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This has been mentioned here once or twice before, but I'd really like to see a solution emerge to this.
I flew to Iowa this weekend, my first time on a plane since I began using Foursquare last year. Before I left, I checked to make sure the airports I was visiting (BWI, MSP, CID, DTW) had venues listed - and that they were appropriately tagged so I could get the Jetsetter badge! Sure enough, they were all there...along with about a million other venues. I submitted some merge requests in Minneapolis, and then it was time to fly.
When I got to each airport and went to check in, I was overwhelmed by the number of venues that showed up. Each airport had concourses, terminals, gates, stores, and flights (and even SEATS on a plane) all listed individually. While this is great for earning points, it's not great for actually finding other Foursquare users. I use the Android app, and I couldn't even find the main Detroit terminal despite searches and repeated refreshes. The same happened when I got back to Baltimore - I ended up checking into a concourse.
There has got to be a middle ground between letting people create venues, and maintaining a usable system. This applies to malls in some cases as well, but I would suggest that airports have it even worse because they fit even MORE venues into such a tiny space - gates are frequently closer together than stores in a mall, and airports also have security checkpoints, tram stations, and other locations.
It's too much. For the first time, I found myself frustrated trying to use Foursquare. No "currently trending" or "x people here" cues were available to help me identify the "main" venue. I didn't want to check into gate A74, I wanted to check into the Detroit airport! But I couldn't, there was just too much else going on.
Thoughts?
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I’m
disappointed
Airports are simply unusable: there are far too many venues
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I’m
undecided
Meredith, with all my military travels, I've noticed the same thing! Its extremely frustrating because the main pin for the venue is often quite aways from the gate, at large airports, and with all the gates and terminals, it's quite hard to find anything. I often try searching for just the airport code, and that usually works.
Until the company comes up with a better solution, we as superusers just need to pay close attention to airports.Comment -
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I’m
amused
Don't worry -- they are working on something... that may or may not be out in the next 5 years. BUT while they are working on this something (that may very well not fix the problem) they will allow this mess to not only to go on.. but they will allow it to get BIGGER! Yes, you can add drinking fountains, bathrooms - even STALLS in bathrooms. Flights that come and go, parking structures, food locations, the food section that food location is in, pay phones, electronics recharge stations, gates, seats to the left of the gate, seats to the right of the gate, shoe shine locations, info booths, terminals, moving walkways in terminals, the moving walkway that goes the other way, the AA skycap location, baggage claim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 all the way to 100, diaper changing locations (in both men's and women's bathrooms of course), and anything and everything that can possibly be added as long as you can stand there....
And don't get me started on how great sport stadiums are! Those are even MORE fantastic! YOU CAN ADD EACH AND EVERY SEAT IN THE STADIUM AND ITS OK! How awesome is THAT?? I mean really... WOWZERS!
But just know this, SOMETHING is in the works that despite all this junk to be added, it will streamline EVERYTHING and make us all want to pick and smell flowers.
ya.. right.... -
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I’m
frustrated
If you agree that GATES shouldn't be a valid venue: http://getsatisfaction.com/foursquare... -
