What Is Wrong With OLC?

On Tuesday, January 31, 2017 at 9:09:21 PM UTC-8, Sean Fidler wrote:
I'm not sure why I'm being included in this conversation again and again. You boys are never going to convince me that OLC is meaningful or cool. It's not. But knock yourselves out trying. Keep focusing on uploading free distance flights. Keep morphin US contest tasking (global laughing stock) into the same boring non-sport. Clearly, many here are highly sensitive and even personally offended by my criticisms of OLC. Not my intention not my problem. I simply think OLC is bad for soaring. It's creating bad pilots who complain unless they are free to only follow the best clouds all afternoon.

OLC has, IMO, has created some very poor attitudes about what soaring is as a sport

This thread is aptly titled "What's wrong with OLC." Yes, I know this was in regards to account issues. Perhaps a better title could be "What's the value of a soaring website that pretends to score completely unrelatable free distance cross country glider flights worldwide and why do people actually care about this?"

How OLC became one of the most popular websites in soaring is curious to me. I find its content (scoring) to be very low quality (random follow best clouds flying). It feels
like the lowest common denominator. We should be challenging ourselves more. Not just flying OLC. For me, and many others, OLC is so boring. It feels like a wasted opportunity to do something useful and challenging with a soaring day. It borders on being completely useless. This remains my opinion.

Sorry if this upsets you, but I feel we should try and get more out of cross country flying at least some significant portion of our flights. OLC lowers the common denominator.

Here is a little comedy relief. OLC is like shopping at the gap for all your clothes. Remember the movie "Crazy, Stupid Love?" Take a deep breath and watch this clip: https://youtu.be/-KsoPAXS0ME

Be better than than OLC. BE BETTER THAN THE GAP! There is so much more to soaring Than following the easiest possible path.

Sean

"why do people actually care about this?" I for one don't. But you are taking one narrow aspect of soaring and raising it above all others. I don't much care about the results in the WGC either. What you are saying is kind of like saying, "if you don't play football with an oblong ball, it's not football." When to most of the world it is. If popularity is the gage, OLC is the answer, not Grand Prix, not WGC. They are very different, sure, but is one a better way to spend your afternoon than the other? I say we do this for fun, not money, so whatever turns your prop. One could as easily criticize WGC tasking as reality TV - made up artificial tasks with no purpose. Do what you want. Don't criticize others for doing what they want. If you have the magic formula that will attract tens of thousands of participants, by all means, organize it. Whining does not accomplish that.

snip

I say we do this for fun, not money, so whatever turns your prop. One
could as easily criticize WGC tasking as reality TV - made up artificial
tasks with no purpose. Do what you want. Don't criticize others for
doing what they want. If you have the magic formula that will attract
tens of thousands of participants, by all means, organize it. Whining
does not accomplish that.

What???

I do this for the money and the chicks. I'm sure they're out there and
looking for me thanks to my stellar OLC record. Maybe I should try a
contest...

And yes, this thread was about an account issue which has (finally) been
addressed.

--
Dan, 5J

On Tuesday, January 31, 2017 at 9:09:21 PM UTC-8, Sean Fidler wrote:
I'm not sure why I'm being included in this conversation again and again. You boys are never going to convince me that OLC is meaningful or cool. It's not. But knock yourselves out trying. Keep focusing on uploading free distance flights. Keep morphin US contest tasking (global laughing stock) into the same boring non-sport. Clearly, many here are highly sensitive and even personally offended by my criticisms of OLC. Not my intention not my problem. I simply think OLC is bad for soaring. It's creating bad pilots who complain unless they are free to only follow the best clouds all afternoon.

OLC has, IMO, has created some very poor attitudes about what soaring is as a sport

This thread is aptly titled "What's wrong with OLC." Yes, I know this was in regards to account issues. Perhaps a better title could be "What's the value of a soaring website that pretends to score completely unrelatable free distance cross country glider flights worldwide and why do people actually care about this?"

How OLC became one of the most popular websites in soaring is curious to me. I find its content (scoring) to be very low quality (random follow best clouds flying). It feels
like the lowest common denominator. We should be challenging ourselves more. Not just flying OLC. For me, and many others, OLC is so boring. It feels like a wasted opportunity to do something useful and challenging with a soaring day. It borders on being completely useless. This remains my opinion.

Sorry if this upsets you, but I feel we should try and get more out of cross country flying at least some significant portion of our flights. OLC lowers the common denominator.

Here is a little comedy relief. OLC is like shopping at the gap for all your clothes. Remember the movie "Crazy, Stupid Love?" Take a deep breath and watch this clip: https://youtu.be/-KsoPAXS0ME

Be better than than OLC. BE BETTER THAN THE GAP! There is so much more to soaring Than following the easiest possible path.

Sean

To prove my points, just flip it around and it's easy to realize the meaninglessness and ridiculousness of the both sides of it. And, I think it's funny.

"You boys are never going to convince me that contest flying is meaningful or cool. It's not. But knock yourselves out trying. Keep focusing on directly comparing each other based on obscure rules that ignore most of the soaring day. Keep morphin US contest flying (global laughing stock) into the same boring non-sport. Clearly, many here are highly sensitive and even personally offended by my criticisms of contest flying. Not my intention not my problem. I simply think contest flying is bad for soaring. It's creating bad pilots who complain unless they are free to only follow the rules all afternoon.

Contest flying has, IMO, has created some very poor attitudes about what soaring is as a sport

This thread is aptly titled "What's wrong with contest flying." Yes, I know this was in regards to account issues. Perhaps a better title could be "What's the value of a soaring contest that pretends to score completely unrelatable tasked glider flights contest wide and why do people actually care about this?"

How the contest results page became one of the most popular websites in soaring is curious to me. I find its content (scoring) to be very low quality (random following of obscure contest rules). It feels
like the lowest common denominator. We should be challenging ourselves more. Not just flying contests. For me, and many others, contest flying is so boring. It feels like a wasted opportunity to do something useful and challenging with a soaring day. It borders on being completely useless. This remains my opinion.

Sorry if this upsets you, but I feel we should try and get more out of contest flying at least some significant portion of our flights. Contest flying lowers the common denominator."

On Monday, January 30, 2017 at 10:12:48 AM UTC-8, wrote:
OLC regards IGC files as their intellectual property. This means they are sitting on a very large basis for numerical analysis, and nobody can use it.

This is why I got involved with Skylines. I run a backup for the IGC files. Anyone wanting a dump, can contact me.

The characterization of OLC as social media is accurate, and where's the harm? I like being able to download other's flights in the area on the day, to see what else I might have done. It isn't a race in the traditional use of the word, but then neither are most sailplane competitions (including Bernalla) which most sports would call a time trial.

Downloading the entire library of IGC files from OLC can be done with a number of readily available tools, or you could write your own with 20 minutes work.