Anyone use Foursquare?

[atmail35]

I noticed on the August calendar that the Lego Store is asking people to "check in on Foursquare". Does anyone use this? What are the benefits to it? I browsed around on the site and I'm not sure if it really is useful. It mentions that the "top" person for some retailers get extra discounts.

I'd love to hear some feedback if anyone is a member.

[Derek]

I downloaded it so I could figure out how use it a little bit before this weekend's promotion. It's basically like "check in" for facebook (assuming you use facebook), with little badges and stuff for having a certain number of check-ins. I really don't find it that useful or entertaining; I'll probably delete it once I get my Alien Brick.

I'm guessing LEGO chose foursquare and not facebook because facebook doesn't allow kids under 13 to have an account.

[atmail35]

I think I'll do the same, play around with it before Saturday. I have to agree with you that it seems kind of lame, but for a free brick, I'll try it ;)

[Zeya]

I played around with Gowalla and Foursquare when they were new. It was kind of fun at first, but then I soon realized there wasn't any real point, none of my friends were using it, and it became tedious to bust out my phone, wait for the GPS triangulation and check in at the correct place. I gave up on the whole notion of "check in" apps and I viewed it as adding useless nonsense to my life, as far as everyday participation goes.

The tangible benefits to these sorts of things are usually coupons. I used Yelp to check in at a shoe store and got a 20% off coupon one time; that's kind of a best-case scenario. Some places will throw you a bone if you check in there, say, 20 times on subsequent days. Then there are things like the Lego store promotion, which is kind of cool.

But on the whole, Foursquare is more like just a game played with strangers. *shrug* Make of this what you will...

[unclephn]

There really is no point to Foursquare. It's just something 'fun' for people to do. Similar to achievements in XBox games and trophies in PS3 games; you're awarded something for performing an action (in Foursquare's case, a badge, for checking into places). That's really all it is. Retailers have only recently began launching promos and coupons in conjunction with Foursquare, but the practice itself hasn't really taken off (yet). Perhaps Lego's promo, if proven successful enough, might get other retailers to notice, and more promos of this nature will be used in the future.