Quiet Checkin

I was thinking a third option in the existing Hide/Show slider that functionally and physically rests between the two other options.

I'm on an HTC Tilt (WiMo), using Opera to view the mobile site.

I would like a "Don't Ping" as well. I don't want to annoy people, but don't want it totally secret either.

I would have loved this feature when I was checking in at my gym three times a week to get the "Gym Rat" badge! I didn't want to "hide my whereabouts" because it looks kind of...shady, but I also didn't want to spam everyone with emails.

I've talked to a LOT of people who would really like this "do not ping" functionality. There are a lot of check-ins (gym, lunch, etc) where you might want to check-in and have no reason to keep it secret, but you don't want to annoy your friends either. My sense is that this is significantly more valuable than the ability to selectively tweet.

I'd be thrilled if you could add a "do not ping this check-in" for this sort of thing. Keep the check-in public, but no need to spam people. Ideally the "don't ping" option would simultaneously prevent the sending of emails, iPhone push notif, and twitter DM.

If you really think the UX would be confusing then enable the functionality but have the choice hidden by default. My guess is that the people who really care to have this level of granularity (such as myself) would be willing to first check a box on a setting page to enable the slider.

If the 3-slider UX is confusing, I'd also throw out the suggestion to simply replace the "tell my friends" slider with this one.

If people really want to go somewhere, and have it be a complete secret from everyone, they shouldn't bother checking in at all. That, to me, is an odd use case.

A far more common use case is to check in somewhere benign (as commenters have mentioned) and just not want to push a message to everyone.

As my foursquare network grows beyond people that I expect to have the patience to remotely experience my morning coffee, museum visits or other unemployed wanderings (where I'd be happy to see people), I am posed with the decision between being really annoying or not checking in (& forfeiting mayorships, points, etc - unthinkable!).

"Don't Send Notifications" is an increasingly important feature and in my opinion, very much worth another slider in the iPhone UI. Three options is not that many and are only as confusing as the labels. I'm actually mostly concerned with iPhone push notifications, but I also see no reason to separate them from emails, etc.

So, to reiterate - PRETTY PRETTY PLEASE? syrup and sprinkles & all that