The transition from CR's viewpoint ...

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22 Replies Last post: Dec 19, 2007 6:09 PM by hally 1 2 Previous Next

davecamire

86 posts since
Sep 27, 2007

Dec 18, 2007 7:53 PM

The transition from CR's viewpoint

Hi folks,

My name is Dave Camire and I am one of the co-founders of Cool Running. Kevin Molloy and I started this business almost thirteen years ago and our mission has been to supply the best information and tools available and offer a friendly environment to our users.

For those of you who have been with us from the beginning, you have witnessed the enormous changes and growth in our site. I fondly remember our first month of operation we received 200 hits and we were thrilled. During our busiest month this year we received over 89 million hits and the site welcomed over 2.3 million visitors. Now that's growth!

However with growth comes challenges and one of ours was supporting an infrastructure that would keep pace with the enormous amount of users we were servicing. Kevin performed miracles by keeping the CR server operational despite the increased load; however band aids will only carry you so far.

By the end of 2006 we were frequently being forced to reboot our system. This often took place in the early morning hours so hopefully it was not obvious when our site was down. Our running logs as designed were also unable to handle the load. We also knew the existing software would not handle many of the features users were requesting on a regular basis.

So with our server maxed, our software prehistoric and our registration system broken we knew it would be impossible to continue the status quo. So with the help of the Active engineering team we embarked on an ambitious project to fix it. BTW both Kevin and I are still heavily involved with Cool Running. I serve as the senior editor of the site and Kevin is a frequent technical consultant. I feel strongly that we (Cool Running and Active) have not abandoned our original mission.

This brings us to today. Our goal was to establish the most stable, feature rich, robust community and tools for our community. Overall the transition went well, but we all fully recognize that there are serious issues that need to be addressed. We are listening to all the feedback and working hard to respond with solutions.

I would like to ask that you just give us a chance. Rest assured there are many folks at CR and Active that worked nights and weekends to manage the transition and are now redoubling efforts to get folks to a good place. I sincerely hope that you will stick with us and show your continued support as we work through this transition.

Thanks for listening,

Dave Camire
Co-founder
www.coolrunning.com

vista129

801 posts since
Dec 14, 2007

1. Dec 19, 2007 1:59 AM

in response to: davecamire

Re: The transition from CR's viewpoint

Dave:

Thanks for the report. This should go a long way towards helping us understand the "why's" of the change.

Perhaps you are a victim of your success. You simply outgrew your systems and this speaks well for what you have done. I trust that you try to keep as many of these same elements that made you so successful.

Thanks for the work you have done and continue to do.

hally

1,211 posts since
Aug 14, 2007

2. Dec 19, 2007 2:59 AM

in response to: vista129

Re: The transition from CR's viewpoint

Thanks for your post and I sincerely hope you will come back to read and respond to the feedback.

The log was a huge thing and in it's present state here I would say a majority of the members of this forum have sought other online or offline methods of logging. We aren't willing to pay to map our routes and log our shoe miles and a lot of the data that we loved was not brought over.

We were told our forum would be moved intact. I have yet to see the rest of our threads moved here. There were some longstanding threads that people referred back to often not to mention the race reports that we would love to have back.

The login process here is to put it bluntly a pain in the ***. For instance to get here when I've been logged off I have to click login, hit the enter to my username and password, it brings me back to that page, I repeat and it brings me to some thing about CAS in unavailable. Then I hit the shortcut for this forum and I am here.Forget if I want to get to Active Trainer, that's a series of multiple pages opening till I finally find where I want to be.

I see BETA at the bottom of my screen. This move should not have been done until the BETA was completed and the site was in production.

Thanks for listening

Barb

Spareribs049

1,702 posts since
Dec 14, 2007

3. Dec 19, 2007 3:17 AM

in response to: davecamire

Re: The transition from CR's viewpoint

I appreciate your forthrightness and explanation of the situation. I hope that you are learning a good lesson from the folks at Kickrunners, who frequently communicate directly with the audience, and that you continue to do more of this, and solicit our feedback. hally made some great points above: the log, logging back in all the time, and other bugs that haven't been addressed yet. I for one would like to read some assurances from you about what it is you are working to fix and by when. Have you made such a list, so we have an idea of what is being addressed? Again, thank you for reaching out to us and I hope to read more messages of this kind.

I also hope that when others respond, they do so in a constructive way and use this opportunity for feedback to help the designers make the site better, rather than just ranting. Spareribs

hally

1,211 posts since
Aug 14, 2007

4. Dec 19, 2007 3:26 AM

in response to: Spareribs049

Re: The transition from CR's viewpoint

I clicked on the Beta link below to report a bug, feedback. There is a blog there telling what they are working on. It seems they are addressing some of the concerns we have. However it was a little hard finding a way to send feedback. Everytime I clicked what I thought should open either an email or a feedback form it took me to the top of the page.

I finally did find it and sent some.

http://www.active.com/Support/Contact_Active_Support/

GrayDave

183 posts since
Aug 14, 2007

5. Dec 19, 2007 3:37 AM

in response to: davecamire

Re: The transition from CR's viewpoint

It's great to hear from one of the founders and get some background on Coolrunning (especially since I haven't been around as long as some others.) And as a tech person also struggling with some old software at my own job I can appreciate all you've gone through.

Dave

davecamire

86 posts since
Sep 27, 2007

6. Dec 19, 2007 4:00 AM

in response to: davecamire

Re: The transition from CR's viewpoint

Hally, GrayDave, Spareribs and Vista, Thanks for your insightful remarks. We are making a list of suggestions and when I have some progress to report I will do so. Someone remarked, "I hope that you are learning a good lesson from the folks at Kickrunners, who frequently communicate directly with the audience, and that you continue to do more of this, and solicit our feedback." I agree we can always do a better job communicating.

CNYrunner

14 posts since
Dec 16, 2007

7. Dec 19, 2007 3:54 AM

in response to: GrayDave

Re: The transition from CR's viewpoint

Thanks for the explanations and the chance to provide more feedback. It's also interesting to know some of the CR history.

Hally, I agree about the clunky log-in system. By accident I discovered that even though the log-in prompt screen for my username and password come up again after I have already entered all the data, I can ignore that and go back and post. I was getting the log-in screen a few times and then the CAS unavailable message as well when all along I was actually successfully logged in. This may not be what was intended, but it worked.

CNY

mcsolar99

1,018 posts since
Aug 14, 2007

8. Dec 19, 2007 4:15 AM

in response to: CNYrunner

Re: The transition from CR's viewpoint

it's kind of interesting to read that "overall the transition went well". it shows that there is no communication happening here. this thread is a waste of time.

PrinceJ

55 posts since
Dec 14, 2007

9. Dec 19, 2007 4:21 AM

in response to: davecamire

Re: The transition from CR's viewpoint

Can I also suggest that ActiveSarah has got to go!

rokudon

63 posts since
Dec 14, 2007

10. Dec 19, 2007 4:45 AM

in response to: PrinceJ

Re: The transition from CR's viewpoint

Thanks alot Dave.... this is the success of your transition from your competitor's point of view.....I am giving you a chance to dump Active Trainer as quickly as you can rather than trying to shove it down our throats....bring back the log from coolrunning.com!

Welcome Former CoolRunning Members!

We are sorry to hear about what happend with the coolrunning and active.com merger. On a brighter note, HUNDREDS of coolrunning members have already converted over to running2win.com! Our coolrunning log importer makes it easy! I'm sure our members and your former coolrunning comrads can assure you that "running is a lot cooler" at running2win.com!

Here's How:
1. Sign up to running2win.com.
2. Email your running2win.com UserName and CoolRunning data to mike@running2win.com
3. If you dont know how to get your data from cool running check out this post

Here's what some former coolrunner's have to say:

"Wow, that was incredibly fast! i had already put up a post on active when i got onto running2win. it really is a great website. i actually had a log on the site for a while, but never wrote in it because i had so much mileage logged into coolrunning by then. i didnt know there was a way to import my old running log before today! thanks again!
PS - anyone i know that used coolrunning will definitely be on r2w soon!" - AceXC333

"Mike, thanks a ton. everything looks great, and I'm relieved that all my data wasn't lost. You've been quite the life-saver, so thank you." - dtbrooklyn

Head Band Bill

805 posts since
Dec 14, 2007

11. Dec 19, 2007 5:03 AM

in response to: davecamire

Re: The transition from CR's viewpoint

Dave,

We who have frequented your Coorunning site appreciate hearing from you - one of the Coolrunning pioneers. It is nice to know you have not abondoned the effort or were thrown out with the migration.

I can tell you that the running log is a big deal to many of us. Coolrunning's log was so easy, quick, and useful that we depended on it and are not seeing a similar experience with Active's log. I realize it has a different focus - not so much tracking what you've ran but scheduling what you intend to run - this is likely part of the problem.

I echo what others have said. Communicate often - both the plans, the good, the not so good, the plans for the future, etc. We had/have a great community of people on the Coolrunning Boards (especially the B&B board). We do not want to lose those connections. But if Active cannot sustain the connection, we will migrate elsewhere as a group in many cases.

Bill

tomwhite

1,993 posts since
Dec 14, 2007

12. Dec 19, 2007 5:09 AM

in response to: davecamire

Re: The transition from CR's viewpoint

dave//.........that's Fair Enough.......

you guys know your Running, or else we wouldn't be here...

that said,

could you get my screen

back in the middle,

and get that ''Beta'' thing off the bottom??

you have the best running site on

the web, and we just want it to

stay that way......thanks for posting this..

Good Running to Ya......

davecamire

86 posts since
Sep 27, 2007

13. Dec 19, 2007 5:38 AM

in response to: Head Band Bill

Re: The transition from CR's viewpoint

Hi Bill, thanks for your input and for your accessment of the new log. Your input is valuable to us moving forward.

Dave

MrPHinNJ

139 posts since
Oct 10, 2007

14. Dec 19, 2007 5:38 AM

in response to: PrinceJ

Re: The transition from CR's viewpoint

PrinceJ wrote:Can I also suggest that ActiveSarah has got to go!

Sorry, but I think you are missing the boat here. This is a management issue. ActiveSara is probably just doing what she is told and getting run ragged by now. I actually feel sorry for her. You get rid of a soldier and they are replaced by another soldier. It's the generals that need to go.

I could be wrong but based on my experience I doubt it.

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Dec 18, 2007 7:53 PM

The transition from CR's viewpoint

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