Foursquare Etiquette

Saturday, 28 November 2009

I got a little techincal last week when I mentioned Foursquare, but today I want to talk a little more about the social aspects of the service.  I've been using Foursquare while visiting other cities, such as Washington DC and Chicago, since early August.  When using the location sharing service in these other cities I put very little thought put into the "proper etiquette" of checking in to various locations. I checked in everywhere.  Restaurants, coffee shops, supermarkets, gas stations -- even my hotel every time I stopped in. It didn't matter, I was really just enjoying the novelty of the game. Since I was usually only playing the game for a couple of days at a time, it was really just about the fun of racking up points and seeing how many I could get before I went back home.

Now that Foursquare is available full time in my hometown, and the novelty is slowly wearing off, I'm kind of curious what the Foursquare community at large thinks about these issues.  Strictly speaking, there's nothing wrong with any of the following, but I'm curious what other Foursquare players think about the following practices:

Checking in to gas stations, convenience stores, and other quick locations

I did this all the time when playing Foursquare in other cities but now that it's come to Columbus, I'm finding it kind of pointless checking in on short trips like this. None of my friends care that I'm filling up the car, and they're even less likely to stop in and see me. Sure, you could easily become the Foursquare Mayor of your local gas station, but that doesn't really come with any actual benefits. So the only actual benefit is racking up extra points, which are also meaningless.

Checking in to your own place of employment

To a degree, I think it depends on the type of place you work at.  If you work an office job, and you're just competing with your fellow colleagues to see who can be the Mayor of your office, I don't see a lot of harm there.  But where it's not cool is if you work at a restaurant or some other business that depends on customers.  For example, I'm currently the Foursquare Mayor of my local coffee shop because I stop in there at least every couple of days.  I'd be kind of annoyed if I lost my mayorship to one of the barristas who works there every day.  At the same time, I can see the benefit to checking in to your place of work so that your friends know you're there.  They might be interested in stopping by to say hello if they're in the area.

Establishing your home/apartment as a location and checking in daily

I'm absolutely guilty of this one.  The first day Foursquare became available in Columbus, I created the Team Soell HQ location and saw to it that I got the first Mayorship of my house.  After my third checkin, though, I realized that I was earning badges and racking up points unfairly and laid off it.  Sometimes I do want my friends to know that I'm at home, but I feel back earning points that don't accurately reflect my activity level.

Retroactively checking in to places you forgot to check in at

This is an issue I've seen a lot of varied and passionate opinions on.  What if you're out on the town hitting up a bunch of different places, and your phone dies? You lose out on valuable points and badges. You should be able to check in the next day and get those points, right?  Again, I'm not really sure about this one.  If the main point of Foursquare is to have it present and accurate picture of your social activities, it may be ok.  But I also use it to let my friends know where I am, and they might be a little put off if they see me checking into a restaurant and they stop by and see I'm not actually there.

For me, I'm trying to use Foursquare as a sort of notification system to let my friends -- and maybe other Foursquare users -- know that I'm out at a particular business.  In my day to day use, I generally avoid checking in at locations I don't plan to be at long, like the bank, and focus on using it to show the types of businesses I like.

What do you think about Foursquare -- is it a tool to connect with your friends, or do you use it more as a game, trying to rack up the most badges and points that you can?  Are you guilty of any of these "questionable activities" or is it all fair game?

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