Instagram Trackers on the GVH Website
Instagram trackers try to grab your data when you
simply visit the GVH webpage
. This is not a problem with the Santa Cruz Track club website, the Buffalo Chips, nor that of PA. I have not checked any others. Blockers can help prevent this but the mere idea that the GVH website even tries to give our data to Meta is pretty bad (still a problem as of 5/16/2026). I am not sure when this change was made, but it seems wrong and reflects poorly on us as a club.
Absurdity Around Alternatives
I encourage everyone to take a step back and consider what your response would be if I came to you in 2004 and told you about a great social media app I am starting and asked you to join. Supposing I also explained that while this will make things convenient for you, one disadvantage is that if another user posted something false and damaging about you and your running club, I am not liable because I get to hide behind this clause in the FCC code called Section 230, not only allowing me to keep that posting live, but send it to even more user's feeds, because I can make more money, as I do by injecting false, hateful and inflammatory content, into the feeds of the others, that ends up worsening, by orders of magnitude, many of the world's most severe problems, because eventually I need $160 billion in profit each year. I don't think you would have joined my platform for any reason, let alone because no other companies seem to provide the same convenience without such outrageous side effects. So in 2026, to say you are sticking with Meta because you don't have an equivalent alternative is pretty close to agreeing to join my 2004 platform. But because Meta has slowly and gradually provided more convenience to you at
an increasing cost (that they have been able to hide pretty well until 5 years ago)
, and the thought of giving up all this convenience to which you now have become accustomed, is so terrifying, no one sees it this way, meaning Meta has basically censored you from seeing why it is such poor judgement to use their products, supporting the idea that free speech for Meta means censorship against the rest of us.
Nonetheless, we have Blue Sky, or both Blue Sky and X to accommodate varying political affiliations in the club, which seem like reasonable alternatives. GVH already has an X account. Blue Sky may be small, with a learning curve, but the idea is to stop crushing our own reputation by promoting Instagram and Facebook as the
law suits against Meta pile up
.
Not All Social Media Companies are Created Equal
I
still actually hear this from club members: "But aren't they all bad?" Let us know when the former employees of the other companies appear before Congress with not only 22,000 pages of proof that their former employers platforms exacerbated genocide, human traffiking, sexual exploitation of children, teenage eating disorders and political polarization, but that the company knew about it and ignored it. Until then, Meta is obviously much worse than any of the others.
Handling Poor Judgement with More Poor Judgement
If a member or potential members judgement is so poor that they only use Meta in 2026, they lose, not the club. Continuing to use Meta to reach them is simply placating their bad judgement with even more bad judgement of our own, and jeopardizing the club's own image as the privacy-centric and socially responsible platforms start to gain acceptance and fewer organizations want to be linked to Meta. There is a reason why Patagonia stopped using Meta and it is not because they got tired of hearing Bob complain.
Inexact Statistics
I
f Mike Johnson hauls his big, bright, awesome, 50 lb GVH tent, that can be seen 300m away, to the Davis Stampede and a potential member comes up to inquire about the club, and someone says "follow us on Instagram," it is probably not so much Instagram winning that new member for us, but rather Mike and his tent. I also ask everyone to recognize it would be nearly impossible to measure the number of potential members we might otherwise sign, but DON'T, because they think we are still stuck in 2020 by using these outdated, horrible products.
Fallacy of Scop
e
"My usage does not matter because I am only one of 2.5 billion users" is a dangerous misperception for 2 reasons:
a) Actions speak louder than words. "That awesome member of GVH who poured their time and energy into GVH for decades has a FB account, so it must be OK for me to use it." Then the people in their circles do the same thing, etc, and the cancer spreads.
b) If everyone chose this path, nothing would be accomplished and the problems would only worsen.
For the most respected members of the club, if your passion for GVH after 2021 is even half of what it was before 2021, I beg you to continue to lead by example in this area and do the right thing as we have much better information now .
Getting Back to Core Purpose
Originally the club was dedicated to promoting health and fitness through the sport of running in the community. However, over the past 10 to 15 years, albeit unintentionally, the club has also gradually embraced the role of endorsing Meta, using the membership for Meta's data harvesting. It's time to get back to promoting running, eliminate Meta and its censorship that has skewed our members' good judgment, and restore free speech in GVH.