Foursquare converts most “popular” users to celebrity accounts
UPDATE: Foursquare no longer converts popular accounts to celebrity mode. Instead, they recommend setting up a page. It’s a poor solution since you lose your built-up collection of tips and friends, but it’s all we have to work with.
Foursquare tonight has begun converting accounts with more than 1000 friends to “celebrity” accounts. The move is designed to enhance usability and increase privacy for the site’s most popular users.
Since foursquare is typically a service where friend groups are much more tightly controlled, foursquare has determined that 1,000 friends is the most any user can have and still maintain simplicity and privacy on the site. Celebrities don’t see follower checkins on their homepage or friends tab, so the clutter is reduced. Additionally, it reduces the number of pings celebrities receive, since they’ll only get them from their friends.
After the conversion, the celebrity user’s first 100 friends are still considered friends. Anything over that number has been converted to “followers,” who can still see the celebrity’s photos, shouts and checkins (if they’re shared with followers), but can’t see or make comments on checkins. Celebrity users can still choose to make anyone they want a friend by visiting their profile and choosing “accept” or by choosing the “add as friend” option from the followers tab.
The initial 100 number seems fairly arbitrary. Unfortunately there’s no way to demote someone from friend to follower, so if there’s someone you’re not particularly close with in those first 100, you’re still stuck with their checkins in your feed.
The move adds a nice extra layer of privacy for these users. When checking in, they’ll see an option to share with friends (as usual) and an extra option to share the checkin with followers. Sharing with friends (as opposed to followers) implies an extra level of comfort when sharing your location.
Overall, this is a nice enhancement for people with large numbers of friends. Foursquare is right to assume that no one can possibly care about such a large number of friends and turning them into followers, a la Twitter, is probably the right way to go.
/Thanks to Chris Banks of @4sqIndy for sharing a copy of the email
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I am not impressed..I had almost 500 “friends” and started to eliminated them when I found that most of them were jumpers just trying to find ways to get more badges. I had this guy as a “friend”:
http://foursquare.com/clatko
and now he is a celebrity? Give me a break.
He asked to follow him o Twitter and I started to get too much junk.
I don’t think there was any qualitative judgment on foursquare’s part. They simply went through and “upgraded” every account with 1000+ friends.
http://foursquare.com/gootum
I don’t like that a “celebrity” can convert me from a follower to a friend. If I choose to follow someone, that doesn’t mean that I want that person/brand to see my individual check-ins. I should have to consent to that request to be converted to a friend.
That’s a good point. For what it’s worth, branded pages can’t convert you, only celebrities.
yes my acc change : http://foursquare.com/abumarlo its like twitter now
I’m not sure I like this automatic changeover because now everyone will hoard friends just to get “upgraded” to the new “celebrity branded” foursquare profile. Am I the only one who thought of this?
You’re not the only one to think of this… I’ve been considering whether or not it’s worth getting more friends to get a ‘celebrity’ page.
I be the first to say that I want my personal account to reach this level. I would like to pick and choose who sees some of my check ins, and not get the spam to comes with having large amonts of “friends”. On the other hand I don’t want to delete those other people because I like using foursquare to reach out to more people.
Chris (AF)- Thanks for adding me in the source line.
Well, half on the Indonesian population just became “celebrities”. I get friend requests from them all the time, as I’m sure others do. My guess is that, because you can only see where a badge was earned if you’re friends with the person, they’re adding as many friends as possible and going through to find the venues where badges were unlocked and then checking in their using the mobile site.
Getting really tired of this kind of stuff, and it just keeps happening. Nothing is being done to stop it (with the exception of blocking the earning of mayorships via mobile) and now this kind of mass update is in a sense rewarding it. :-/
Hate the term celebrity. They changed my account to this new format and im just an average joe.
I agree. Foursquare isn’t calling them that, but they’re identical to the celebrity accounts foursquare has been offering for more than a year.
[...] Foursquare converts most “popular†users to celebrity accounts [...]
[...] Zdroj: AboutFoursquare.com [...]
Stepped up to the challenge and added in the ability to discover/follow celebrities at http://FoursquareBrands.com!
[...] Foursquare converts most “popular†users to celebrity accounts [...]
[...] Foursquare converts most “popular†users to celebrity accounts oznamuje pomÄ›rnÄ› zásadnà zmÄ›nu na http://www.Foursquare.com – automatický proces promÄ›nà uživatele s vÃce než 1000 přáteli v celebrity. PrvnÃch 100 přátel v poÅ™adà zůstane přáteli a devÄ›t stovek dalÅ¡Ãch se promÄ›nà pouze ve sledujÃcà (followers). Celebrita zároveň pÅ™estane vidÄ›t informace o check-in od sledujÃcÃch. [...]
I’d have to agree with Dave Peck – my profile is in no way deserving of a “Celebrity” title. I was simply scouring 4SQ for business profiles & adding them. I doubt if anyone “following” me is impressed with my less than celebrity-like lifestyle. I too find it a bummer that eventually I’ll no longer be able to be friends with or follow those businesses that take the time to create a 4SQ profile.
On another note for you “Celebrity” profiles, it is possible to convert a friend back to a follower – simply delete them from your friends list and they’ll automatically be moved to a follower status. Still haven’t figured out how to remove followers though. Guess that choice is their’s. Must be the price of fame…?
See you around…