HOT Topics

[Sasha Pachev]

Any entry is eligible. However, the rating is now based on the number of people who commented rather than on the number of comments. So if you write about something that gets attention of a lot of people enough to comment on it that entry has a chance to make hot discussions. Aside from running a race, an idea would be to post on the Training Review Requests board about a workout you've done or a training idea and ask people to comment on it.

The reason for the change is that I want to see legitimately interesting entries on the hot discussions rather than nonsense banter. It has worked so far, sort of, at least it has worked better than before. We now see race reports on it, although I must say that many noteworthy races have been missed. And those are from not too long ago either so you cannot blame it on not having enough people. Fritz takes third overall in Ogden this year, and he gets 6 comments, 6 posters. Jeff McClellan wins Provo City Half with 5:03 last mile, and he does end up with 23 comments from 14 posters but not until we start a debate about collegiate running and somebody (I have an idea who but with the lack of 100% fool proof evidence I will keep this private) makes a negative comment. His win at Painters Half earned him 10 comments from 10 posters. Sean runs sub-1:08 half, places 7th in Indi 500 racing Kenyans, 22 comments from 16 posters. Those all were long race reports too, not just a one liner "I did it". 

So I realized there was something I was doing wrong, and decided to try a different sort order in Race Reports. We'll see how that goes.

[Paul Petersen]

What I've noticed is that # of comments is directly proportional to how active that person is on the blog. In other words, if a person comments a lot on others' blogs, he/she will also receive lots of comments. It has almost nothing to do with speed, and more about being an outgoing personality. Which is fine. In order to have friends, you need to be a friend first.

[Cheryl Keith]

I agree with Paul.  Some of us more "pedestrian" runners read the "big wigs" race reports, but don't comment because we feel somewhat intimidated (at least that's how I feel, I don't know that person and what could I say that a really fast runner wants to hear, besides "great race" which sometimes we think is a pointless comment, although it really isn't).  If some of the faster runners were more active, posting comments on some of the more average runners' blogs, I'm sure they would get lots of comments when they have a great race.  But then if they spend a lot of time commenting they won't have as much time to train, and then they wouldn't be as fast, so who knows what's the right thing to do.  But rest assured whether we comment or not, great races do not go unnoticed.

[Dallen]

The new format seems to be working great and putting worthy posts at the top of the list. A suggestion: put a time limit of 15-30 days on the posts. Right now Paul's 2007 St George race report is on the list. While it's a great read, and it was a hot discussion, it is a little outdated. This would also help currently hot topics make the list. Nobody wants to find the good discussion a couple weeks after it ended. Also, if this format continues to work it might benefit from being a list of 10 or even longer. Probably a better use of sidebar space than the "most recent comment" list. You could even give it it's own page.

[allie]

maybe there should just be an entirely new box. one for "hot discussions" (current discussions/recent races) and one for "notable race performances" (from any year). while paul's st. george 07 race report may be outdated, i very much enjoyed reading it, and probably would have never come across it had it not been on the "hot discussions" list. it was a very inspiring report and a huge race for him, so it should be noted somewhere. of course, a notable race performance is subjective, so there would have to be some criteria set to make the list---i.e. OTQ time, top 3 in a big race (criteria for "big"), PR by 30 min., or even better, PR by 30 min. after joining FRB---FRB success stories, if you will. 

or maybe that just makes things more complicated 

[Sasha Pachev]

Allie - great idea. On the TODO list.

[Cal Stauffer]

The 'Hot Discussions' list seems to be somewhat stale lately...  don't you think it would be better for them to timeout after a couple of weeks or so of no new activity?

(BTW thanks for all your efforts on making this a great site!)