Being the “social media gal” at MAC…I’ve decided to commit to understanding the GPS-app craze. I’ve been trying out both Foursquare and Gowalla like crazy. I’ve even been elevated to “Superuser – Level 1″ on Foursquare – go hard, or go home!
So far, between Gowalla and Foursquare, I’ve found Foursquare to be more “user-friendly”. But there is ONE thing that gets to me – on an ETHICAL level.
I remember as a child, being told “Cheaters never prosper!” But they can on Foursquare:
- Creating a “New Spot” Whenever you enter in deets for a New Spot, you get +5 points, rather than the +1 you get for checking in to an existing spot. Hypothetically, you can rack up more points just by creating multiple “new” spots. This lends to multiples of the same location on the Foursquare database.
- No GPS Checks & Balances For being a GPS social network…there’s no system of GPS checks & balances. Right now, I could do a search for my office on the Foursquare iPhone app and could technically “Check In” to my Office in NYC, even though I’m snuggling with Syd Vicious on my couch in Astoria. IMO, there should be some way of “detecting” whether you are actually even CLOSE to the place you’re checking into.
Like I said – so far, I still prefer Foursquare. Really digging the business-related Special Offers they’ve been implementing. But I really hope they add some security measures so we can all Foursquare fairly.
Advertisement
Hey hey – I hear you on both points…
I think we def need some adjusting for the +5 for the new spots.
We’re also working on some code now that will weight checkins differently based your proximity (e.g. you can’t become mayor if you’re across town).
Stay tuned – good things ahead!
- @dens
co-founder, foursquare
I’m so happy that I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Me = Social Networking Square.
Yes, while it might not be obvious by my witty banter, I am, tragically un-hip.
I’m a fan and Superuser on Foursquare as well. What’s up with people making their apartments destinations?! I’m like, “Does your bedroom have that much foot traffic?!” One of my friends checked into another friend’s apartment and sent a shout out: “Breaking into Aaron’s apartment!”
I’m a fan & Superuser Lvl 1 on foursquare, I like Gowalla also but the problem w/ Gowalla is that it either takes forever to load spots when I want to check in or doesn’t load at all, and one thing I hate about some foursquare users are that when I create a new venue, some jerkoff comes and checks in multiple times without patronizing the establishment just to become a mayor of established venue!!!
Hey Joon: I hear ya about that one. I would use Gowalla more often, but living in NYC it takes a while for it to detect venues when I’m indoors.