Comments on: Why FourSquare drives me bananas – conflicting motivations in social design http://www.alevin.com/?p=1774 Adina Levin's weblog. For conversation about books I've been reading, social software, and other stuff too. Wed, 02 Jan 2013 15:27:31 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: alevin http://www.alevin.com/?p=1774&cpage=1#comment-1465 alevin Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:43:28 +0000 http://www.alevin.com/?p=1774#comment-1465 Dens, that will help with a related issue that bugs some of my friends more than me. There are others who are troubled by the perceived noise in the social stream, and would prefer not to see notifications. What bugs me is something different - it's the mix between social and competitive motivations, such that people issue social invitations that may or may not be socially sincere. And then the burden is on the recipient to decipher whether it's an invitation or merely a point-scoring tactic. I guess that turning off broadcast per checkin would help reduce the level of rudeness, so you don't have to tell other people, when you are point-counting, that you are having fun and they are explicitly disinvited. Dens, that will help with a related issue that bugs some of my friends more than me. There are others who are troubled by the perceived noise in the social stream, and would prefer not to see notifications. What bugs me is something different – it’s the mix between social and competitive motivations, such that people issue social invitations that may or may not be socially sincere. And then the burden is on the recipient to decipher whether it’s an invitation or merely a point-scoring tactic. I guess that turning off broadcast per checkin would help reduce the level of rudeness, so you don’t have to tell other people, when you are point-counting, that you are having fun and they are explicitly disinvited.

]]> By: dens http://www.alevin.com/?p=1774&cpage=1#comment-1464 dens Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:00:32 +0000 http://www.alevin.com/?p=1774#comment-1464 Hi Adina - I definitely understand where you're coming from with this - which is why we built in a switch that allows users to choose whether they want to broadcast their checkin or not ("Tell my friends") We've been thinking about whether we should have another switch - something that would allow you to decide whether to send out a "ping" (Dens @ Ace Bar) with each checkin. Seeing people check-in *everywhere* they go is one of those interesting yet unexpected uses of foursquare (checkins @ Target, Post Office, grocery story - really?) but it hints at towards how people want to use social + location services. I think with some clever UX we can probably solve the issues that are driving you bananas. :) Would love to hear your thoughts. - @dens co-founder, foursquare Hi Adina –

I definitely understand where you’re coming from with this – which is why we built in a switch that allows users to choose whether they want to broadcast their checkin or not (”Tell my friends”)

We’ve been thinking about whether we should have another switch – something that would allow you to decide whether to send out a “ping” (Dens @ Ace Bar) with each checkin.

Seeing people check-in *everywhere* they go is one of those interesting yet unexpected uses of foursquare (checkins @ Target, Post Office, grocery story – really?) but it hints at towards how people want to use social + location services.

I think with some clever UX we can probably solve the issues that are driving you bananas. :)

Would love to hear your thoughts.

- @dens
co-founder, foursquare

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