As brands pile onto FourSquare baiting users with location based marketing offers the opportunity to discover original and interesting venues is declining. So I laughed out loud when I logged into our local greasy spoon and received a tip from a nearby lamp post put on the map by fellow FourSquare addict Mark Adams.
Here’s the issue. It’s incredibly easy to create a new location on FourSquare. I’ve added a lamp post of my own near our office in Leicester Square.
There’s also lots of duplication. FourSquare users, whether intentionally or not, have added multiple versions of the same venue using different variations of the name such as York Train Station and York Railway Station.
In fact a visit to most railway stations will turn up a venue entry for each platform and several of the trains that travel in and out of the station each day. Are FourSquare users really meeting up with each other via the network on their way back and forth to work?
FourSquare relies on its users and the wisdom of the crowd as an editorial function. But the appearance of random locations and the level of duplication shows that it plainly isn’t working.
The network needs a more traditional editorial function if it is to avoid becoming cluttered.
Spam is also becoming an issue as users build their network of friends beyond people that they actually know. It’s an issue that arises with every generation of social network but in this instance the sharing of personal location information is a stalkers dream.
Here’s another example of user abuse. We’ve developed a healthy level of competition at Speed for the Mayor slot frequently checking-in and out numerous times during the day to outwit each other. It’s not really sport.
FourSquare’s rules need to be tightened. Purists will call me out for spotlighting potential abuses of the network. But social norms as a means of managing a network only work so far – and on FourSquare they’ve been stretched beyond their limit.
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