Hacker News Reader

Comment by duxup | Hacker News Reader

I was just thinking about Foursquare when I crossed a foot bridge I (and others) used to check in at all the time.

I remember liking it and then they turned into something(s) else and I'm pretty sure I remember not really understanding what they were supposed to be and I sort of gave up / couldn't figure out why it got so much media talking head attention after that and then ... I don't think I heard anything about it again.

The whole process of "Do a neat thing that isn't really profitable (or at least not a unicorn profitable), then pivot into something else / away from users." thing happens time and again.

Honestly I think I try / don't install as many apps anymore because of such things.

View on HN

For me, the Foursquare of today is a more accurate, more up-to-date Yelp. I find it more useful now than when it was first released as a check-in app. Not all pivots are net negatives.

Humm that sounds pretty good. Not the thing I remember liking about it but certainly I could go for something beyond the noise of Yelp with all the "I had a bad time this one time" and "This place isn't as good as that place that is 3x as expensive" or the worst of "I think Pizza Hut is the peak of cuisine but I ended up at this french place and it sucked!" It seems all services sort of devolve into that noise.

I don't understand why they ever had to be different. Can't you have a rich set of place information, and still have check-ins, mayorships, and all?

I was an avid foursquare user when it first came out. Going to a place your friends hadn't been felt like you were an explorer charting new territory. I used it for years until check-ins were split off. Swarm felt like it was built to be neglected. Like Netflix with Qwikster, they wanted to focus on another area of their business to secure their future and the existing users were a distraction/liability. But given that either pursuit is nothing without engagement, and they had more location-based engagement than anybody, I don't understand the decision making in throwing all that away.

I joined 4sq after the split because honestly, a more accurate Yelp is what I want. The gamification of check-ins was never going to scale or be sustainable long term. I use Swarm on a daily basis, and the critical functionality it provides me is to remind when and whether or not I (or my friends) have visited a place before.

Sounds like I should give it a spin again.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com