Who is the FourSquare Mayor?

Posted by schneidermike on Tuesday, March 23, 2010 · View Comments 

Some people think I have been giving FourSquare a bit too hard a time lately and this post is going to support that notion. So let me add a few comments on the things that I love about Foursquare (and I do love Foursquare).

foursquare_logo

First, Foursquare’s founder and leader, Dennis Crowley, is impressive. The guy is brilliant and he makes things happen. If he says that FourSquare is going to be the first to provide contextually relevant recommendations in the application, I believe it will happen.

Second, the application is nearly bulletproof. Sure. It’s simpler than Gowalla and Brightkite, but it works on every major smart phone and that is really important. It is fast and it is pretty clean. You check in, share a thought, maybe check the leaderboard and friend activity, and you are done – quickly.

Now, back to the shenanigans. Foursquare’s site clearly states the following:

What is “The Mayor” all about?

If you’ve been to a place more than anyone else we’ll crown you the “The Mayor” of that place.  We see lots of bars and cafes now offering “Mayor Specials” – a free coffee or  appetizer or maybe a special discount to the mayors of their venues.  Watch out though – if someone else comes along who has checked in more days than you, they will steal the “Mayor” title back from you.

who_is_the_mayor

If that is true, then why is Ben the mayor?

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  • I know this is an old post, but here's the logic. Mayorship is based on the most DAYS with a check-in (not most check-ins, so if you check-in twice in a day, it doesn't help you any more than if you only checked-in once). Furthermore, it only counts check-ins within the past 2 months, so if you checked-in 33 times, but only 3 of those were within the past 2 months, it's curtains for you.
  • If you are the person who added the venue to foursquare, you can maintain a mayorship w/ fewer checkins than other people...Not sure if that's because you get X number of points for creating the venue or because each ongoing checkin counts more, but it's clearly part of their formula.
  • I submit that the point is moot since it's apparently considered bad form to check in at work. If, for example, Julio did that, Northrup & Langford would be most displeased.
  • I'm not 100% sure but I think they factor in velocity. If you check in once a week and have a total of 50 checkins but then someone comes in and for over a week they check in every day, at a certain threshold they make that person da mayor.
  • That's as clear as mud! Thanks @gradontripp.
  • The rule Gradon mentions is also known as "The Langford Rule". It's designed to prevent @MikeLangford from curling up in the fetal position and refusing to leave his house because he's fallen hopelessly behind in the mayorship races at Julio's Liquors & the Westborough Starbucks.

    Another useful Foursquare tip I only learned of recently --> only one check-in per day counts toward the mayor's race. Even if I enjoy a morning Starbucks coffee and pop in again for an afternoon pick-me-up latte, I don't get twice the credit.
  • The mayorship of a location is given to someone who has the most checkins in the past 2 months, which is why it's noted in the "You're still The Mayor" notice on Ben's checkin.

    Sure, you have more checkins, but you've been lazy as of late. Too many conferences maybe? ;)
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