Strava Kudos: Is it a gift? Or a bribe?

What is this "strava" of which you speak?

Surely it is possible to accept kudos when it come from somone that you dont  know as well as know that you have not recieved it from someone that you do know.

Surely the point is that you are able measure yourself, as yourself AND against yourself in a format that records data quite well. You could have a tail wind on all of your PB's or KOM's if you are good enough. But you know that when you do and when you get that accolade. 

What you don't know, and can not know is the credibility of any recorded time above or below yours which is by someone else. You just don't know. So its only the PB's that really matter as it you against you. You against everyone else, well that's a different matter. They could be and possibly are cheating with digital EPO or real EPO. you don't know, you cant know and so let it go.

Be best you can be against yourelf and ignore the rest but love it and enjoy it.

I ended up with that girl who's doing that mileage record in the U.S.A. on my Strava thingy, for a bit. I don't think my Avatar went down well with the U.S. based people though, then they dissapeared as randomly as they appeared. Strava is like that, a bit odd sometimes.

I tend to give them for something that is above 'normal' but that depends on the rider.  If I know you are routinely putting in the long rides it's got to be something longer or faster or somehow else epic to get a kudos from me.  But at the same time, if I know that the short ride someone else did was really pushing the limit for them they'll get a thumbs up too.

It's very subjective for me, but I only follow people who I actually know, so I have an idea what a ride means to them.

On the flip side, I expect others to do the same to me.  I think it's weird when I get kudos from someone for a routine commute on a nice day but don't get one for 115km in the freezing cold.  I know one person who gives kudos for literally every ride, it completely devalues the gesture.

Before I get into it, I do give kudos back to randoms for real life rides as they're usually genuine and I appreciate that someone who doesn't know me has spotted me and thought, damn, nice ride. Most riders don't like being outdone, so if you get a kudos by a guy you've dropped you know he's a cool bloke. I give them to randoms too - but only if there's a story there. Couples on tandoms, guys on TT bikes battling the elements (huge balls IMO), that sort of thing.

However.

Since starting Zwift last week it's a different story. Some people genuinely are giving kudos for a reason you can understand (like you're on a long ride on a stupid kid's bike, they saw you on course and gave you a Ride On or message about it). But this weekend I noticed lots of random kudos on crappy rides. Like I jump on for 15 miles to spin the legs out at 110 HR. Clearly I'm pissing about, but the kudos roll in? 

Mystery unfolds itself quite quickly. Clicking through reveals guys with literally thousands of kudos! 

Here's a guy who gave me a kudos for a recovery ride recently:

https://www.strava.com/activities/792180477

He's super strong, but I don't know him and didn't ride with him in game so he must be using some spam site to fish for kudos and attract followers.

Anyway, people can use kudos for whatever they like. If you group ride with people then why not share the love, fishing or not. Just a button click, no point being tight or anal about it. I spam kudos on all my followers when I see their rides on my feed every evening. Being nice or easy-going is a harder achievement than going for a ride for most folk, so kudos for that. 

But using warez to get thousands of kudos? Bit lame. Not for me anyway.

Pretty sure Strava auto-added some people to my following list. I hadn't been on for a while , what with my shitty knee and when I checked the activity feed there were people I really wouldn't have added. I only follow my mates so Strava must have done it.

I had to disable Kudos notifications. I was getting two or three thumbs up from the same people in Germany, Italy, Brazil etc. on every ride. I don't know these people and they all have hundreds of followers. I suspect they just want the followers, so should I follow them just to shut them up, and end up polluting my feeds of my rides and my friends rides that I want to see and might actually give real Kudos for? 

I was under the impression the point of Strava was to ride from A to B as fast as you can, not get followers.

I don't think it's either, although I do agree with the ideas your research guys expressed about not giving it for every ride, and to give it for something unusual, whether it's a hard ride, or a pb up a nasty hill. I know myself if the forecast is for a windy day, I 'll plan a route to try and take advantage of it in certain places (segments) and try to take it easy before I get there. So, getting a pb or string of them may not indicate that I have ridden that hard. Although the ones that matter to me are longer, and you can't just let the wind blow you along to get a good time.
So gift or bribe? It's recognition of effort. I don't race though so might have a different approach to it than others