An example of how cheating in Foursquare can really suck!

People cheat on Foursquare.

There – I said it.And let’s no longer pretend that “it wasn’t me!”
We have all logged in somewhere that we were not physically at, either to keep a mayorship, to get points or just out of curiosity.

But why would we stoop so low?
Because Foursquare is a game and the people who are active on it (ie: playing it) WANT TO WIN.
They want to have the most points & be Mayor of a location.
But not everyone goes out 5 nights a week and swans about visiting coffee shops and stores all day. So, they compensate.

In every game, people will find ways to cheat. It is inevitable.
We publicly post the cheats to computer games and proudly claim that we found them, so why should Foursquare, Gowalla or Loopt be any different? They are kind of like a computer game after all.

Users are getting so upset, that they have even created a Foursquare Etiquette guide.
There is even a site created already, to shame foursquare cheaters.

But perhaps Foursquare and the other geo-location apps have left the cheating options available so that the very studious among us can find them?
Thereby, increasing activity and cleverly promoting a growth in both the user base numbers, as well as the amount of place listings added to the database.
If so, this would be a very smart move, in my opinion.

As well, letting cheats exploit the system for a little while also allows these applications to easily identify and close the holes once they deem it necessary. Again, a smart move.

So, next time you see a way to cheat, why not share it? Make it public and help the service grow.

They we can focus on the real issue with these applications – Stupid users who add their own house as a location and then complain when strangers check in there and know what their address is.
(Small tip to those users – If you don’t want strangers knowing your address, don’t put it online)