FourSquare App: What's the Irish Prognosis

uvox

<this may not be the right forum, since Foursquare is available for droid and BB too, so move if necessary).

What do people think about Foursquare app. Is it being used for actual commercial purposes/social networking, or purely to annoy others?

I find it hard to figure out why somebody would want to be Mayor of every single LUAS stop between St Stephen's Green and Sandyford or want to claim mayoralty over SuperMacs on the Aran Islands, but there you go. There is US research coming out that shows people are more willing to defend their mayorships of Starbucks than seemingly more important activities.

And then there's the messers: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/06/foursquare-privacy/

Has the brand/location-based/loyalty thing through Foursquare failed in Ireland? Or is it emerging? Will it work?

keane2097

I had actually never heard of this until this week, and just downloaded the app today, so maybe it's something that just hasn't entered the consciousness of the country at large yet.

dudara

I've even using it for 6 months now. I think that businesses in Ireland could do well to use it as a loyalty channel.

Creamy Goodness

never really used it, as tbh they annoy me when they come in on my twitter stream.

but as dudara said, if companies started to use it for giving discounts and the like then i could be persuaded otherwise.

uvox

interesting points, thank you. i do agree when it's hooked into a twitter stream it can be incredibly annoying.

the observations about social media that I am seeing here on boards.ie are excellent - a lot more grounded in reality and valid when I empirical observe what's really going on on the ground than what I am reading from some sources.

keep them comments coming!

uvox

Then of course, I am not sure that some of the badges translate for an Irish audience as the developers might think:

uvox

What kind of discounts or 'specials' do they offer, out of interest?

Love to see how 'Rip Off Ireland' handles it by comparison.

vinnycoyne

I use it quite a bit, but only has a game. Haven't seen any special offers or anything yet. It's kinda useless without the incentive IMO.

baktag

I have just added it in my iphone, It has a lot of potential.
Going to give it a go see what its like

BrianD

This is an interesting on the negative privacy aspects of location sharing applications.

http://pleaserobme.com/

They used to have a live Twitter feed of Foursquare tweets with a headline "The following people are not at home ..."

Out of curiosity, one day we picked a randomer who had checked into Heathrow airport on a transfer from Stockholm to New York. By cross referencing Facebook and Linkedin we disciovered she was the NY brand manager for a well known vodka brand, the next step was to cross reference phone books and soon enough you have an address. Flight from london to NY is 5 hours. An empty house for 5 hours if one was bothered.

happyeveryday

lackofcolour wrote: »

I use it quite a bit, but only has a game. Haven't seen any special offers or anything yet. It's kinda useless without the incentive IMO.

Completely agree, until Irish businesses are willing to use it as a promotional/loyalty tool, there's very little use other then messing with mates.
I'm still amazed at the lack of inititive irish business owners have when it comes to using the net and online services, especially when they are seriously needing to keep turnover up at present. they all seem to think a rearly updated 4 page website means they're 'online'.

BrianD wrote: »

This is an interesting on the negative privacy aspects of location sharing applications.

http://pleaserobme.com/

They used to have a live Twitter feed of Foursquare tweets with a headline "The following people are not at home ..."

Out of curiosity, one day we picked a randomer who had checked into Heathrow airport on a transfer from Stockholm to New York. By cross referencing Facebook and Linkedin we disciovered she was the NY brand manager for a well known vodka brand, the next step was to cross reference phone books and soon enough you have an address. Flight from london to NY is 5 hours. An empty house for 5 hours if one was bothered.

And that's why you need to be careful about the personal information you put online.

Dades

Been on it for a bit. You can become a little bit obsessive in a geeky way, but there is loads of potential there. It really just needs more people using it.

I've also come to the conclusion that people need something for their thumbs to do every time they sit down somewhere new, so "checking in" to places fulfills this need.

The competitive aspects of mayorships is a stick for many people.

phill106

Having fun with this! I am mayor of a take away in limerick that offers free small item of food worth 6 euro to the mayor of that establishment every wednesday.
Used it last week for 1st time, perferct, nom nom.
This week, i go in again and the girl behind the counter recognises me from last week, and says I cant keep coming in and getting free food, just because I am the mayor of that place!
I showed her the deal on my iphone, which states that in fact it is exactly what i can do
Got my free food, and left my contact details, as apparently the manager may want to call me!
Bring it on!
*burp*

Store name left out as i want my free food to continue without any other pesky mayors showing up!

naasrd

Downloaded that and Gowalla, Gowalla looks better, especially on iPad, so tend to use that more. For sending free MMS check out PingChat2. Primarily an iPhone to iPhone messaging app it has the facility to add a photo or video. Brilliant litte app.

uvox

I must see if Ivor Callely is on Foursquare.

"Hi, I checked into Dublin. No wait, Cork. No wait, that was my wife. No wait..."

With all those phones he's bound to be active.

It is interesting though to follow the twat from Rathmines who is mayor of his own house. Talk about inviting trouble...

phill106

uvox wrote: »

It is interesting though to follow the twat from Rathmines who is mayor of his own house. Talk about inviting trouble...

Does he have the full address on it? 123 his street, estate name etc?
Asking for trouble when you sign in somewhere far away then!
What was that site, pleaserobme.com?

phill106

So has anyone had issues with staff refusing/questioning offers using foursquare?

WetDaddy

uvox wrote: »

Then of course, I am not sure that some of the badges translate for an Irish audience as the developers might think:

Brilliant, uvox. I can't believe nobody's commented on this yet.

Regarding any location-based social network: I can see the appeal of people trying to get all the achievements / awards / badges and I can also see the opportunities there for businesses to cash in. However, personally I wouldn't want my location(s) to be known that frequently and, inevitably, you're going to end up leaving it running at one stage or another.

PleaseRobMe.com makes a good point, but you'd probably have to be a very specific person with specific belongings before your average burglar would go to all that effort. All they need is 10 minutes in your house, not 2 weeks while you're away on holidays. Even then, they'd probably be wise enough to that just by staking out your house.

If you have possessions that are really that important that they warrant someone surveying you, then you should have additional contingencies in place to that effect.

I'd be more concerned about the safety of kids, teenagers, women etc. and stalker-types knowing exact where they *are* and not where they *aren't*.

Dades

WetDaddy wrote: »

However, personally I wouldn't want my location(s) to be known that frequently and, inevitably, you're going to end up leaving it running at one stage or another.

Foursquare only displays your last checked-in location - and only to your "friends" (or someone in the same location).

So unless you continue checking in wherever you go your whereabouts will be outdated. e.g. I was in The Old Stand for lunch today and until I check in somewhere else I'll still be there on Foursquare, with the time/date of check-in displayed. Leaving "on" the app doesn't give anything away.

uvox

phill106 wrote: »

Does he have the full address on it? 123 his street, estate name etc?
Asking for trouble when you sign in somewhere far away then!
What was that site, pleaserobme.com?

Yep. Real name used too, so you can trace the tool around the globe, on Twitter, etc.

uvox

There should be a competition for the worst Mayor claim:

SuperMacs in Abbey Street Dublin did it for me...

Four of a kind

Just wondering can you check into a place and not even be at the location?

For instance, check into a shop in galway when your not even in galway? or does the gps location finder prevent this from happening?

irish1967

Gps stops you doing this. Also stops you checking in to too many nearby places too quickly.

fifth

Is it just me or is this app a bit unstable?

irish1967

Yeah. Keeps crashing on me too.

Blazer

one of the lads here is a notorious 4square whore and is mayor of a load of places.
He was also mayor of our old work building and when we moved across to our original building he neglected to update 4square for it and kept using the old place which was some 300 metres away.
Since I got the iphone I added our current workplace and became mayor of it...really pissed him off so he moved the location of the old one so he could retain it..
problem is he's in the states at the moment so I started signing into his one as well, this morning I stole the mayorship from him as well
God I'm such a shítstirrer

phill106

Sc@recrow wrote: »

one of the lads here is a notorious 4square whore and is mayor of a load of places.
He was also mayor of our old work building and when we moved across to our original building he neglected to update 4square for it and kept using the old place which was some 300 metres away.
Since I got the iphone I added our current workplace and became mayor of it...really pissed him off so he moved the location of the old one so he could retain it..
problem is he's in the states at the moment so I started signing into his one as well, this morning I stole the mayorship from him as well
God I'm such a shítstirrer

Cool Story bro!
I do see the same guy seems to be mayor of lots of places in shannon alright.

fifth

It crashes everytime after about 30 seconds or so. It's unusable for me (iphone 4) at the moment. Looks good, but needs updating.

The icon looks a bit stupid though.

Four of a kind

How many check ins do u need to become mayor?

phill106

Four of a kind wrote: »

How many check ins do u need to become mayor?

Seems to be at least 2, with you having a pic on your profile, or one more then the current mayor (again with pic).

Dades

The app is supposed to be updating to allow you to see how many checkins you are away from becoming major.

http://blog.foursquare.com/post/1016230743/am-i-mayor-yet

Regarding privacy issues, like any social media you can give as little or as much information as you want.

You don't have to use your real name (non-friends only see your first name and initial anyway), you don't have to post an actual picture of yourself, and you don't have to link to your twitter or Facebook. In realty you could be totally annonymous. In short, the 'privacy concerns' are bollocks.

Though I don't understand what the hell anyone would be doing on Foursquare if they weren't in it for some 'social exposure' in the first place.

BrianD

Interesting to see what will happen to Foursquare once Facebook Places comes online. Apparently their App will be updating soon.

With 500m on Facebook, I think that Foursquare will struggle.

Not keen on the way that Facebook Places supposedly allows you tag people you know in a location with or without their consent.

phill106

BrianD wrote: »

Interesting to see what will happen to Foursquare once Facebook Places comes online. Apparently their App will be updating soon.

With 500m on Facebook, I think that Foursquare will struggle.

Not keen on the way that Facebook Places supposedly allows you tag people you know in a location with or without their consent.

I know, can you imagine?
*tags BrianD with girl other then gf at local niteclub*
Could be dodgy!
Wonder will privacy rules bar this?

djgaillimh

I don't have much to add to this except to say please don't connect your 4square account to your twitter/buzz account. People who do that are pretty much universally disliked. And somehow they seem to be completely oblivious to this fact.

Nobody cares that you just became the mayor of the sandyford luas stop. If we did, we would just join 4square and read about it on there.

That's all.

Four of a kind

BrianD wrote: »

Interesting to see what will happen to Foursquare once Facebook Places comes online. Apparently their App will be updating soon.

With 500m on Facebook, I think that Foursquare will struggle.

Not keen on the way that Facebook Places supposedly allows you tag people you know in a location with or without their consent.

If facebook incorporate the same features as foursquare then I'm sure foursquare would be on the way out.

decies

Anybody haveing difficulties adding friends on this,have a friend in germany who joined up and it wont let me find her on it.

uvox

BrianD wrote: »

With 500m on Facebook, I think that Foursquare will struggle.

Agreed. It's never taken off here. Another Jaiku I think as far as Ireland goes.

uvox

irish1967 wrote: »

Gps stops you doing this. Also stops you checking in to too many nearby places too quickly.

It's not very granular. You can check in while being well away from places. Not sure what the minimum range is. Though to be honest, cheating at this thing must really mark somebody out as the truly sad...

And then there are the real cheaters: http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/16/foursquare-cheating/

sundaypapers

but how do you stop someone from cheating on the thing? Why not do a load of checkins every day for places you're not actually in? I think the whole thing is doomed to cheating...

phill106

sundaypapers wrote: »

but how do you stop someone from cheating on the thing? Why not do a load of checkins every day for places you're not actually in? I think the whole thing is doomed to cheating...

Well you have to be near it to check in, thats all. Dont have to be there.
Though i did hear of a chap that setup a cheat, was checking in loads of places worldwide.

uvox

I have visions of TDs and Senators standing outside some well-known buildings, making their foursqaure checkins and then leaving...

irish1967

You have to be fairly close to a location to check into it and it won't allow to many checkins in a short space of time.

Foursquare name for me is
Dr. Smuggs

Dades

sundaypapers wrote: »

but how do you stop someone from cheating on the thing? Why not do a load of checkins every day for places you're not actually in? I think the whole thing is doomed to cheating...

Foursquare is a bit like golf.

It's easy to cheat as nobody is policing you all the time (shifting your ball from behind a tree with your foot ) but people who participate generally adhere to fair play as there's no honour to be had from being sneaky. And seeing as there's nothing but psychological satisfaction to be had from Foursquare, honour counts for something!

phill106

Dades wrote: »

And seeing as there's nothing but psychological satisfaction to be had from Foursquare

Lies! I get free pizza!

Dades

phill106 wrote: »

Lies! I get free pizza!

Okay - there is the odd freebie - though I've never actually met someone who got one!

I "check-in" about Dublin south city center and only one "Nearby Special" ever pops up.

uvox

OK - I'll bite. To get free Pizza you have to be mayor of....?

uvox

decies wrote: »

Anybody haveing difficulties adding friends on this,have a friend in germany who joined up and it wont let me find her on it.

It might be location-specific for friends too. Or broken. To be honest, Foursquare can be pretty flaky in terms of reliability. As for "error handling", well...

Stuxnet

Most annoying app ever, especially people clogging up my twitter time line with where they are, who cares eff off !!