Re:The New Foursquare
by TarpitCarnivore on Wednesday August 06, 2014 @02:52PM
(#8144161)
My biggest complaint about Yelp is the same as yours, nearly everyone is a "foodie" and trying to write reviews like they're part of the New York Times.
The beauty of Yelp is that you don't have to read them! The power is in the fact that reviews are aggregated ("..and the fish is amazing!") and that you can search within them. Sometimes I wanna search "oysters" to see if their oysters are any good. Let's say out of 100 reviews one mentions oysters - at least now I have an idea what to expect about oysters, whereas in Foursquare this may not have even been documented due to the char limit.
Except that that aggregated data frequently aggregate useless info into a very reductive score. If I go to a $ restaurant, I don't value a poor review which bases itself on poor service. If I'm paying $10 a plate, I can handle almost any level of service if the food is good.
It's a sliding scale though, at $$$$ I would rate the service related review more highly.
I would LOVE if yelp let people rate reviews, as well as restaurants. Useful reviews deserver more weight than ones that say, "I hated it, and didn't leave a tip because the waiter was ..."
Re:The New Foursquare
by TarpitCarnivore on Thursday August 07, 2014 @08:23AM
(#8147305)
They do let you rate reviews which will filter upwards, but the "power users" always win out. The problem is the power users are the ones who write the long winded reviews.
Re:The New Foursquare
by acquiHire2014 on Thursday August 07, 2014 @10:50AM
(#8147971)
Fully agree, that's why I don't use yelp and preferred just the bite-sized reviews. The twitter style reviews managed to all impart useful info in a time frame I can consume between door of restaurant (begin check-in) and table (already have 3 inspirations on what to order).
Sadly most of my friends who don't use foursquare haven't seen it my way.
But my point is, they're still building and supporting 1 check-in app... If they'd just called that one foursquare and not remove any features, and make a new app for the rest of the world, they could still pursue that larger group of non-obsessed users that they need without alienating the people who would be happy to keep supplying them with behavioral data and content forever.
That's actually something I really want. I'm sick of reading "My fiancee and I were walking down Main St, browsing restaurants, when we happened to notice <restaurant name>. She likes fish, so we were looking for fish dishes..."
As for the rest of it - you're likely right. But the old Foursquare wasn't generating money. So either you abandon your hardcore users by shutting down, or you attempt to move them to a new service that has a better business model.