Category Archives: Mobile Apps

4sq Superuser: “With great power comes great responsibility”

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Ever since the “Superuser” was introduced for 4sq users, many users all over the globe cribbed on blogs that they never received their “power” even after they did so much to control the quality of User Generated Content on their beloved 4sq database. It must be massive with the number of absurd places, tips & photos upload every day, minute or second on the 4sq servers.

Though Cafe Coffee Day, the first to offer “Specials” [India-specific] was introduced on 4sq, many managers/staff claimed ignorance of such offers. Not sure of actual numbers of them though. Lot more specials at other brands did get introduced later :-P

Why am i stuck on the app, even after a year? because of all the “tips” my 4sq friends update about food places & their discoveries. The ease of use, badges & mayorships do add up to the delight. The mayorships are sometimes funny though! [probably due to the territorial nature?]

Well to get back to the “Superuser”-ship, will the “Supers” be loyal, non-biased & retain their integrity to get rid of the “scum”? How long will they survive? Will they continue their righteous path in-spite of no benefits?

Have you checked in yet?

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So you are way ahead in the numbers of check-in to locations you pass by (you needn’t really enter) & fighting for mayor-ships with your new found foursquare friends? then you have been webbed in the Location Based Services craze.

Yup i have used both Gowalla & Foursquare along with Hootesuite, Waze, Instagram, Picplz, etc which allow foursquare integration so that me doesn’t miss out on the points & badges to gain!

Many times though Gowalla is more forgiving that Foursquare & allows me to check in with a larger radius (5 km).  The cell towers/wi-fi zones don’t provide accurate information & using the GPS just drains off most of my battery.

Right now i don’t see much value add other than catching up with my friend’s location…which can get annoying if you receive too many pings from them :-P & of course, the food updates & what they upto @ that location which really makes me wonder why i added them in the first place!

It was quite amusing when one “friend” did steal the mayor-ship of the area i lived in & quite happily tweeted about it (it is an automatic setting though). I did get it back when i logged in from the web & realized that the pin of the accurate location was moved!

Anyone can add a location in the middle of nowhere & anyone can edit it from moving the location & another user can just delete it. Though foursquare has changed certain rules now & editing powers is given to users who created a location.

There are also several 3rd party applications of foursquare which allow auto check-in so you don’t forget to check-in to your usual haunts. The most amusing one is the one which protects your mayor-ships :-)

Assumptions: The friends new to the city might find useful data your provide about a place helpful along with the map so they don’t have to hound your personal partying life to take them out :-)