What the heck does that mean? First it means THANK YOU for making FKTs the coolest thing in the world of endurance sports. Second, it means this explosion has taken a lot of work, and we’d rather not keep doing it for free, nor have a ton of ads cluttering the pages - we’d like people who enjoy the service to contribute to it. Here’s the scoop!
2020 Recap
Press - Fastest Known Time was on National Public Radio twice, Outside Mag, Backpacker, Trail Runner, Women’s Running, and Men’s Journal.
Activity - We receive about 40 submissions every day; we now have listings for over 3,000 Routes, 4,500 Athletes, and 7,000 FKTs, from all over the world.
Curation - Every submission was manually reviewed and added by an actual person (not a computer program).
Plus - Our 112th podcast went live last week, we provide Live Tracking of big efforts, and the website is easier than ever to use.
Success - Yes! We are very gratified to be part of the fun, growing, and supportive FKT community.
What’s Next
Better Service - We’d like to provide more features and service to the community (lot’s of ideas!)
We’re maxed out - Three people have got us this far working entirely as volunteers; we can continue but can’t do more.
Revenue is needed - See below for how this will work.
Ads
Advertising is how media always has supported itself.
That doesn’t work any more - the Internet is too big (and nasty or salacious content gets the most clicks).
Too many ads look bad and is annoying for the reader.
We will definitely still have ads and sponsors, but the Contributor Model is better for everyone.
Contributor Revenue Model
We are a worldwide, crowd-sourced database of great information - just like Wikipedia.
Just like Wikipedia, the people who use the service contribute to keep it happening.
This keeps the website looking clean, and makes us responsive to YOU, not to companies.
As Outside Magazine announced on June 9: "Outside's digital journalism has never been more relevant or essential, but giving it away for free is no longer sustainable."
On May 19 Strava did something similar, tightening up its paywall.
Submissions - Donations
When someone submits a Route or FKT, there is now an optional Donation Box at the bottom of each form.
Route submissions (but not FKTs) may soon require a $20 contribution.
Please understand: A human, just like yourself, takes their personal time to review everything submitted, accurately process what you did, then puts it up there for the whole world to see.
A contribution is worth it!
Affiliate Program
You will be seeing more links to gear.
Clicking on a link takes you to an online store where it can be purchased; we receive a small percentage of any purchase you make.
This is an easy win-win: the price is exactly the same to the purchaser, so for no extra cost or effort you support Fastest Known Time.
So please freely use our product links!
THANK YOU again for being part of the FKT community.
