4 Places Where You Shouldn’t Check In On Foursquare

February 5, 2010 | 7 Comments | Leave a comment!

Foursquare has really emerged over the past few months as the go-to platform for geo-location. Many of my friends on the platform check in frequently—some up to 10 or 12 times a day.

Whenever I log onto the app on my iPod Touch, I’m able to quickly browse and see where everyone is (or has been) at a given time. Some of the locations, however, literally shock me.

Here are four places where you should not check into if you are on Foursquare.

1. Your house or apartment complex

The more people that I’ve seen on Foursquare, the more often I’ve seen these kinds of checkins. Unless you are absolutely desperate to become the mayor of a given place, there is absolutely no reason to put your house or apartment complex on Foursquare.

People will probably accuse you of “cheating” the Foursquare points system through all of your checkins at your home location.

In addition, checking in at your own house could be a major personal security risk. Are you willing to share your home address and location with everyone in the world?

2. Train stations on your route

If you live in a city with a train system, you should not check into every train station along your route.

While checking in at your beginning and ending location is acceptable, I’m pretty sure that no one is interested in seeing a new train station in their Foursquare feed every 5-7 minutes. People could also interpret this as cheating the Foursquare points system.

3. Cemeteries

I’m pretty sure that this one is self-explanatory. Yes, while these kinds of checkins are rare, they are out there.

If you are attending or currently at a funeral, you probably should not be checking in on Foursquare, much less on any social networks.

4. Anywhere you don’t actually go

As Foursquare continues to add new users on a near-daily basis, users that have been on the platform for a while may be tempted to pass some false checkins to maintain their mayorships.

Realizing that others may do it, resist the temptation to do it yourself. One of the driving factors behind Foursquare’s success is the integrity behind the user checkins.

Are there other places that I missed? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

(Photo Credit: moriza)

Erik

I'd say that you shouldn't check in at airports, because then it gives people a pretty good idea that you're out of town, and you might not want all of your friends or the Twitter universe knowing that you're out of town.
CH

I like Nate's comment - those are a few use cases for home-based checkins that never occured to me. But similar to your reasoning, I totally only checkin to my house to get points. I'm a cheater.
Forrest W. Kobayashi

Thanks for the comment. The competition for the leaderboards is growing in intensity, so I'm sure you're not the only one. Regardless, I won't tell. :o)
nateriggs

Good post Forrest, - I have to disagree with this one though:
1. Your house or apartment complex

Here's why. I live in Village West apartments in Victorian Village in Columbus. They are decent enough, and I am the mayor. Go ahead and check my tips.

You'll notice that we have MAJOR problems with our heaters. In fact, the unit in my apaprtment is older than I am. FAIL.

The parking lot does not have adequate spaces to fit all the cars of the residents and I often have to park on the street. FAIL.

Village West and the Columbus post office seem to be in some type of a feud, as we (and many other residents) have had problems getting our mail. Neither the post office or our management can seem to fix the problems.

If you were in the area looking for your next place to live, would knowing that information be helpful in your decision process?

Likewise, what if you own a home? The majority of working families do not stay in one home their entire lives. Therefore, while you do own the home, wouldn't tips on recent renovations, inspections and other relevant location information be valuable if you ever decided to sell? For instance, one of my friends lives one block from Stauff's in Grandview and is selling his house. If I was cursing the area and looking at real estate, knowing that information might push me to schedule a showing...

What do you think?
Forrest W. Kobayashi

Nate, thanks so much for leaving such a thoughtful comment here. I would want to know of those kinds of issues if I were to purchase an apartment—HOWEVER, I'm not sure if Foursquare is the right place to publicize those kinds of concerns. Most "tips" are meant to be positive, at least most of the ones that I have seen, and hardly anyone is critical.

On the other hand, Yelp has a fair share of critical reviews. Perhaps that is a better platform to share criticism of any given home or apartment complex.