Well, if they implement results based categories, weight won’t matter.
Maybe this is a sign.
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Considering how much effort Zwift is doing to make the racing experience better (i.e. none at all), it should be no surprise that they are entirely disregarding community racing with this change. It should be pretty obvious by now that racing is not a priority for Zwift, outside of pro races for advertisement purposes.
Zwift is a workout - not racing - platform. The sooner everyone realises this, and Zwift publicly acknowledges that that’s their position, the better.
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I support the intention of what your trying to achieve, but I don’t see how this can go hand in hand with a weight-based racing system and share the concern that rider profile manufacturing will become more common. Wouldn’t these issues be far more easily circumvented in a ranking based system, which by nature emphasises race tactics and results rather than favouring certain characteristics to compete at the cat limit? Genuine question that is meant on-topic and not to start a Cat-system discussion here…
@Alice_KWCC thanks for sharing your side of this topic, it’s very insightful.
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I don’t go around drawing blood out of protour riders either 
Precisely, Marco. This would all be a moot point if this arbitrary, Zwift-created w/kg system of bike racing was removed.
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And what about their height? As of next week there’s literally nothing stopping anyone dropping their height to 100cm without anyone else knowing. Considering Zwift steadfastly refuse to do absolutely ANYTHING about cheating spoiling racing on the platform, that potential for ignominy is all we had.
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What we need and have been asking for: Ability to block users in game
What we get: Hide weight and height in ZwiftPower
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What we need and have been asking for: Results-based categories instead of this W/kg nonsense
What we get: Hide weight and height in ZwiftPower
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I flagged a rider for changing their weight nearly every ride that they did I followed all the correct procedures for flagging this ie not mention who it was to anyone other than zwift support that was four/five wks ago ish, after seeing this post I just peeped and can see this rider is still doing this so changing their weight. At the time the zwift support person reassured me zwift took matters of this kind seriously zwift person let me have a four way email private conversation and that was it? then the zwift auto generated email came back “please visit zwift forums if you want any more advice” so on that zwift pro advise I did, only to find this weight issue happening loads. Moving on anytime I engaged on a thread re this subject in my case never mentioning riders name or gender or evidence ie fotos of results or anything that I flagged etc the threads then get closed down so it’s a no win situation when you follow your Zwift guidelines to the letter . I joined zwift a yr ago loved it raced at least 3 times a wk but since zwiftpower owner as changed I’ve noticed so many negative changes I don’t actually race on zwift any more I just do group rides seeing this today is so deflating this news I don’t see how this will sort the problem. To close zwift encourage us to report in the 1st place then don’t follow through i will seriously think about switching platforms now ps to add any of the post re riders changing weight on forums I have never seen anyone post another riders name again sticking to zwift guidelines
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The community know they’re not legit so can ignore them in results, for a start. It also provides evidence of the problem to cite when asking Zwift to support community racing better.
Without the visible evidence, Zwift can just say “there’s no problem; you’re imagining it”, and do nothing.
Which, to be fair, isn’t far from what they’re doing anyway some would say; so you might have a point.
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A wrong and completely incomprehensible decision, that will massively anger many fair riders. It would have been easy to create the OPTION of individually turning off the display of height and weight for “sensitive” riders. The hiding for all Zwifters is completely unnecessary, and clearly shows how the Zwift decision makers are working against the interests of the community.
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This week’s ZRL Premium Division races were annulled afterwards because they couldn’t generate results (maybe a third of the riders had their system crash right at/after the finish, same thing last week as well). I’d say for all practical intents and purposes this counts as an acknowledgement…
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You are so right exactly my thoughts
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Zwift is definitely going in the wrong direction with these changes. Fair competition needs transparency in athletes’ data: s ex, age, power, weight, and height. Hiding some or all of this will just make it even easier for the growing number of cheats. Zwift’s generic response to any criticism of its failure to address cheating is “it’s just a game” which is disingenuous given the way it promotes it as a racing platform.
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Can’t be upsetting paying customers! That reporting process and whatever it leads to is hilariously half-arsed. It’s on Google Forms ffs. 
I would be stunned if it does anything other than send a composite email to a dusty folder in Flint’s work Outlook account; the one person working on (read: ‘struggling to cope with’) ZwiftPower stuff. 
They say they’ve been doing it this way since September, and I’d be willing to bet they’ve not acted on a single report in any meaningful way.
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Can you confirm what tools race organisers and team captains will have to check rider performance.
As a team captain of a team on zp will we still have access to the data or do i need to ask every team member for their weight regularly?..surely that would lead to be them being more self conscious and encourage problems.
We’ve seen many times before zwift make racing worse by removing things and changing processes with no plan to move it forward. This certainly seems like 1 step forward and 2 back that could potentially lead to more abuse of riders with lack of transparency.
As for the reporting process I’d have to agree with others I’ve flagged a few clear cheaters before waited weeks and seen riders still racing. it’s a black hole i’m not even sure anyone looks at the reports.
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People keep saying they flagged cheaters for weight doping. Can someone point me to the rules that say you have to use your actual weight please. Last time I looked it didn’t exist. Zwift can’t punish weight dopers as they aren’t breaking the rules from what I can tell
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This requires time to spent on detailed calculations. Yes, some will go to that extreme but I do not have the time with work, managing a Zwift community team, being on my club cycling committee, real life high level racing etc to do that. This will be similar for most. Working out competitor’s weights from their wkg would have to become a project. So whilst it’s still possible, the numbers aren’t there for you. I could check my weight against others if I want to go to the effort, but I won’t.
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The trouble is, this statement lacks credibility. The support agents might have the tools, but what action is taken?
It’s not scientific, but anecdotal evidence suggests that very little, if anything, is done about such reported cheaters.
Why not replace the w/kg system with something more realistic (e.g. a results-based system), then hiding rider weight would make a lot more sense. By ignoring the calls to replace the w/kg system for so long, Zwift are now making an even bigger mess of a flawed system.
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An intermediate MS Excel user can whip up a simple tool to do the work for you. This won’t solve much, if anything.
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