Friends of BAFS/Slackers

[cvcalhoun]

Every year, we have some people who have played before and want to join the the social events/pointless prizes/etc., but don't want to be on a team and compete for points. They used to be called Slackers, and are now called Friends of BAFS.

If you want to be one, the instructions are simple. Do not register. Instead:

1. Join the BAFS Strava team, and
2. Authorize Freezing Saddles to read your miles.

That's it. As soon as teams are assigned, you will appear on the Friends of BAFS list which appears in the drop-down list under "People."

[BobCochran]

An elegant solution.

[josh]

Why are they called friends? Slacker seems a much more appropriate term.

[rcannon100]

[cvcalhoun]

Why are they called friends? Slacker seems a much more appropriate term.

It's all Greenbelt's fault. One year, he decided to be a Slacker. At that time, the Slackers appeared on the leaderboard as if they were another team. Greenbelt rode so many miles that the Slackers were actually ahead of at least one other team at various points during the competition. So referring to him as a Slacker just didn't seem appropriate. Plus, it was embarrassing for the other team to be even worse than Slackers.

[rcannon100]

It's all Greenbelt's fault. One year, he decided to be a Slacker. At that time, the Slackers appeared on the leaderboard as if they were another team. Greenbelt rode so many miles that the Slackers were actually ahead of at least one other team at various points during the competition. So referring to him as a Slacker just didn't seem appropriate. Plus, it was embarrassing for the other team to be even worse than Slackers.

Actually the actual story is FAR WORSE than that. It's pretty much Vin's fault. And it was by far the best giggle that ever happened during Freezing Saddles.

(For the record, Team Slacker always said "dont put us on the leaderboard." That was the very thing Slackers were skipping)

[sjclaeys]

[rcannon100]

[cvcalhoun]

Actually the actual story is FAR WORSE than that. It's pretty much Vin's fault. And it was by far the best giggle that ever happened during Freezing Saddles.

(For the record, Team Slacker always said "dont put us on the leaderboard." That was the very thing Slackers were skipping)

Well, now that you've said that, you need to tell us the far worse story!

[rcannon100]

Well. The Mean-Girls* can correct me. And for all I know I am getting this horribly wrong.

Not long ago, in the distant past, we squabbled about "Team Slackers." Team Slackers was specifically supposed to be people who wanted to play reindeer games but not compete for miles. The people on Team Slackers and its captain were very happy with the arrangement.

But even tho the people who were on Team Slackers were happy, others... were not. For thousands of reasons. And the short of it was, it was very patronizing.

In the kerfluffle, Team Slackers got put on the leaderboard even tho we had asked not to be. And we didnt care. We were not competing.

But the Mean Girls saw a loop hole in the game. the Mean-Girls ride beastly miles. And they did not compete in the Freezing Saddles team competition. So all of there strava winter miles were building up.... but invisible to the FS leader board.

But they knew, nothing stopped them from joining Team Slacker.

So..... the day before the end of the competition, the Mean-Girls joined Team Slacker en masse. This put Team Slacker in first place by like 4x miles on the leader board.

I thought it was hilarious. It was the true spirit of Freezing Saddles. It was a good joke. And it meant nothing. The #1 team was still #1 - its just that Team Slackers had pulled a funny one - and just ignore it.

Oh but did it piss people off. And I am sure telling the story, someone will step up and say how awful it was.

Freezing Saddles is a game. That's all it is. It was always meant to be fun. The Mean Girls reminded us of that. I thought it was simply wonderful.



* That is the name Pete Beers game them, so there!