I’m done with Foursquare

There’s no value to me. I tried it for five months, I became mayor of a dozen places, and earned a similar number of badges. So…

The idea behind using Foursquare is:

• Easily check in to locations (e.g. work, school, restaurants) letting people know where you are
• Know where my friends are (and perhaps meet them.)
• Perks for frequent visits like a 5{ed5c4a4567e714b4a9d66f3c35b7717e53d9aad588694599d620cb788ef41a85} discount.

Sorry, it’s not working out that way.

Let’s start with the ease of use. My iPhone supposedly knows where I am at all times and will locate Foursquare venues near by. If the one I want isn’t listed, I can create one. That’s not too bad, until I either a) get whacky results form my phone “You’re not near that location” or b) three other people have added the same venue with different information. (Check in to O’Hare airport and you’ll see some crazy results. People – you don’t check in to flight 161!) There have been numerous occasions where I run out for a quick errand and forget to check in. That’s my fault – which means it’s not as easy as it should be. I drop off the kids for school, but I’m also supposed to wake up the iPhone, enter the unlock key, bring up the Foursquare app, wait (sometimes up to 30 seconds) for it to find where I am and the locations around me, then four taps on three screens to check in, and two more to go back. That’s not simple IMHO.

OK, One of the extra screen taps was to decline the tweet (or Facebook) of my location. When I broadcast my location, a often received replies such as “What is this foursquare thing?” or “Is that secure, letting people know you’re not at home?”. It’s annoying to many and confusing to others. Having to explain it got old so I stopped tweeting/FB.

I also got lots of friend requests from people I either didn’t know, or didn’t care where they were. Sorry, even though you may be a great friend of mine, if you’re in another state or on another continent, it’s not likely that I’ll run in to you or even care what coffee shop you’re frequenting. I don’t drink coffee.

And those perks? Sorry, most vendors don’t even know they’re listed on Foursquare (probably because they didn’t put it there or use the tool.) I got one luggage tag from our local airport. That was nice. I’ve even mentioned to the lady at the cleaners “I’m the Foursquare mayor here. Any discount?” All I got was a smile and a full charge.

There’s no value to me. Bragging rights for being mayor of a place that doesn’t even know about the concept of social networking is not worth my time so I hereby delete the app from my iPhone.

So long Foursquare.