The Future of Daily Burn Tracker ?

I just returned to DB after a long hiatus, just to learn that DB is now DB Tracker.
Moreover the now “DB Tracker” has been moved to a new URL.

It very much seems that the DB team has abandoned Daily Burn Tracker for the “New Daily Burn”.

Even though DB Tracker might not be shut down in the new future it surely will die a a slow death due to being abondoned by current members and no (or only a few) new member signing up.
DB team clearly wants the people to sign up to the new – and far more expensive – Daily Burn.

PS: I came here for the community and especially for the track my diet and exercise.
A lot of food I had to enter manually, since the products I use are not in the database (I am from Germany). Now I have the BIG problem, that I can’t export all the data I put into DB, neither my personal log nor the food.

I am here to track my diet and exercise as well, and it seems like most of the community has left. I really don’t want to leave to track my data elsewhere, but I am looking into livestrong.com, sparkpeople.com, and fitday.com as alternatives. Does anyone know of other good free sites out there worth considering?

@icebox
there is www.fitocracy.com. It’s very new and just left the “invite only” phase.

I am currently a new member of Sparkpeople, Fitocracy and because of my iPhone running app of Dailymile
:-)
.

What I am learning now from the demise of the Daily Burn tracker:
It is important to check if I am able to retrieve my data I entered at a fitness website.

I guess I will lose a lot of information I entered at Daily Burn since May 2009. :-(

Fist impressions on other diet/exercise tracker websites:
- Livestrong: no exercise tracking except cardio – deleted from my list
- Sparkpeople: it so full of adverts that it is hard to find the content – probably not my choice
- Runkeeper: perfect for tracking runs, looks very professional, but no food tracking! Trainingsplans have to be paid. Not my choice.
- Fitocracy. Ability to log every exercise. Better exercise database than Daily Burn, but you can’t add own exercises. I just posted a question in regard to a missing bodyweight exercise, and received 3 helpful answers within 60 seconds!!! They offer a paid upgrade too, but it seems that I don’t need it for the time being. They offer an interesting point system for everything you do. Will test food tracking and the iPhone app in the next days.

Bummer! Fitocracy doesn’t offer to track food. :-(
Compared to other diet/fitness sites I just realized how good Daily Burn actually is/was!!!

I really want to to kick the DB team in the @ss for abandoning Daily Burn Tracker.

Yes, really ticked off too! Do we have any idea of timeline???

I don’t want to sound like a corporate hack or anything, so don’t just jump to that conclusion. I’m just a member like everyone else. If you don’t believe me, check out my logs and other forum posts.

First and foremost, I have used DB since it was Gyminee so I have about four years of history on this site. I’ve seen a lot of things introduced and without fail it is almost always railed against in the forums as the end of the site. So far that is not the case. While I wish that there was more focus on the Tracker site, it is head a shoulders above many of the others that are out there. Perfect, no, but I’ve have yet to find anything even close to what we have here.

Second, of all the people that I know who participate in any type of activity I am one of two who use any sort of tracking of anything. Yep, me and one other power lifter. That includes my running/biking partner who does marathons, dozens of BMX racers whom I race against and all the volleyball and basketball folks who I have played with over the years. I know dozens of people who are very dedicated to their exercise regimen, but don’t care to track their progress on a web site. And I need to add, my power lifter friend keeps his records in an Excel spreadsheet.

Third, and I almost hate to mention it as it seems to just get people’s hackles up, DB is a business. It’s not a gift or as some in these forums seem to think, a birth right. That is why they have Pro memberships available. Unlike some businesses, DB allows us to use their site and tools and pay at whatever level suits us best or even free if you choose. Most other fitness sites have a flat monthly membership period and make no bones about what paying members can do. If you pay more you can get a ‘personal’ fitness evaluation via email and maybe your horoscope and lotto numbers. I would bet that most of us spend more on worthless fitness swag than a membership would cost here.

Want to get DB’s attention? Want them to add new features and do more to support the site? I guarantee you that if they had 5000 new PAYING members they would change focus real quickly. But as it is the videos get more attention because they get more members.

I am a member on many of the sites mentioned above because of their strengths and how I can use them in my fitness goals. I pay for DB because I support their business and have found that it meets my needs better than any of their competitors. I’m not being harsh, just being realistic.

I am a paying member as well since DB was Gyminee.

I understand that DB is a business and I understand the DB company is abandoning DB Tracker – for what ever reason, but I guess for financial reasons.

Anyway the signs are clear: renaming DB; moving the original DB URL to a new project which is beeing promoted, while stopping to advertise DB Tracker: there is a DB personalized fitness App for iPad, but not DB Tracker App.

Which means the community will die a slow death by shrinking numbers of members: not many new people will sign in, while current members well sign off, because the decrease of social interaction (just have a look at the Forum).

For DB this is probably the easiest way. I don’t see current members raising the issue, I guess most just quietly move away.

In regard to alternatives to BD: www.myfitnesspal.com has an excellent food database and you can track exercises.

Ferdi,

Check out JeFit. It allows you to enter custom exorcises. I use it to do the things that Daily Burn never completed when they started telling Android users two years ago that they would have a functional app for them. Turns out they were just yanking our chains…

Once Daily Burn was sold to IACS in May of 2010, I noticed the slow communication in the forums from DB staff immediately start to decrease and be evasive in their answers.

What a shame, they had a great thing going and then sold out and it’s all falling apart.

They have stopped investing in the site. I haven’t had time to start using other sites yet. I have bookmarked a couple and need to take the time to try out each one. The ones I have some interest in are Myfitnesspal and lose it.

@edgreen,
thanks for the JetFit tip. If I would do bodybuilding I would def. use it.

I have decided for Fitocracy. It has an extremely active and supportive community.

It just makes me very sad. I’ve lost over 200lb since I started DailyBurn. I really don’t want to see that data all just go away. I really don’t.

@JakiChan – Whoa! That is insane! Thanks so much for sharing your story! We’re still here everyone, don’t worry.

I really like tracker and pay the fee annually. I’m not interested in the other site. My life and schedule vary too much daily for a regular fitness schedule. Sure hope tracker sticks around.

I REALLY enjoy the program. I’ve learned a lot since I first signed up. People don’t realize what they’re eating. I know I didn’t. Daily Burn has changed the way I eat and helps me plan out healthier meals. 35+ lbs down since last august. I’d be a bit lost without my tracker!

Hi,

Like the original poster, I’ve just come back to DailyBurn after an extended hiatus. I was actually happy to sign up to the [what is now the old DB but didn’t because there is a ‘new’ DB.

But what I don’t get is why would any existing member sign up to the new DB?

• No migration from old to new accounts

• Is there any benefit to new DB if one doesn’t care for instructional videos or tutoring ?

I can’t see any benefit to ‘pay’ for a new service if all of my old data is lost; similarly I can’t see fit to pay for an ‘old’ service that may be discontinued.

From a business perspective, DailyBurn have done a horrible job. This is an instance of divided community, and with no rhyme or reason.

So I’ll stay a free member. thank you very much DB.

What I don’t understand is there has been no new enhancements to the website or the app in years. When are we going to get some new features and simpler ways to input and manage our health? Also, there is no place to suggest feedback. There are these forums but nothing for suggestions and then there is the support page but its geared towards break/fix issues. I would like to have more open dialog on what is going on with a product that my wife and I both pay for.

Last week or so… site has been glitching out to the point of unsuitability for tracking my workouts…

seems to be working at the moment…

The DailyBurn team is definitely going out of their way to kill the Tracker site… I mean, they even refer to it as the “old” DailyBurn. That clearly lets you know where the priorities are, and gives a strong hint that at some point it’ll probably go away since apparently the userbase wasn’t even valuable enough to create account interoperability with.

And yes, I was a paying Pro user. When I switch to DailyBurn from FitDay years ago I was glad to support the company, it’s just a shame all their great efforts are getting flushed down the tube. I’m surprised another site hasn’t offered a “DailyBurn refugee” special yet really.

I did sign up for the “new” DailyBurn under the misimpression that it would include all the “old” features (hint: it doesn’t) and I checked out a couple of videos… good quality, but I can find slightly grainer versions of many of the exercises on YouTube I expect for free… and I despise exercise videos. Maybe there’s a market for it, maybe now, but it’s pretty boneheaded to toss years of site and app development down the drain like they have, especially when their product was one of – if not the – best offering on the market.

And yes, i’ve cancelled my Pro subscription now. It’s a hassle to even find the login page anymore and I see no reason to subsidize a glorified YouTube channel.

:(

I meant FitBit. Anyway, myfitnesspal seems to fit the bill… love the concept of Fitocracy but tracking is way too hard. MyFitnessPal has a nifty iPhone calorie app too. I will sorely miss the DailyBurn barcode scanner though :(

ardosi:

MyNetDiary Pro has a great food scanner and a massive database of foods.