If you play Foursquare, having the mayorship of your favorite spot is the biggest and best thing in the game. Having someone cheat and steal your crown is downright blasphemous.
So, after much to-do Foursquare is finally rolling out their “cheater code” to stop “some of the folks that are checking in from their couches to steal mayorships.” Or, in more plain English, busted. Foursquare, unlike Gowalla, has a very flexible check-in process that is based on trust, not precise GPS coordinates.
So what will happen? Foursquare will not stop you from checking in wherever you want, but it will stop giving you points for fake check-ins. This is a big move forward for the game component of the Foursquare system. Will it end cheating? No. Foursquare will not be able to wring out all the liars and all of the fake check-ins. But it will help, a lot.
How do they do it? In various ways using “a few different tricks using your phone’s GPS to try to verify [your location]. (and if your phone doesn’t use GPS, we use a few different tricks).” In other words, no matter what phone you use, you are being watched.
And with an eye on the future and user gripes, Foursquare has opened a new small website where people can complain about being caught unfairly by the code to block cheaters.
Good moves, Foursquare. Move to the B square.
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