Happy Birthday RW Barefoot Running Forum?! Not!

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That "other" place
By me


So I went to that "other" place to wish them a happy birthday today, but apparently, it's more like a good-bye day for me. Apparently, they shut down all of their forums and created Facebook pages to replace some of them...not the barefoot running forum though.
 
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Running barefoot does not sell shoes, madam. You of all folks should know that.:D

Still kind of new here. What exactly is the "other" place?
. I believe it’s the Runners World barefoot forums. As RW is there to provide tips and articles in order to sell shoes, BFR sort of goes against their grain.

*Proviso: it’s been ages since I’ve read RW, so maybe their focus has changed.
 
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Still kind of new here. What exactly is the "other" place?
It's a little forum that I established with Mark Remy, the editor of Runner's World, long ago to allow some of their posters a place to talk without ridicule from the shoddies. It didn't work out that way though. They liked to crash in on us and call us hobbits and stuff...really quite funny. Ha! Good times, good times. But as this whole thing evolved, I and some others realized it was a good idea to start our own club so we could do more than talk about barefoot running together; we could actually run barefoot together. So, the BRS was born.
 
Running barefoot does not sell shoes, madam. You of all folks should know that.:D

. I believe it’s the Runners World barefoot forums. As RW is there to provide tips and articles in order to sell shoes, BFR sort of goes against their grain.

*Proviso: it’s been ages since I’ve read RW, so maybe their focus has changed.
Where have you been?

No, RW is still all about shoes, shoes, shoes...very little about barefoot running.

There was a time when an argument broke out over there about the original naming of the forum, which was Barefoot Running Forum. Some challenged its naming and wanted it changed to Barefoot & Minimalist Running Forum, since both those running barefoot and/or minimalist were frequenting the forum. The name was eventually changed long after the BRS was created. Nearly all of the original forum posters had migrated here before the name change anyway.

Later, Runners World dealt with spam attack after spam attack in all of their forums. The spam was so intertwined with the legitimate posts that they could not cleanse their forums. They decided to purge their forums completely, and start back over with a blank canvas. All posts, all history, gone. The Barefoot & Minimalist Running Forum was named the Barefoot Running forum, the original once again. I guess someone forgot about its name change and how it came to be. Ha!

It seemed none of their forums had fully recovered over these last few years, from my checking in now and again, so I guess they decided to let Facebook handle it all, along with the headache of controlling the spam and membership requests that generate the spam. Their forums were huge at one point, now, there's nothing left.

It's a shame really.
 
It's a little forum that I established with Mark Remy, the editor of Runner's World, long ago to allow some of their posters a place to talk without ridicule from the shoddies. It didn't work out that way though. They liked to crash in on us and call us hobbits and stuff...really quite funny. Ha! Good times, good times. But as this whole think evolved, I and some others realized it was a good idea to start our own club so we could do more than talk about barefoot running together; we could actually run barefoot together. So, the BRS was born.
LOL... "hobbits."
 
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Where have you been?

Oh, lawdy, I’ve been nowhere other than wandering around in my own thoughts. As I said in my other post, full time employment and being domesticated (GF and a 9 y/o stepdaughter) has cut into my free time. It’s good...just hard to manage my personal interests. :)
 
Interesting history tour here! :)

It's sad there are so many shod runners who feel the need to troll barefoot runners. I wonder sometimes if it's further evidence of the growing "runner's rage" effect. Or it's just the general nature of a sport like running to attract hyper-competitive people who view their trolling as just debate and they're always hyper-competitively trying to win a debate. That's what I think of whenever they start getting eye-rollingly pedantic about "Uh, ackshully, you should call yourselves minimalist because you're not 100% barefoot all the time..."

And it's sad the forums got folded up into the FB monster. All the news lately about FB has me pining for my rose-colored view of the '90s and '00s when all my on-line time wasting was on forums like this and not giant, billion-user platforms. I do wonder if we'll see a bit more of a return to that model, though.

One platform I've been thinking about as a model for how things could be done better for social media is Strava. It has a social media component but, of course, you're only using the app if you want to track your workouts and share them with friends. Therefore it automatically means you don't see any MLM folks posting inspirational quotes or crazy political BS. Or, perhaps we just don't see that on places like Strava yet?
 
Interesting history tour here! :)

It's sad there are so many shod runners who feel the need to troll barefoot runners. I wonder sometimes if it's further evidence of the growing "runner's rage" effect. Or it's just the general nature of a sport like running to attract hyper-competitive people who view their trolling as just debate and they're always hyper-competitively trying to win a debate. That's what I think of whenever they start getting eye-rollingly pedantic about "Uh, ackshully, you should call yourselves minimalist because you're not 100% barefoot all the time..."

And it's sad the forums got folded up into the FB monster. All the news lately about FB has me pining for my rose-colored view of the '90s and '00s when all my on-line time wasting was on forums like this and not giant, billion-user platforms. I do wonder if we'll see a bit more of a return to that model, though.

One platform I've been thinking about as a model for how things could be done better for social media is Strava. It has a social media component but, of course, you're only using the app if you want to track your workouts and share them with friends. Therefore it automatically means you don't see any MLM folks posting inspirational quotes or crazy political BS. Or, perhaps we just don't see that on places like Strava yet?
I reminisce quite a bit about the "old" Internet also. Reddit gives me a lot of that same feel. I'm also on Strava, but I don't have any barefooter friends on there.
 
Interesting history tour here! :)

It's sad there are so many shod runners who feel the need to troll barefoot runners. I wonder sometimes if it's further evidence of the growing "runner's rage" effect. Or it's just the general nature of a sport like running to attract hyper-competitive people who view their trolling as just debate and they're always hyper-competitively trying to win a debate.....<snip>?

Oh boy do I have thoughts on this! The answer (for me) is plain and simple: brainwashing. Many people who have stopped and questioned me seem absolutely BLOWN-AWAY by the idea of barefoot running. Some seem incapable of comprehending it. Have you ever heard about sales-people who can "talk a dog off a meat truck"? Reminds me of an awesome story:

In the early 1900's, 2 shoe-salesmen visited a large village in Africa to peddle their shoes. They each reported back to headquarters their observations:

Shoe salesmen #1: "Awful situation, they don't wear shoes here."

Shoe salesman #2: "Glorious opportunity, they don't have shoes yet."

So, shoe salesman #2 (let's call him Mike, pronounced "Mikee"), some 40-50 years ago, discovered that runners "don't have running shoes yet" and employed the capitalist money-machine to convince people that they MUST have running shoes.

This type of brainwashing is rampant in society today. For example (brace yourself), you can eat a salad with ANY fork. (Apologies if you just spit coffee all over your screen, but it's true, any fork will work).
 
Interesting history tour here! :)

It's sad there are so many shod runners who feel the need to troll barefoot runners. I wonder sometimes if it's further evidence of the growing "runner's rage" effect. Or it's just the general nature of a sport like running to attract hyper-competitive people who view their trolling as just debate and they're always hyper-competitively trying to win a debate. That's what I think of whenever they start getting eye-rollingly pedantic about "Uh, ackshully, you should call yourselves minimalist because you're not 100% barefoot all the time..."

And it's sad the forums got folded up into the FB monster. All the news lately about FB has me pining for my rose-colored view of the '90s and '00s when all my on-line time wasting was on forums like this and not giant, billion-user platforms. I do wonder if we'll see a bit more of a return to that model, though.

One platform I've been thinking about as a model for how things could be done better for social media is Strava. It has a social media component but, of course, you're only using the app if you want to track your workouts and share them with friends. Therefore it automatically means you don't see any MLM folks posting inspirational quotes or crazy political BS. Or, perhaps we just don't see that on places like Strava yet?

Oh, and the trolls called us trolls too!

But, yes, that's some of it.
 
Oh boy do I have thoughts on this! The answer (for me) is plain and simple: brainwashing. Many people who have stopped and questioned me seem absolutely BLOWN-AWAY by the idea of barefoot running. Some seem incapable of comprehending it. Have you ever heard about sales-people who can "talk a dog off a meat truck"? Reminds me of an awesome story:

In the early 1900's, 2 shoe-salesmen visited a large village in Africa to peddle their shoes. They each reported back to headquarters their observations:

Shoe salesmen #1: "Awful situation, they don't wear shoes here."

Shoe salesman #2: "Glorious opportunity, they don't have shoes yet."

So, shoe salesman #2 (let's call him Mike, pronounced "Mikee"), some 40-50 years ago, discovered that runners "don't have running shoes yet" and employed the capitalist money-machine to convince people that they MUST have running shoes.

This type of brainwashing is rampant in society today. For example (brace yourself), you can eat a salad with ANY fork. (Apologies if you just spit coffee all over your screen, but it's true, any fork will work).
Hysterical! :hilarious:
 
It seemed more and more as the "other" forum progressed that those with real interest in barefoot running (real running) had more substantial topics to talk about while those in the shoddie forums talked on and on about their running aids (electronic gadgets that deaden their running experiences). Shoddies take their artificial running very seriously.
 
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Oh boy do I have thoughts on this! The answer (for me) is plain and simple: brainwashing. Many people who have stopped and questioned me seem absolutely BLOWN-AWAY by the idea of barefoot running. Some seem incapable of comprehending it. Have you ever heard about sales-people who can "talk a dog off a meat truck"? Reminds me of an awesome story:

In the early 1900's, 2 shoe-salesmen visited a large village in Africa to peddle their shoes. They each reported back to headquarters their observations:

Shoe salesmen #1: "Awful situation, they don't wear shoes here."

Shoe salesman #2: "Glorious opportunity, they don't have shoes yet."

So, shoe salesman #2 (let's call him Mike, pronounced "Mikee"), some 40-50 years ago, discovered that runners "don't have running shoes yet" and employed the capitalist money-machine to convince people that they MUST have running shoes.

This type of brainwashing is rampant in society today. For example (brace yourself), you can eat a salad with ANY fork. (Apologies if you just spit coffee all over your screen, but it's true, any fork will work).

Reminds me of another story my dad heard about when he was at a conference in Puera Vallarta. There was an American on vacation there who saw this local guy every morning who would walk out to the beach and go fishing for a few hours.

The businessman finally told the local guy about how he could catch more fish if he got a boat. In fact, he could catch enough fish he could sell them at the market which would give him money to buy more boats and even hire people to help fish which would bring in more money. Over the years he could earn enough money to retire, sell his little fishing business and then retire to some tropical paradise like Puera Vallarta and spend his time relaxing and fishing from the beach.
 
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Reminds me of another story my dad heard about when he was at a conference in Puera Vallarta. There was an American on vacation there who saw this local guy every morning who would walk out to the beach and go fishing for a few hours.

The businessman finally told the local guy about how he could catch more fish if he got a boat. In fact, he could catch enough fish he could sell them at the market which would give him money to buy more boats and even hire people to help fish which would bring in more money. Over the years he could earn enough money to retire, sell his little fishing business and then retire to some tropical paradise like Puera Vallarta and spend his time relaxing and fishing from the beach.
Great story. Business guy just doesn't get "it."
 
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Oh boy do I have thoughts on this! The answer (for me) is plain and simple: brainwashing. Many people who have stopped and questioned me seem absolutely BLOWN-AWAY by the idea of barefoot running. Some seem incapable of comprehending it. Have you ever heard about sales-people who can "talk a dog off a meat truck"? Reminds me of an awesome story:

In the early 1900's, 2 shoe-salesmen visited a large village in Africa to peddle their shoes. They each reported back to headquarters their observations:

Shoe salesmen #1: "Awful situation, they don't wear shoes here."

Shoe salesman #2: "Glorious opportunity, they don't have shoes yet."

So, shoe salesman #2 (let's call him Mike, pronounced "Mikee"), some 40-50 years ago, discovered that runners "don't have running shoes yet" and employed the capitalist money-machine to convince people that they MUST have running shoes.

This type of brainwashing is rampant in society today. For example (brace yourself), you can eat a salad with ANY fork. (Apologies if you just spit coffee all over your screen, but it's true, any fork will work).
Making people want stuff they don't need. I think that pretty much sums up the business model of our entire civilization.
 
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Interesting history tour here! :)

It's sad there are so many shod runners who feel the need to troll barefoot runners. I wonder sometimes if it's further evidence of the growing "runner's rage" effect. Or it's just the general nature of a sport like running to attract hyper-competitive people who view their trolling as just debate and they're always hyper-competitively trying to win a debate. That's what I think of whenever they start getting eye-rollingly pedantic about "Uh, ackshully, you should call yourselves minimalist because you're not 100% barefoot all the time..."

And it's sad the forums got folded up into the FB monster. All the news lately about FB has me pining for my rose-colored view of the '90s and '00s when all my on-line time wasting was on forums like this and not giant, billion-user platforms. I do wonder if we'll see a bit more of a return to that model, though.

One platform I've been thinking about as a model for how things could be done better for social media is Strava. It has a social media component but, of course, you're only using the app if you want to track your workouts and share them with friends. Therefore it automatically means you don't see any MLM folks posting inspirational quotes or crazy political BS. Or, perhaps we just don't see that on places like Strava yet?

Yeah, FB has jumped the shark for me...and it wasn’t the Cambridge Analytica thing but all of the other bollocks like you mentioned, including emotionally and intellectually dishonest memes and “Which REO Speedwagon Singe Are You?” Quizzes, passive-aggressive posts (“Gah! Some people just can’t be trusted!” with no follow up detail) and, even still, game invites. But in the end, I’m just sick of it and I don’t care about the constant stream of someone documenting the minutes of their lives.

As for Strava, I’ve signed up, but never used...I started with MapMyRun years ago and always limited it. It apparently had forums, but I’ve never read any...