After just over 3 years of regular use, I'm checking out of foursquare.
Sorry guys, I just don't get it. This promised land of special offers, location based promotions and serendipitous bumping into friends never materialized. And to think for a while there I was checking in to gowalla (RIP) as well! What was I thinking?
I stuck with foursquare though, believing the glorious personal benefits will come. I think i've been tolerant. I've made over 2,500 check-ins and earned 46 badges. But there's just no value. It's just turned into something to do - another reason to fidget with my smartphone, an activity I'm trying to reduce thanks very much.
As it turns out most of my friends agree. I have 1,700+ followers on twitter and only a handful every signed up to foursquare. Plus the community on foursquare ends up generating (with a few notable exceptions) a maddening set of social minutiae i can do without. Bus stop, supermarket and petrol station check-ins? Checking in to locations when you're clearly on a train? Don't get me started. Plus how can someone be consistently top of the league when all they do is check-in to Sainsbury's, their home office and their kid's primary school?
There's no doubt location based data is useful when supporting other online activities (photo sharing for example) but as a standalone community? No thanks. There's plenty of other ways to tell people what I'm up to.
Enough.
.....Unless someone can make the case otherwise?