The zwift community is strong and with several clubs putting on a great variety of training rides. Those who lead and/or sweep these rides do for the love of it, providing the community with great training and zwift with a breadth of group training events for free. It is disappointing that these who give up their time and inject considerable effort into these rides are often ignored or abused by some who join the rides. Where some see no issue with pushing the pace above the advised level saying “oh, we’ll let you catch after” actually break up the group which makes life for the leader and sweeper far more difficult. This in turn may provide others on the ride with a diminished experience from the training ride. Yes we can flag riders but the amount needed isn’t clear and often the fliers can do the same each lap and really push the patience of everyone else. Similarly, where some can be abusive the flagging process isn’t always successful in their removal. As the current flagging process doesn’t always get the right result, could the flagging by a ride leader to be made to have a heavier weighting?
The ride leader flag could be a one flag and you’re out protocol or initially provide the rider with an onscreen prompt stating that they were on their final warning before a second flag would see their rejection. If that was deemed unsuitable as all the power is in one person’s hand, for some moderation, if the leader and sweep flagged a rider they would be ejected.
These are front of mind thought on something that could be done to help the ride leaders providing the majority with better experiences within the organised group training rides. This would also take some stress out of the ride leader’s activity especially as they will be doing this in their free time whilst just trying to help people.
Just posting to say that I’ve seen this and raising for discussion internally.
I think there is a balance to giving you guys the tools you need to run great events, but also not to discourage new zwifters from joining events. I think there’s a pretty fine balance here.
He James, if you need any information to make a call to add this feature or not, please let me know. Love to give you some insights into leading rides and why this feature might be useful for further improving ride experience for everyone on zwift!
As a ride leader since 2015, I’ve always called for more tools for leaders (and sweepers). Some we’ve received, others we have but not fully working (the fence), and others are notably absent such as the ability to eject abusive and/or misogynist riders.
I currently only use Zwift actively to lead one weekly ride; the rest of the time it’s merely to record data. Given the demands on my time, the flyers continually ignoring the toothless fence and splitting the group, and the abuse I receive occasionally, I ask myself whether it’s worth paying a monthly membership for leading one ride a week.
Thanks for you reply. I understand the predicament that you raise there. Obviously greater power to a single person may lead to misuse by some. We certainly wouldn’t want any development to be draconian as that would certainly be a negative. I do feel that the rides where the leaders may misuse any additional power would already not be that popular hence new riders may be less likely to join them. That being said the popular rides are often that because of the leaders. When the leaders have to continually battle to keep the group together this also diminishes the experience for regular and new zwifters. Some rides last hours and when the leads need ask fliers (who then can turn abusive) to be part of the group each and every incline it becomes tiring for all. As I said, I understand the need for balance but at this point I don’t feel there is any. Those who contribute most to the zwift community are being stressed by those to contribute little. To ensure that we keep the people who put their free time into organising and running such great events for free, I would ask that you provide them with the tools to make group rides better for all. The more control the leads have, the more likely they, the regulars, and new riders are to continue. Retaining the current controls only helps the minority who have negative effects on group rides continue doing so. I hope that additional controls can be brought in zoon!