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I disagree. I don't know anyone who thought that gaming stuff was fun. It was silly and a waste of time. Foursquare now is great at recommendations - something

I disagree. I don't know anyone who thought that gaming stuff was fun. It was silly and a waste of time. Foursquare now is great at recommendations - something people actually need. I don't think it was necessary to rip the checkins out of it and into Swarm but I think the people who actually found that fun and a vocal minority.

exstudent2 12y ago
My anecdotes are the complete opposite of yours :) My friends loved checking in and earning badges and none of them think the recommendations are great.
- k-mcgrady 12y ago
  :) Strange. I don't understand why they split the app. If they kept it together all our friends could have been happy.
  - slowernet 12y ago
    Some background on their rationale: https://medium.com/@noah_weiss/the-lego-block-exercise-4c7d60eeb38f https://medium.com/@noah_weiss/the-lego-block-exercise-4c7d6...
    - exstudent2 12y ago
      It reads like they keep wanting to back the product into their theories regardless of if there's a market for it or if their existing user base wanted those changes. My personal feeling was they discovered that the gamification angle was successful but the market wasn't huge so they got pressured into a change in direction to a (theoretically) larger market by their investors. All of these interviews and pontifications seem like justification for that move. It doesn't seem to have worked out well.
sandis 12y ago
It was silly, sure. But it worked and it encouraged people to check-in AND leave reviews. All of the reviews (or "tips" how they call it) I left were the ones I left after checking-in. Splitting Foursquare into two apps was a mistake. Nearly all of my friends have Swarm installed but most haven't kept the Foursquare app around. The functionality worked great in unison.
lnanek2 12y ago
The problem is I don't know anyone who wouldn't just use Yelp for recommendations, my wife being the closest example. Personally, I have no use for recommendations, but enjoy seeing my friends pictures and comments as they check in, so Foursquare as it is now is useless to me whereas before it had some interest and I caught some tech events I would have otherwise missed.

exstudent2 12y ago

My anecdotes are the complete opposite of yours :) My friends loved checking in and earning badges and none of them think the recommendations are great.

k-mcgrady 12y ago
:) Strange. I don't understand why they split the app. If they kept it together all our friends could have been happy.
- slowernet 12y ago
  Some background on their rationale: https://medium.com/@noah_weiss/the-lego-block-exercise-4c7d60eeb38f https://medium.com/@noah_weiss/the-lego-block-exercise-4c7d6...
  - exstudent2 12y ago
    It reads like they keep wanting to back the product into their theories regardless of if there's a market for it or if their existing user base wanted those changes. My personal feeling was they discovered that the gamification angle was successful but the market wasn't huge so they got pressured into a change in direction to a (theoretically) larger market by their investors. All of these interviews and pontifications seem like justification for that move. It doesn't seem to have worked out well.

sandis 12y ago

It was silly, sure. But it worked and it encouraged people to check-in AND leave reviews. All of the reviews (or "tips" how they call it) I left were the ones I left after checking-in. Splitting Foursquare into two apps was a mistake. Nearly all of my friends have Swarm installed but most haven't kept the Foursquare app around. The functionality worked great in unison.

lnanek2 12y ago

The problem is I don't know anyone who wouldn't just use Yelp for recommendations, my wife being the closest example. Personally, I have no use for recommendations, but enjoy seeing my friends pictures and comments as they check in, so Foursquare as it is now is useless to me whereas before it had some interest and I caught some tech events I would have otherwise missed.