You've Got Mail! wrote:
It seems like from 1997 to 2010 we saw a technlogy race between various passion fueled websites. We went from track & field news to Dyestat, letsrun, mensracing, trackshark and finally flotrack. Then we saw some sites die off due to finances while other sites acquired each other to beef up the status quo. Then 2012 to now everyone and their brother including the local newspapers throw a paywall in your face for what most understand as "only results". Then there is the fact that 90% of what is behind the milesplit pay walls isnt even complete information raising our skepticism.
I do see the other side, however. Many people (especially here) are totally unaware of how to operate profitable businesses and are also ignorant on how things magically appear on a web screen when it is done right. It takes time, equipment, money and skilled labor that clearly possesses too steep of a barrier to entry into understanding for the common person here. Plus this "community" hands out misgivings to just about everyone who tries from race director to photographer to webmaster or site head. Letsrun is notorious for spinning rumors out of control and host to daily vindictive flogging of others.
The result is we are now in a niche market of inferior web services who cant turn a profit because its target market feels entitled to accessing the human effort required to put things on the screen for free. Total self-defeating cycle due to both sides umbeing untrusting of the other and the sad part about the trash talking that ends up here is most posters arent prospective customers for much of anything. If there were suddenly pay per view options we'd be chasing down twitch feeds every hour of the day. Most of the complaining parties have a much bigger problem -- their running obsession is the reason they are broke and cant afford the $150 to see the content. If you and your college buddies want flotrack that badly go out and shovel some snow or become movers for a day as that ought to take care of the problem. One day per year that is it.
Your post was filled with many false and unfair statements. You surely don't have any understanding on how a business works. Sad.