Boyink! - Spring Forward on the Web

Over the last couple of weeks a couple of new site/service/apps have started getting popular on Twitter - and it’s causing me a bit of frustration.  Since 140 characters is too short to explain myself, a blog post was in order.

The two sites I’m targeting with this post are FourSquare and Gowalla.  I have not signed up for either of these sites - but looking at them quickly they seem to be similar.  Users sign up and using a mobile app on a smart phone that can also provide location information (geocoding) they make a visit to a particular location (businesses usually) and then “check-in” with the site.  There is a game element - allowing users to earn points, badges, and claim titles like “Mayor”.

Businesses with a physical location can add themselves to the sites which allows users to check in at the business.  Businesses then get promotion on the site plus being promoted on the users hooked-up social networks like Twitter or Facebook.  I’m hearing that some businesses are offering freebies if you show them that you’ve checked in with them while there - a restaurant might give you a free appetizer etc.

I’m a bit torn with these sites - because if I look out to our upcoming travel adventure we might be able to use services like Foursquare and Gowalla to find great places to visit and good restaurants to eat at.

But right now, today, the net effect of the popularity of these sites is that I’m starting to unfollow people using them actively.  Why?  Because if I follow you on Twitter it’s because you provide value to me.  You post witty, challenging or insightful comments.  Or—you’re interested in EE so we share that commonality.  Or I’ve worked with you either as a client, customer, or peer and want to maintain that relationship.

When a high number of tweets are nothing more than “I’m at Joes Taco Stand” or “I’m at Toms Health Club” or “I just became the Mayor of Jim’s Basement Refinishing on Foursquare” I have to start asking…“So what?”.  What does this information do to improve my day?  Is there really nothing more valuable you have to say or to add than simply where you are?  That information is really only important to me if I’m trying to find you to meet with you.  I’m not sure the information would ever be valuable on a 1:1: basis - only when aggregated (500 check-ins at the Taco stand over a day or two would tell me it’s a good place to eat).

It seems to me the net effect of these sites is to allow Twitter or Facebook users to earn freebies, giveaways, and status by whoring out their audience’s attention.  As a recipient I’m done with it already - I simply don’t care where you are.  As a user I value my audience far too much to spam them with inline Twitter ads for local businesses just for a free beer.

10 people have started a comment party - join it!

1. Tony on January 21, 2010

   I understand and share that frustration. But I think you’re handling it the best way possible - unfollowing those people. I’ve seen some other people directly ask others to stop with the notifications which I thought was a pretty strange thing to do.

2. Geoff Cowan on January 21, 2010

   I agree completely with you on this.  I haven’t yet started unfollowing people yet, but this will not be far off.

   This is similar annoyance to my friends on Facebook that keep insisting that I visit their farm, drink their vampire blood and all that twaddle. (all mail from Facebook now goes to /bin)

   I was under the impression that the geocode location stuff was outside of the 140Char tweets, in that you can set it in your profile etc.. 

   A better geo-location thingy would be a separate app rather than something that piggybacks twitter.  I assume “there’s an app for that” :-)

3. Geert Leyseele on January 21, 2010

   Twitter is what you are doing, so if I am at a certain place and I have nothing to add I don’t send it to Twitter. But if for example my legs are heavy before a run in a park i’ll tweet that and add the place where I am. So it is no different from a regular tweet but with location added. It’s just common sense not to just tweet the standard sentence “I am at…” You got to weed out the users who use it wrongly imho. That is what I do. Now i am off running and adding it to Gowalla :p

4. Erik Reagan on January 21, 2010

   I also follow people for added value in various forms. I use Tweetie for Mac for my primary Twitter client so I have actually just filtered out those posts from my timeline. There are people I follow who use these services but still post insightful tweets that I don’t want to miss from time to time.

   That’s my “answer” for now. Filtering the timeline.

5. Derik Lolli on January 21, 2010

   Nice Mike. I totally agree. Two thirds of my tweets and facebook status updates now just feel like either spam or completely worthless geo-content. Hence my not opening either app nearly as frequently. Nice new site by the way.

6. Jen on January 21, 2010

   I share your frustration and have also been unfollowing people - including close friends - due to Foursquare “noise”. Foursquare updates are blocked from my Facebook wall as well.

   On the other hand - I’m a semi-active Foursquare user. By default my check-ins are not reported to Twitter and Facebook so I can take advantage of the location hints and other features.

   I suppose that if I were arriving for a meeting or something significant when I *want* to broadcast to everyone in my social media “world” there’s that option… but I haven’t exercised it yet.

7. Sean on January 26, 2010

   I also find these tweets annoying and a waste of space. Honestly I don’t see any value to this and put it pretty much on the same level as that twitter game last fall that was spamming the timeline (can’t remember the name of it right now).

   Anyhow if it gets to be too much, I’ll probably unfollow ppl as well.

8. Laura Bergells on January 29, 2010

   Mike, I’m with you.

   I’m pretty darn sure I don’t want to be the mayor of anything. Ever.

   Nonetheless, I signed up for 4square because I have clients who need information on the service. The best way for me to get info is to explore the service first hand.

   After my first check-in auto-posted to Twitter, I was severely annoyed. I had turned that feature OFF. I went back in to check my settings, and there it was—on. I clicked it off.

   When I checked in again, I won some sort of lame badge—which also posted to Twitter. Vexed, I checked everything and found one switch left un-flipped… which caused the unwanted post.

   I, too, see no value—except to the business—for posting to 4square. Getting badges doesn’t motivate me in the least.

   Because I’m not 12.

   Further, I’m not all that keen on letting people know where I’m at. Safety issues! If I’m at a bar, it means I’m not home. Which means my house might be empty. Which means… you get the picture. And let’s not get into the whole stalker’s paradise situation…

   Just because someone tells you letting everyone know where you are every second of the day was the next big thing—- doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

   Rant off.

9. Boyink (Author) on January 29, 2010

   I saw this week that this is now called behavior generated content - the idea that “The idea that all events in your life could be broadcast out to your friends and family”.

   I take issue with using the word “content” in this case.  One definition of the word content is substantive information or creative material viewed in contrast to its actual or potential manner of presentation (dictionary.com)—and there is nothing either substantive or creative about these types of updates. 

   Is this all we can do?  With all the technology involved - smart phones, web app, satellites, smart people—and the result is just knowing where someone was during their day?

   I was recently reading a book that had excerpts of journal entries written by some of the first men to explore the land that later became the USA .  These were men living in rustic times, hunting for food, no permanent shelter, in great physical peril every single day - and was struck by the thoughtfulness, depth and sheer literacy of their writings. 

   It leaves me feeling like an idiot for having any part in building the technological landscape that we’ve constructed for ourselves.

10. John on February 15, 2010

    This is the precise and exact reason i hate facebook, it started so well and just divebombed. God i hate facebook.

    Thankfully with twitter only 1 or 2 or my friends are on it and so i’m not deluged with drivel.

    I hope twitter users don’t all start doing this nonsense. It would be the death of twitter for me :(

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