16k challenge

[Paul Victory]

Hi Folks

I received the following email a few days ago. It seems to be on the up and up if anyone is interested in participating.

Paul V

Hi Paul,

You will be my first IRL, I want to invite you to row 16k.

I am the founder of a 16k well-known rowing-regatta on a lake in Austria. You just row 16k on your erg, make a snapshot of the display when finished and send it in an e-mail to me. wkoska@drei.at I'll put your result on a joint chart. Please I want also know your hometown and Country, your birthyear and a foto from you. Please look: http://www.ergorudern.nPage.de Disseminate this invitation among your rowing friends.

You have any questions, please send a mail to me: wkoska@drei.at

Greetings.
Willy

[CamiCrew]

Whoever willy is, he spends a lot of time emailing people to row 16k. He gets addresses via concept 2? I have received emails from him twice in the past several months to the effect that it's very difficult to get women to row that distance and to please row it and give him my photo, hometown, information for his database. His site looks odd enough (ads popping up everywhere) and I don't speak the language, so I'd need a better understanding of what he's doing and why.

But others I recognize seem to be doing it, so maybe it makes more sense to them

[plummy]

Weird - I posted a reply and it's completely disappeared....

[dr3do]

and to please row it and give him my photo, hometown, information for his database. His site looks odd enough (ads popping up everywhere) and I don't speak the language, so I'd need a better understanding of what he's doing and why.

Well, I speak/understand this language. I took the plunge and threw a look onto it…

1. no real/deep description of "what and why", only some short multi-langue-stuff, no referral to any serious rowing sites.
2. the subdomain-name-thing, it's just one page
3. no imprint (in this region of the world every site has to have an imprint), no name, just an e-mail
4. turned off the the adblocker for one moment and… .

With a this weirdness I eventually have adjusted my blacklist.

[Paul Victory]

Thanks for looking into it Boris. That's a bit worrying. Like Barbara, I had a look at his website and it had rows recorded by a number of names I recognised from FaceBook. I guess maybe I'm a bit too trusting.

I don't really understand point c. in your post Boris. What does it mean to not have an imprint? I had responded by email to his message before I posted on the forum and have since received a reply with two attachments. Should I be wary about opening them?

[Paul Victory]

I've done a bit more research on Mr Koska and there are quite a few photos of him rowing and references to this regatta that he runs. I also note that plummy and his partner in crime for the Moveo one million meter challenge (Anke Molkentin) are among his FaceBook friends.

Plummy, you mentioned above that you had posted something but it had disappeared. Can you tell us anything further about Willy? It seems to me that he is genuine and he is probably just using ads to cover the cost of running his website. Or am I being naive?

Paul V

[dr3do]

I don't really understand point c. in your post Boris. What does it mean to not have an imprint?

Thanks for asking, Paul. The translator suggested me this word, but it seems to be wrong:

• "The Latin word Impressum (printed, from the verb imprimĕre, i.e. to print), used in German, has no exact translation in modern English. It is a legally required statement of the ownership and authorship of a document, which must be included in books, newspapers, magazines and websites published in Germany and other German-speaking countries.
  
  There is no equivalent legislation in the UK or US, and therefore no consistent legal term is used in English-speaking media. The closest English terms for Impressum are:
  
  Masthead: for newspapers and magazines, a list, usually found on the editorial page, of the members of its board.
  Colophon: for books, a note indicating metadata about the book such as the date of publication, printer and publisher.
  “Site notice”, “Legal notice”or “Legal disclosure”: for websites in English, a page title commonly used to link to legal metadata and terms of use."

What I meant with c):

• "The Telemediengesetz ("Telemedia Act") requires that German websites must disclose information about the publisher, including their name and address, telephone number or e-mail address, trade registry number, VAT number, and other information depending on the type of company. German websites are defined as being published by individuals or organisations that are based in Germany, so an Impressum is required regardless of whether a site is in the .de domain."

received a reply with two attachments. Should I be wary about opening them?

I don't want to insinuate (good word?) in any way, but I wouldn't open these attachments without checking them before. Just to be sure.

[plummy]

I submitted a couple of times to Willy as he seems to have a lot of others doing similar and has tabulated (not very well if I'm honest) the results into a spreadsheet. He does seem genuine to me though.

I won't be submitting any more as I can't see what there is to gain.

I haven't seen any ads as I use a program called "Adblock" - so I never see any ads anywhere - even on Facebook etc

[CamiCrew]

OK so, I think I get it. Here's the picture forming, can be quite wrong of course...

He organizes (and likely participates in) a regatta on the water that is 16000m. Probably a strong rower, knocks out 16k well on the erg too, knows many doing that event length so is therefore motivated to try and get 16000m to become a ranking distance -- acknowledged by Concept2? Or, to establish a world record category for that distance? To build proof for it as a ranking distance, or, simply to gather/publish his own ranking, he would reach out to other rowers for times and the essentials from a C2-style record perspective -- screenshots as proof, age for category and location, etc the typical data elements on the Concept2 rankings. If you can get a substantial community of rowers to pitch in, now you can show global interest. (Or at least, have a strange list out on your free web page ) And for those rowers who specialize in this distance, it's true C2 has only the 10k and the HM.

I found his messages charming, but quirky and demanding... that's due to the language barrier & not explaining his purpose clearly. Having made some assumptions here, it makes more sense why he would take so much time to send one-off emails to what must be a very long list of people via the C2 messaging/email feature, over months' time. Paul would gain in that he could claim the first Irish record in the new ranking distance Plummy has helped establish proof of interest as well.

If that's close, I wish him luck. Tough, but rewarding project!

p.s. My PC blocks ads, but my phone doesn't... would have to fix that before browsing a site like his again