Author Topic: Zwifting - I think I need help!  (Read 75289 times)

Re: Zwifting - I think I need help!
« Reply #325 on: 16 April, 2021, 05:11:04 pm »
Fact is I didn't even know I had access to the information.  I have never been sufficiently curious about the weight of other riders to try to find it. 

Also, I didn't know 'fat was a feminist issue' so I googled it.  This is the explanation i discovered:

Why is Fat a Feminist Issue?   

It begins..

Quote
OK, so. I have to make a confession. At first, I didn’t know that fat was a feminist issue.

I really didn’t. When I started reading about fat activism and getting involved in it, I saw it as being its own thing: another kind of activism fighting against another form of inequality. I considered it to be related to feminism in the same way that most types of inequality-fighting activism are interrelated, but I didn’t think much more of it. After all, feminism fights against inequality towards women, and fat activism fights against inequality towards fat people. While people can obviously be both fat and women, it never occurred to me that fat discrimination and sexism were interwoven.

It kinda boils down to (white) male privilege, it seems.  Is that fair comment?  As a white male it's not so easy to appreciate the downside of not being one.
Move Faster and Bake Things

Re: Zwifting - I think I need help!
« Reply #326 on: 16 April, 2021, 05:36:55 pm »
The first port of call for Zwift in tackling cheating must surely be the easiest one: to lock in height.  Unless you have body-altering surgery or have activated an ejector seat, you do not shrink by any more than a 1cm a decade.  So get height data locked in and keep it visible.  Only over-40s should be allowed to decrease their in-game height, by 1cm say, per five years.  How do you get the initial values?  Verification by other (following) Zwifters?  If you get your height called out (perhaps by someone who knows you IRL), you should be required to prove your height.  Height data is not private - you can see how tall someone is IRL by the simple expedient of looking at them, so, if anything, should be made more prominent.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Zwifting - I think I need help!
« Reply #327 on: 16 April, 2021, 06:07:18 pm »
Disordered eating?!  One of the big pluses about cycling whether virtual or real is that it means I can eat what I like!  Who are these fanatics?

[lengthy rambling post sent to the bit bucket]

What fboab said, basically.  Sometimes people just want to go for a bike ride / play computer games without having to think about all that food/body stuff.  Why shouldn't they?

Re: Zwifting - I think I need help!
« Reply #328 on: 17 April, 2021, 07:34:57 am »
True but if it’s competitive then fair competition needs to be defined and seen to be operating as such. I find Zwift does instil the competitive element rather strongly. 
Move Faster and Bake Things

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Zwifting - I think I need help!
« Reply #329 on: 17 April, 2021, 12:59:14 pm »
Zwift will do what gets more people using Zwift.  Appealing to people's competitive nature, sure, but fairness is less commercially important than being inclusive.

Re: Zwifting - I think I need help!
« Reply #330 on: 19 April, 2021, 06:54:59 pm »
I’ve got myself a Bluetooth controller, chiefly for activating power ups.  It works really well.
https://zwifthacks.com/how-to-use-a-10-bluetooth-media-button-as-a-handlebar-mounted-zwift-game-controller/

Re: Zwifting - I think I need help!
« Reply #331 on: 19 April, 2021, 07:19:29 pm »
I've just watch the last few km of stage 1 of the Tour of the Alps (Brixen - Innsbruck).  It looked sort of familiar   ::-)

Re: Zwifting - I think I need help!
« Reply #332 on: 20 April, 2021, 10:37:45 am »
The first port of call for Zwift in tackling cheating must surely be the easiest one: to lock in height.  Unless you have body-altering surgery or have activated an ejector seat, you do not shrink by any more than a 1cm a decade.  So get height data locked in and keep it visible.  Only over-40s should be allowed to decrease their in-game height, by 1cm say, per five years.  How do you get the initial values?  Verification by other (following) Zwifters?  If you get your height called out (perhaps by someone who knows you IRL), you should be required to prove your height.  Height data is not private - you can see how tall someone is IRL by the simple expedient of looking at them, so, if anything, should be made more prominent.
Hiding weight data is not about cheating. You're conflating two separate, but interconnected issues. Zwift do nearly nothing to stop cheating, certainly in community events. Why should they- it's not driving more people from the platform than they are attracting.

TimC

  • Old blerk sometimes onabike.
Re: Zwifting - I think I need help!
« Reply #333 on: 20 April, 2021, 11:19:37 am »
Yeah, what Kim and fboab said. Zwift doesn't actually give a monkey's about cheats as really it doesn't mean anything. The vast majority of users don't race, so it's totally irrelevant what other people do, and most of the people who do race do it for fun, not in the belief that it's serious, valid competition. For the tiny, tiny minority who race the curated competitions, the efforts they go to to ensure people race fairly are quite significant, and they are quick to disqualify suspected cheats (don't play with the data, children!), but even then there are a few obvious loopholes.

I rarely race, and when I do I don't expect to win anything so I don't really care what anyone else does, but I do belong to ZwiftPower so the results posted there at least exclude those who race out of category.

Re: Zwifting - I think I need help!
« Reply #334 on: 20 April, 2021, 12:06:27 pm »
The first port of call for Zwift in tackling cheating must surely be the easiest one: to lock in height.  Unless you have body-altering surgery or have activated an ejector seat, you do not shrink by any more than a 1cm a decade.  So get height data locked in and keep it visible.  Only over-40s should be allowed to decrease their in-game height, by 1cm say, per five years.  How do you get the initial values?  Verification by other (following) Zwifters?  If you get your height called out (perhaps by someone who knows you IRL), you should be required to prove your height.  Height data is not private - you can see how tall someone is IRL by the simple expedient of looking at them, so, if anything, should be made more prominent.
Hiding weight data is not about cheating. You're conflating two separate, but interconnected issues. Zwift do nearly nothing to stop cheating, certainly in community events. Why should they- it's not driving more people from the platform than they are attracting.
I think you've misread my post.

Re: Zwifting - I think I need help!
« Reply #335 on: 20 April, 2021, 12:25:34 pm »
I don't think so. Your response seemed to be that rather than hiding biometrics, a simpler way to reduce cheating would be to lock the height for adults.
I entirely agree.

This change isn't about cheating. Yes, people cheat by weight doping - both ways. Riders fake their weight upwards to stay in lower divisions and fake their weight downwards to have higher w/kg.

Zwift don't really care. The fact they've done nothing about sandbaggers or blatant weight doping is evidence of that. They've undertaken this change in response to a number of requests from (mostly) female athletes who think the additional focus on weight is unhealthy for them.


ETA - inclusivity, or at least the appearance of it, is important to Zwift. They introduced 'black' hairstyles and 'ethnic' facial features. They've made statements and made it easier to report on harassment, and they run Pride, Black, Womens celebratory events.

Re: Zwifting - I think I need help!
« Reply #336 on: 20 April, 2021, 11:19:27 pm »
New Apple TV remote with hardware arrow keys! Backwards compatible with old ones!

Hope this forces Zwift to update their app, which doesn't support arrow keys on third party remotes, unlike literally every other Apple TV app.

Re: Zwifting - I think I need help!
« Reply #337 on: 21 April, 2021, 08:19:43 am »
ZWIFTPOWER HEIGHT & WEIGHT CHANGES POSTPONED Oops didn't mean to shout.. Zwift height-weight- changes postponed 


Quote
Last week we announced Zwift’s plans to remove rider height and weight from ZwiftPower, among other changes (read the full post here).

Response to our post as well as Zwift’s own post in their forum were resoundingly negative from members of the Zwift racing community. While most Zwifters seemed to understand and even appreciate the intent behind the change, there was concern that removing this information would result in increased height/weight doping.

Move Faster and Bake Things

Re: Zwifting - I think I need help!
« Reply #338 on: 21 April, 2021, 09:03:39 am »
New Apple TV remote with hardware arrow keys! Backwards compatible with old ones!

Hope this forces Zwift to update their app, which doesn't support arrow keys on third party remotes, unlike literally every other Apple TV app.
I bloody hope so.

Re: Zwifting - I think I need help!
« Reply #339 on: 21 April, 2021, 09:10:56 am »
I tend not to do the whole ZOMfG MALE PRIVELIDGE IS RuINiNG MY LIeF thing but sometimes it's a bit, well, blatant.

So a bunch of (mostly) women ask for a mental health improving change and a bunch of (mostly) men say but it's making cheating easier so it doesn't happen.

Whatevs.

To be fair they're keeping it visible on zwiftpower but hiding it in game and in the companion app. Could be worse. It's not like there's anywhere near as many women on Zwift as men. Particularly racing.

Re: Zwifting - I think I need help!
« Reply #340 on: 22 April, 2021, 11:53:40 am »
Tried out the new HUD-less mode this morning.  I think it’d be nice for bimbling rides.

Re: Zwifting - I think I need help!
« Reply #341 on: 23 April, 2021, 11:44:18 am »
Officially finished Tour of Watopia yesterday evening with Three Sisters (urgh).  Had a bit of fun by going for it on the Zwift KOM (Watopia Wall) and taking the KOM jersey (though 25W less than my PB, I was only half a second down on it, largely because of the drafting effect).

Still feel that I ought to do the shorter Mountain 8 Stage 5, just for completeness (and a few more XP).

gibbo

  • Riding for fun, cake and beer.
    • Boxford Bike Club
Re: Zwifting - I think I need help!
« Reply #342 on: 23 April, 2021, 11:51:02 am »
I'm going to repeat stage 1 multiple times just to accumulate the XP on a fast flat route.

Re: Zwifting - I think I need help!
« Reply #343 on: 23 April, 2021, 11:59:59 am »
I'm going to repeat stage 1 multiple times just to accumulate the XP on a fast flat route.
I've already done it 3 times and can see a few opportunities next week.

I've been putting off Stage 5 on the bike. I think I'd get more XP in the same time doing Coco laps of the desert. I hate that bloody radio tower. It's too much like Peth Bank from Lanchester to Burnhope, and you can't get off and walk like I do there.


I finished the Run Row Tour this morning and got an email from Zwift to tell me about it (and offering so many opportunities next week for DOUBLE XP) but the companion app disagrees.

gibbo

  • Riding for fun, cake and beer.
    • Boxford Bike Club
Re: Zwifting - I think I need help!
« Reply #344 on: 23 April, 2021, 12:07:33 pm »

I think I'd get more XP in the same time doing Coco laps of the desert.


If Coco went at my pace and not his/ hers (not sure of the sex of the pace partners anymore - but that's probably another topic of its own) then I'd do it but I find the pace too variable and don't enjoy it.

Re: Zwifting - I think I need help!
« Reply #345 on: 23 April, 2021, 02:34:28 pm »
Coco is okay, but Dan is waaaay too slow for me, and Bowie can take a bit of grunt for me to keep up with on the downhills.

I've been Zwifting less than four months, and I'm more than halfway to the Tron bike and more than halfway to Level 26 (which would allow me to buy the best TT bike), so tbh I'm not too fussed about trying to rack up XP or drops especially quickly.


Re: Zwifting - I think I need help!
« Reply #346 on: 23 April, 2021, 04:50:17 pm »
You need to be Level 45 for the best disc wheels.

It's weird, my avatar rides the same bike almost all the time, the same kit all the time and I still do events to unlock jerseys and 'manage' my riding to rack up XP.
This gamification shit is eveeeeeeel.


Re: Zwifting - I think I need help!
« Reply #347 on: 26 April, 2021, 07:33:20 am »
Had a bit of time so I decided the Lutscher CCW, 13.7km wouldn’t take too long. What I didn’t realise was the lead in is nearly 9km and the start is at the top of Innsbruck KOM. Anyway I got going and climbed the mountain, descended and found I’d hardly started. Unfortunately I’d nearly run out of time so I packed after a few flat kms. Looking on Companion I saw I’d got the KOM jersey tho’ I’d not noticed it at the time.

 I won’t take the Zwift menu at face value again..
Move Faster and Bake Things

Re: Zwifting - I think I need help!
« Reply #348 on: 26 April, 2021, 11:10:50 am »
Yep, the best source of information on routes is ZwiftInsider, I find.  The clockwise Lutscher is the same!  Well done on the KoM!

Gave myself a thrashing around the Mountain 8 last night to complete my set of long and short stages.  Had a decent ride up the reverse Epic but lost contact with third place guy on the Radio Tower.  Found myself sprinting out fifth place at the end; it was so close I’m not 100% sure I got it, and my rival isn’t on ZwiftPower...

Re: Zwifting - I think I need help!
« Reply #349 on: 27 April, 2021, 06:51:39 am »
Some good news for Zwift Hub fans*:

https://zwiftinsider.com/zwifthub-acquired/



* like me..
Move Faster and Bake Things