to plan out all of my
           | training for an Ironman 70.3 (and also for some upcoming
           | races next year). It is phenomenal for planning out your
           | training if you want to do any sort of endurance sports
           | racing.
           | 
           | The developer is awesome, and provides almost all features
           | for free. He even added a swimming feature that I needed with
           | like a 1-2 day turnaround, which was incredible. The
           | "premium" version is only $3/mo which I gladly pay just to
           | support the service.
           | 
           | It's not open source but honestly that's fine, the developer
           | has built a very feature-complete platform. But it would be
           | really cool to have the source...
        
           | badrabbit wrote:
           | My whole point was to help readers learn new stuff. Until
           | just now I didn't google it because I thought it was random
           | noise that isn't interesting to me, my assumption was that it
           | was some random new front end js stuff. I won't google the
           | competition of every post on hn to find out what it is about.
           | Why are you/others supporting bad marketing/presentation?
           | 
           | Instead of "like strava" 20 times all over, at least once say
           | "a running, cycling and hiking app like strava".
           | 
           | To me, this project just tells me to just go ahead and use
           | strava, they are merely a fan clone.
        
       | poisonborz wrote:
       | Grats for the idea and the execution, but if I understand it
       | correctly this is better described as a selfhosted frontend for
       | Strava data? So not selfhosted Strava service, but a UI that
       | still needs the cloud service and account. This should be
       | clarified upfront.
        
         | ruune wrote:
         | I haven't tried it, but I understand the Strava integration as
         | optional. You can source your data from Strava and then use it
         | on its own. Might've misunderstood the readme though
        
       | otteromkram wrote:
       | You can move Dockerfiles into the backend/frontend folder to keep
       | them contained.
       | 
       | Or, make a docker folder and specify context with dot-separated
       | prefixes[0]. Update compose file accordingly.
       | 
       | [0] https://docs.docker.com/build/building/context/#filename-
       | and...
        
       | divyenduz wrote:
       | Oh nice, also check out
       | https://github.com/divyenduz/trackfootball.app
       | 
       | It is like Strava for Football (gets data using Strava OAuth).
       | Open source, but docs aren't simply there yet for host-ability!
       | 
       | Also, don't want to hijack your post, but some people might be
       | interested in a football variant! Will defn try Endurain soon
        
       | williamscales wrote:
       | Does this integrate with the Fediverse? The social network aspect
       | of Strava is the primary reason I use it. Garmin Connect has
       | better analysis tools (than Strava to be clear, not Endurain,
       | I've not tried it)
        
       | ImPleadThe5th wrote:
       | This is more like an alternative frontend with backup right?
       | 
       | Because you still have to give your data to Strava before it gets
       | to this tool?
        
         | simmschi wrote:
         | Looks like it. Which is a problem, because the Strava API
         | Agreement (https://www.strava.com/legal/api) specifically
         | prohibits you from replicating features that Strava has.
        
       | rcMgD2BwE72F wrote:
       | How could it be used with mobile tools like Gadgetbridge[0]?
       | 
       | This app allows to bypass the proprietary apps for smartwatches
       | and avoid having to upload your health and location data to
       | commercial services. But it does not support Garmin's main sport
       | watches but only gadgets[1]. So one has to connect the watch via
       | USB to transfer tracks and access them on a computer (no mobile
       | support).
       | 
       | [0]
       | https://f-droid.org/en/packages/nodomain.freeyourgadget.gadg...
       | 
       | [1] https://gadgetbridge.org/gadgets/
        
       | vocram wrote:
       | I think the killer application of Strava is segments. Even
       | without caring about being the quickest of all users (aka getting
       | KOMs), I find it valuable to be able to compare my progress on a
       | specific piece of road over time. Paired with your heart rate and
       | perceived effort it allows you to gauge how fit you currently are
       | - or how far you are from your peak form.
        
         | nightski wrote:
         | It's a cool feature no doubt, but they really lean on that hard
         | to make you want to pay $80/year.
        
           | Aurornis wrote:
           | $80/year isn't much in the context of most sports that people
           | use Strava for.
           | 
           | I can see how casual, frugal runners might be put off by
           | $80/year, but casual users aren't the target audience for
           | competitive apps.
           | 
           | I'm amazed at how many people will buy $10,000 bikes and wear
           | $600 of specialized gear and then scoff at paying $80 for a
           | service that tracks exactly what they want.
        
             | dfc wrote:
             | I cancelled my subscription before the price hike. I agree
             | it's not a lot of money but it also was not a lot of value.
             | I think the criteria should be about how much value
             | something provides.
             | 
             | As a runner, that was not interested in any of the social
             | functionality, I didn't really get anything out of strava
             | that was not already in Garmin. What are the "tracks
             | exactly what you want" feature(s) in strava for you?
        
             | notnmeyer wrote:
             | i think you're looking at it wrong if all you consider are
             | the bare numbers. someone may find enough _value_ in an
             | expensive bike and expensive gear and not enough value in
             | strava's paid features. value is subjective, right?
             | 
             | in the mtb community at least it's not uncommon for someone
             | with a $6k bike to be driving a $3k car and wearing street
             | clothes.
             | 
             | i find it very easy to imagine people stretching
             | financially for expensive bikes and then cutting costs by
             | cancelling strava.
        
         | ck2 wrote:
         | Someone just needs to make an open central hub for segments and
         | leaderboards per activity type.
         | 
         | Then you need a way to block and nuke toxic segments and
         | submitters, a voting system perhaps.
         | 
         | Detecting segments during an activity is tricky and I've been
         | meaning to investigate it further perhaps via ChatGPT explainer
         | but I know it involves lat/lon bounding boxes, detecting the
         | start/end points within those points.
         | 
         | I vaguely remember Strava has some kind of patent on segments
         | though.
        
           | hasbot wrote:
           | Strava does have multiple patents related to segments
           | including defining and matching segments but Garmin Connect
           | and Ride With GPS have had segments too for years:
           | https://support.ridewithgps.com/hc/en-
           | us/articles/4419581503...
        
       | lopkeny12ko wrote:
       | If you want this to be more compelling to potential users, you
       | _need_ a live demo, or at very minimum, some screenshots.
       | _Especially_ as this is primarily just a frontend into an
       | existing service.
        
       | charles_f wrote:
       | Shameless plug for a very scrapy alternative I made to Strava,
       | except that you don't need Strava at all -
       | https://github.com/cfe84/gpx-tools/blob/main/README.md
       | 
       | It's a cli command that you run on a folder with gpx traces, with
       | segments you define yourself in a json file, then it allows you
       | to list performance by segments. I use it with OsmAnd to record
       | activities, foldersync to synchronize through syncthing, then run
       | on the target folder.
       | 
       | You can look at the logic to calculate segments. I don't pretend
       | that it's great, but that could be a nice addition to your
       | server.
        
       | ck2 wrote:
       | It's a shame Runalyze is no longer open-source but the old
       | version is still there
       | 
       | https://github.com/Runalyze/Runalyze
        
       | mikabasketball wrote:
       | A good alternative I use is https://www.goldencheetah.org/, open
       | source, and you don't need Strava/Garmin/etc...
        
         | c0nsumer wrote:
         | Outside of the basics of analysis, Golden Cheetah is nothing
         | like Strava.
         | 
         | Strava is a social network, map-based ride reviewer, heatmap
         | tool, and basic ride analysis tool. GC is a not-great map
         | viewer and VERY deep ride data dive tool for training.
         | 
         | A venn diagram for the two would only overlap by about 15%.
        
           | mattlondon wrote:
           | Personally I find the "social" aspect of Strava off-putting.
           | 
           | Running for me has always been a solitary pursuit. Making it
           | "social" and letting you know that BigDave69 ran that segment
           | faster than you or whatever totally jars with the whole ethos
           | for me.
        
       | zsteinkamp wrote:
       | I hope this isn't seen as stealing thunder from the linked app,
       | but I made a self-hosted viewer for Strava's bulk-download data
       | format. The idea is there are things I have in Strava that I want
       | to keep forever. https://github.com/zsteinkamp/esstraba I made it
       | just for me, but it's open source so let's make it really good!
       | 
       | Example: https://esstraba.steinkamp.us/activity/629380522 (ctrl-
       | drag to orbit/tilt)
        
         | ozfive wrote:
         | Why not just submit your project to Hacker News yourself in
         | it's own thread? Whenever I come across these sorts of posts I
         | think exactly what you say in your first sentence.
        
       | rashidae wrote:
       | Congrats! Loved the initiative.
       | 
       | There's a lot of potential in the compounding effect of recording
       | usable biometric data.
        
       | wingworks wrote:
       | Any screenshots of the UI?
        
       | mbesto wrote:
       | I've been slowly moving towards https://intervals.icu/ which is
       | kinda "open source" since its donation based. Way better than
       | Strava.
        
       | null4bl3 wrote:
       | I have noticed this tendency in development, where creators write
       | some open alternative to a service, but nowhere in their README
       | have any description of what the alternative they are providing
       | actually does.
       | 
       | So if you don't know the product or service it is an alternative
       | to, you are just out of luck.
       | 
       | I wonder if it is intentional, or just devs being to deep into
       | deving
        
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