Foursquare puts a limit on the number of friends you can have
Foursquare today put a cap on the number of friends and outstanding friend requests a user can have. Users who are over the limit now get a notification when they try to request a new friendship and the friend request isn’t sent. It appears that more friends can be added for those accounts only if the friendship is requested by the other user.
It’s not clear exactly what the limits are. We’ve received a report from one user that outstanding friend requests for him capped out at 1,020 and our About Foursquare account with 6,000 friends is over the limit for number of friends — we’re not even able to follow any more brands. If you’ve run into the limits at a lower number, please let us know in the comments.
Foursquare spokesperson Erin Gleason tells us:
Earlier today, we implemented limits on the number of friends and outstanding friend requests that a user can have. We’re still figuring out what the appropriate limits are and will continue to adjust the numbers based on usage and user feedback.
This move appears to be a direct intervention against businesses using the spammy tactic of trying to request as many friends as possible so their tips are more likely to appear for users when they check in. The tactic topped the list of Mashable’s 6 Ways to Market on foursquare Without a Location, where they featured Bastard Jeans, an account that has racked up 60,000 friends. Users were often frustrated by the random friend requests they’d receive from businesses and brands that were simply trying to gather as many friends as possible, so adding a limit should help to increase the user experience by effectively eliminating that tactic for foursquare marketing.
In a location-based network like foursquare, where friends are typically limited to a tighter circle of friends, marketing in this manner simply didn’t make sense. It’s a good move for users since it decreases the possibility they’ll be spammed by companies, and really only punishes the brands who were taking advantage of the system. Regular users will likely never hit the limits and businesses that have built their networks by letting the user initiate the request — as most brands (About Foursquare included) have done — should feel no effect.
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I guess it depends on the caps… and can they have a business account that allows for more flexibility in this cap? What is next? Will we have to upgrade to Foursquare Plus for a small fee if we want to increase our friend request, friend total, and maybe even checkin frequency caps? I would pay a little more for added checkin freedom… I run into rapid checkin issues from time to time, and I lose mayorships that I should not as a result…
This certainly makes sense, and indicates the start of maturity of policies for Foursquare. They will need to split out policies for businesses, though – maintaining the same rules for people and business will never work. And as they continue to scale, Foursquare will need to consider further scaling features and policies associated with things like managing enormous number of tips at a venue, or continued extensions of the swarm badge.
Speaking of which, they really ought to create badges for 500 check-ins, 1,000 check-ins, and 10,000 check-ins
I agree… more badges… I am sitting at 6200ish checkins (not bad for one year of work excluding downtime)! A mature 4sq should have differing rules for people and businesses, and they need to make me a super user level 2 (I am still stuck on 1… always having to send merge requests, etc. when I could just make the merges myself if I was only empowered to do so!!)!
I’ve gotten “Sorry, you already have 237 outstanding friend request.”, when I try to add a friend.
If you have 237 outstanding requests, you might be doing it wrong. This isn’t Facebook. You don’t need to have a billion friends to be “cool”.
Hi ack154,
I often see you judging people with your so-called witty remarks and that is so not cool. Please hear me out.
I’m not sure what I have done wrong, as I did not go around sending friend request to simply just about anybody. I have just tested it out again, and it is now showing 1788. I did nothing between 237 and 1788.
Yes, I know this isn’t Facebook and I am not sure exact what’s your point of bringing it up. Personally I do not think having huge amount of friends in Facebook makes one “cool”. That may be your perception but not mine, as I only have about 600 of them and they are all close friends and family.
How many of your 1788 friends do you know personally, have talked to, or have actually met? How many of the 237 have you even met or know?
Unless you’re a brand, trying to market yourself (poorly) there is no reason to have that many “friends” on a site like this.
I mention Facebook b/c there are way more “friend whores” on FB than anywhere else. People think they need to have thousands of friends for no reason what-so-ever other than to look like they’re cool. If you have 600 that are all friends and family, good for you… but that just shows more proof that you hardly know any of your Foursquare ones – other than they’re all also “jumpers” and cheaters.
There you go again
you don’t even read properly what I wrote before replying. Oh well.
Sounds like an idea @tristanwalker will be really happy with, and in the same direction as Path, which again, Tristan loves.
Hopefully this means accounts like the About Foursquare, and other “community entities” (as well as Brands adding themselves unofficially, eg: Bastard Jeans) will get converted into true brand pages soon – where you won’t have the same visibility as friend accounts, but I assume you wouldn’t have the limits either.
Overall, I think foursquare really feels your location information, through foursquare, should only be shared with close friends – for general broadcast, push to twitter and facebook. I like the limits, and wouldn’t be upset if the were in the 100 user range…..
As it stands, brands are currently faced with the same limits as regular users. People can still follow them, but only the smallest few can request friendships from other people.
and maybe I missed part of it, but is there an expectation that there is an overall cap for the max number of friends as well (that once you reach it, you won’t be able to accept any more incoming requests), or is the limit only going to be on outgoing requests?
My thought was just there are a wide range of brands, and foursquare communities, that add value to foursquare, with their tips, etc, but aren’t actual brand accounts. These accounts have a higher level of access to the information – friends can see more personal information than brands. I think it would be great to see all of those accounts migrate to official brand accounts, so there aren’t any limitations on the upper number of connections (friend/follow) for these special, not user accounts. I also like, that as you said, once they are a brand, they can’t request friendship anymore either….. which is good, I want to choose to follow a brand, not be solicited.
they really do need to do a better job segregating the “follow a brand” experience from the “become friends with a person” experience.
I’m fine with it. I don’t appreciate the friend requests I receive from brands. Brands never check-in, so it’s not beneficial for me to be friends with them.
Great idea, spam has become an issue, a lot of ‘spammers’ request to become friends with you.
Hey there,
I got 1151 and got to the “accept friends” to see if I could accept the ones standing there, and got no problems at all
http://foursquare.com/amartino is my user check it but I see the numbers on 1158 right now :S
Weird… i can accept friends but not ask for friendship :S
Sent you a request… let me know if you can accept it still!
Hey Dwayne, I;ve accepted that… and give me no problem :S
I like it. Between the tip spam out there and the brands trying to get 100,000 followers, it’s just not needed. This isn’t Facebook.
Though I’m not sure I understand the friend request limitations. Is that limitations of me requesting friends? Or the number ofmrequests I have pending of people wanting to be my friend? I assume the former? Seems a bit unnecessary with the total friends limit in place.
Though this did get me to cleanup my friends list. Probably just removed about 30 brands that I have no need for.
Question for Dwayne there though… How in the hell do you run into the rapid fire thing “from time to time” with legitimate checkins? I’d love to know you’re checking in every day to reach that more than once.
They say that there is a rolling 24-hour deal… I wish I knew what that number is… I mean, if that is the case, it would be difficult for those people who have 300 or some odd mayorship to maintain the majority of them, but that is not my specific goal. The best example is at the mall… I check into the mall itself, and I check into a store that I actually go into and stay for more than a few minutes… from time to time and at the end of the day (counting an exit checkin here or there and my gym, etc.) I sometimes get this issue. Also, I do sometimes check into duplicate venues so I can merge request them later that night, but that does not happen all of the time!
I guarantee you that going through a mall and checking into stores you visit and also checking into work, a gym, a grocery store, and other random places will not trigger the “rapid fire” stuff. I should know. I do it on a fairly regular basis.
So unless you’re checking into EVERY store in the mall. Or every other place you walk by… that doesn’t happen. Your average number of checkins is somewhere in the 20 per day area… that’s A LOT. It’s one thing to do that every other weekend… but every day? Very shady and questionable.
You may be totally legit… but it does not appear that way at first glance.
I’ve run into a similar problem as Dwayne on a few occasions. It is very easy to run into the check-in limit while in a mall. While on vacation in Vegas, my family and I went to a upscale mall where we didn’t really plan on buying anything but wanted to look around. It is very easy to make 6+ checkins within a hour if you are just spending 5-10 minutes in each store to look around, however these check-ins are still legit since I’m there.
In my opinion, rather than changing the check-in limits, implement a venue structure system! When you check into the mall, the system realizes you are in the mall and ‘loosens’ the requirements as you check into stores that are within that mall.
ack154 – it does not happen on a daily basis, but rapid checkins occur from time to time, so I try to manage my time and checkins accordingly! But, there are times when I have not checked in many places during the day because I did not want to lose my gym mayorship (which still happened for some reason – I was going to the gym everyday except 9 days from May until October and I found that I was not receiving points when checking in… some of that due to possible GPS issues, etc., and I lost my mayorship that I should not have to someone who only was there 37 days in the previous 60 while I was there 58 days in the past 60 yet only got credit for 29 of those or something for whatever reason; luckily, I fixed that by continuing to go to the gym at the same pace and checkin on 4sq while concurrently not checking into very many other places each day, hence losing more mayorships in the process)!
@Chris Jacobs – I think that, in theory, such an idea would be suitable and helpful for the 4sq user… sort of like when people need get a PowerBoost in download speed from Comcast when they are viewing videos, etc. It would be like an OnDemand or Just in time approach, but I assume that they would have to implement such an idea with the help of categories, which some users could still take advantage of by purposely classifying a venue incorrectly to take advantage of this loophole! Certainly, the 4sq system is not perfect as it stands today, but I am sure they will look to find new ways to improve it for the overall user experience! Again, I like your line of thinking… it is always great to avoid merely complaining about something – instead, adding ideas, recommendations, and potential solutions to the mix really shows much more than just complaining, and I appreciate you bringing your idea to the table… btw, have you ever suggested that to them over on Twitter, etc.?
Ack, learn to use Foursquare’s search box.
http://foursquare.com/dwaynekilbourne
Dwayne is the mayor is of a bunch of bullshit venues, including intersections, cities, and neighborhoods. Apparently, he can’t walk down the street without checking into the street and the city. He’s exactly the kind of person the rapid fire limit is meant for. Somebody needs to stage a Foursquare intervention for Dwayne, because he’s lost his whiny mind.
While I appreciate constructive criticism, you might want to see what I use Foursquare for and not prejudge. Sure, I have mayorships for highway intersections that I seem to sit at time and time again. And I am sorry if I check into an exit on the way to my girlfriend’s place. Do I checkin at every corner? Heck no… that would be retarded! I have one downtown mayorship, and that is because the venue was there and I was in town… I am a runner too, and I enjoy the outdoors, so would you rather me create and check into a fake business like some might? Would you rather me say I am somewhere I am not? Sorry… that is just not my style.
Look, I am the mayor of a car wash that does a great job cleaning my car. I am the mayor of some cool and delicious restaurants I frequent for lunch and/or dinner. I am the mayor at my house and business.I am the mayor of the gym I go to (basically) everyday! I also enjoy a Cocoa Trio at the local Borders (and checkin while taking in a book or magazine)! I linked Foursquare to my Waze account too… and HealthMonth.com account, so I take use the service for a variety of reasons. Do I sit there and try to jump the badges as they come out? Nope! Do I use 4sq to find new places, leave cool tips, and add places to my to-do list? Of course! BTW, 4sq has a lot of sentimental value to me too… for that, maybe you should search my other posts on this site if you are so big into search (you will find more information that you can use before just coming to some unwarranted conclusion! But, again, I welcome your perspective, even if it is without full or inconclusive merit!
Rapid fire checkins are incredibly easy to get legitimately when you live in the city or even when you go to a mall. You can go in and actually buy things from several stores within a very short time frame. I get having a “rapid fire” warning if your venue checkins are too far away to be physically possible. But if they’re all close and possible, a user shouldn’t be penalized.
As for friend limits, I guess I’m reserving my judgement on that til I’ve thought more on future ramifications of such a thing. It could make me drop a few unnecessary brands. But what if those brands I drop end up creating a badge down the road?
I wish I knew what the limits were… or at least get that rapid fire warning before they start not giving points, etc. for the checkins… finding the right balance will be interesting! I appreciate your pause to further consider the friend limitations issue until you get a better grasps of future ramifications… that approach is much better than to simply formulate an idea without having all of the information you may need to conclude an opinion!
[...] Foursquare hat damit begonnen, die Anzahl der möglichen Freunde zu limitieren. Es scheint aber noch nicht klar zu sein, wie hoch die Limite ist. Es gibt im Web unterschiedliche Angaben dazu. Foursquare selber sagt dazu, dass man noch daran sei, eine Zahl zu finden und diese auch je nach Nutzer-Rückmeldungen ändern werde. (Quelle: af About Foursquare) [...]
So I get “Sorry, you already have 255 outstanding friend requests”… I’ve accepted or ignored any pending requests to me…
Currently I have Your Friends (832)… sooo…. guess i can’t add Sonos for CES stuff? :/
[...] About Foursquare blog explains that some companies have friended tens of thousands of Foursquare users so that, when those users [...]
Dwayne, there’s no need to check into duplicate venues just to merge them later; that only unnecessarily inflates your number of check-ins. Simply use the notepad function on your phone to make note of the venue so you can make the request later.
Or even better… set a To-Do item for that venue. Then check out the To-Do list on your profile.
That’s what I use to clean up venues later when I get home.
Well, I agree – I will say that I have not worked through all of the functionality of the Android 4sq app, but I reactivated my Palm Pre just so I could use the really great WebOS 4sq app! I will say that I do not do this too often, but I wanted to admit that it happens from time to time!
Looks like 249 for me and i cant follow CES as i am blocked at that number
Blah, blah, blah. Dwayne, want to hear one of the Secret Rules of Internet Discussion? The longer your justification for suspicious behavior, the more likely it’s bullshit.
Another Secret Rule? Never bullshit a Bauser. It makes us cranky.
That blog you link to in your comments says “Entrepreneur” all over it, without ever telling us what business you’re actually in. This leads me to suspect you’re one of those lame-ass “internet entrepreneurs.” Here’s the typical lame-ass internet entrepreneurial business plan in a nutshell:
1) Put name on as many webpages as possible.
2) ?
3) PROFIT!!!
So, Dwayne, the lame-ass internet entrepreneurs flock to whatever up-and-coming social websites they can get accounts on, friend as many people as possible, post as many lame comments as possible, become mayor of as many venues as possible, and generally annoy the hell out of any sane people on the site, while using a disproportionate amount of site resources.
Know what happens if a million lame-ass internet entrepreneurs join a website and race to have a million friends? They use a lot of server resources. So companies like Foursquare put limits on pointless resource-wasters, and the resource-wasters start whining. All of your self-serving arguments really boil down to “Foursquare should have to spend as much time, money, and server-space on me as I want, so I can promote myself.” That’s a dumb and ethically questionable argument. You want to promote yourself that badly, go buy a billboard.
Well, let me answer a few things. First, I am a thorough kind of guy; while I don’t expect all to agree with me, I do feel the need to defend myself when attacked without merit! You cannot always judge a book by its cover. In addition, I can tend to get wordy; just ask my friends and family! Second, I am an entrepreneur (if you look, it should note that I am a writer and a scholar-practitioner (even though I put my doctorate degree on hold for now). In addition to writing and help out some of my fellow aspiring authors, I am involved in various levels of consulting (both business and e-business related), where my marketing and e-business focused degrees can help others the most! I’m definitely not one of those people trying to sell some miracle product or offer some ponzi / pyramid scheme. My goal is not to gain the most amount of friends or checkins so I can spam people. I currently monitor 4sq traffic for one business, and I expect to do the same for a few more businesses this year. Third, I am very passionate about 4sq, always looking to recommend new ways it can expand and grow. Like I said, I have passion for it… a sentimental connection to it; if you read any of my other comments on this site from 2010, you would see that (to my surprise) met my girlfriend via 4sq – she goes to the same gym as I do, and our checkins helped us network together, become friends, and expand that friendship into something even more special! This all happened back in the summer of 2010 when you could see others who have checked into venues right on the venue page (before they altered the privacy policy, ultimately deleting that). Lastly, I do not use 4sq for self-promotion; it actually is more of a passion and hobby of mine! If 4sq feels that I am using too much of their server resources, allow me to pay a premium for the added utilization… call it 4sq Premier and charge me and others “like me” $10 or $20 per month! Say whatever you like (as you are allowed an opinion too), but I have to look at myself in the mirror everyday, and I find nothing unethical about what I am doing… instead, I continue to enjoy much of the 4sq services and the community. Think about it; if I did not like it so much, do you think I would waste time correcting venue addresses, adding phone numbers and Twitter profile information, and much more to those venues in my area? Heck no!
P.S. Michael, do you know of a reputable app that would list those friends of mine whom are not truly active users anymore? I am looking for an third-party app that does for my 4sq experience what friendorfollow and mycleaner (etc) does for Twitter! Believe it or not, I enjoy fine-tuning my 4sq experience and welcome your recommendation!
I have 249 friends and went to add CES just now and got the no can do becauseI have 119 outstanding requests. If this is gonna be the way 4sq needs to create a way to take back a request…
Missing the point, as usual. Foursquare isn’t saying those checkins aren’t real, they’re saying they’re not sportsmanlike. You don’t get to dominate the game aspects of Foursquare just by giving yourself easy set-ups.
It’s like the “no hands” rule in soccer. Yeah, a ball thrown through the goal really goes into the net, but it makes the game so easy that nobody would do anything else. “Loosening” the rules for mall-hoppers would discourage people who don’t mall-hop from playing Foursquare.
Oh god… first time i have to unsusbcribe from comments due to stupidity NOT related to the post
Indeed… I am curious to see where the final numbers fall as it pertains to friend request limitations, etc.!
If foursquare decide to put a limit on the number of friends you can have and letting us get this “Sorry, you already have 134 outstanding friend requestsâ€â€¦ Then you should also create a function for us to delete those requests as well. I had added some friends through my emails and twitters and most of them are not active 4sq users and hardly peek into 4sq and I got those request count stuck with these people. So what am I going to do with those request? If they are permanently domant and consider I would not be able to add anymore friends or even follow any brands? Please be considerate if this social networking thing is created more towards ‘fun’ sense and really a social networking, why do you have to tell us the amount of friends that we can invite and have in our profile? You are telling us how many friends we can have?
You created the search for friend function on twitter, email account, facebook and stuff like that. We used that and all those friends are automatically requested. And I am stuck now! Come on !
[...] gegen zunehmenden Spam setzt der Location-Service Foursquare dem Freundeskreis seiner Nutzer ein Limit. Wo die Grenze liegt, ab der keine weiteren Freundschaftsanfragen mehr möglich sind, wird noch [...]
Well… since none of my real friends actually use Foursquare, with this new direction, I won’t be any longer either. If I want to connect with real friends I’ll just use Facebook Places. Stupid move because it kills the incentive for the early adopters. They enabled their users to “Spam” since their launch for a good reason… they should have waited at least 6 more months, or made it easy for brands to get “Follow” accounts.
Compare it to YouTube… they limit friend requests and there is almost no community there compared Facebook and Twitter. I got pretty bored with Foursquare until the Photos launched… and it just started getting interesting in terms of comments and buzz (from “fake” friends)… then they kill it with this decision. They can’t compete with Facebook Places… and this decision pretty much forced them into a corner where they have to. They are in bubble.
Love the insight on this one, Heather! I try to see this and other issues from various viewpoints, and you have brought up yet another one… I mean, if we are friends on Foursquare (but not in real life or on FB), and I annoy you with too many checkin pings, etc., you still have the controls and tools to either not get pings from me or simply unfriend me! How hard is that, right? I love the YouTube analog too!
Don’t you mean MySpace whores? Facbook wasn’t the original place for friend whoring and stuff it was MySpace!
[...] Users now have a limit on the total number of friends they can have as well as the number of friend requests they can send, a change first noticed by AboutFoursquare.com. [...]
[...] hoog dit maximum is, is niet bekend gemaakt. Volgens woordvoerder Erin Gleaston is het bedrijf nog aan het uitzoeken wat geschikte maxima zijn. [...]
[...] Foursquare Puts A Limit On The Number Of Friends You Can Have: Location-based social network Foursquare has put a hard cap on the number of outstanding friend requests and friends any single account may have, in order to crack down on marketers that were spamming friend requests so the brand’s tips would be more likely to appear when users checked-in to relevant locations. The hard cap numbers are not yet known and Foursquare says they may be adjusted in the future. [...]
[...] limite non è chiaro al momento (Foursquare sta vagliando feedbacks e consigli).  Ad ogni modo, i rumors della rete, ci dicono i seguenti limiti: 1) Richieste di amicizia in sospeso fino ad un massimo di 1.020 2) [...]
It would be easier to manage friend requests if you would add an “Ignore All” button to the page.