If Geolocation wasn’t mainstream before last week it is now. When Facebook launched “Places” over 500 million users were exposed to the latest craze in the social internet. I started using Foursquare in 2009 and had since given up. I got tired of trying to check into airports while only finding gate numbers. Got tired of being someplace cool and only seeing people’s apartments as places to check in.
In my opinion Foursquare needed some sort of location police. What follows are my pleas to Places users to obey some simple rules. Let’s make Places a useful and interesting way to share our experiences. Which takes me to number one.
1. Is anyone going to care?
Now before you say “No.” let me finish. The way I see it there are two flavors of this rule:
Foursquare users:
Please don’t post all of your check-ins to Twitter and Facebook. I understand that Foursquare is supposed to be a game so checking into a lot of places is important but let’s keep that between you and your foursquare friends.
Places users:
There’s no game here – you don’t need to check into irrelevant places. Let’s only check into places that are interesting to us or places where we’re doing something interesting. Check into restaurants if they are worth mentioning but don’t check into every restaurant that you go to.
Check-ins are not meant to share your locations. They’re meant to share your experiences.
2. Don’t check into your own house
There’s multiple reasons why this is a bad idea. First, there will never be a good reason to broadcast the location of your place to the Internet. Even if your settings are only to share with friends it still not a good idea to let someone like Facebook own that information.
Putting privacy issues aside it’s just really annoying when people check into their house. And it’s not interesting. Try to use Places somewhat consistently; do you really want to check into your house every time you get home. No. Nobody cares that you’re home except your wife and dog. Text your wife, let the dog out of the kennel and everyone’s happy.
3. Don’t check in at work.
This is along the same lines at the last one but it needs to be said. First of all, nobody cares that you’re at work. The people that do care might wonder why you always check in 20 min late on Mondays. If you are a Foursquare user can you really be proud that you’re the mayor of your office?
Sticking with the same idea, it’s not cool to check into paces you’re required to be at or are a constant in your daily routine. This would include (but is not limited to) school, a hotel that you’re staying at (more than once), a remote office, etc. If it’s not at least somewhat unique it’s not worth mentioning. You wouldn’t tweet “I’m at school again!!” everyday would you?
4. Think of others when adding a location.
If a location doesn’t exist you’re going to have to add it. Keep in mind that other people are likely to check-in there at some point. This would be as simple as taking the time to enter “Buffalo Wild Wings” rather than “B-Dubs”. Others will indirectly appreciate your effort and you can take a small amount of pride in entering a frequented location.
5. Pick a location that others can use.
Check-ins are meant to associate you with a general location not a seat on an airplane. This is by far my biggest pet peeve with location check-ins (and the reason I stopped using Foursquare). The most common place I see this abused is airports. Don’t check into the gate!! Check into the airport. You don’t see people stopping at each gate to check in as they walk by. Isn’t it enough to say you’re at the airport? Do your friends care what gate you’re at or what seat you’re on? No. I also want to check into places where others have been. Yesterday I checked into the Nashville Airport. As it turns out someone else had checked in there an hour before me who was a friend of a friend. I wouldn’t have noticed if that if I checked into gate.
This also applies to sporting events. When I see someone checked into “Target Field – sec. 310 seat 9” I want to go up there and revoke their Internet pass.
So let’s try to keep Places more interesting than annoying. Only share your location on Facebook and Twitter if it adds context to your tweet/status or you’re someplace interesting. I look forward to sharing and being introduced to new, amazing places – with Places.