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Nominate Spots for Deletion/Deactivation?
So I'm sure this is going to step on a few toes, but I figured I'd ask.
Is there a process to nominate spots for deletion or deactivation? I don't want to name names, but in San Francisco I'm starting to see a lot of spots being created for things like mailboxes and every stop for certain bus lines. If there were something special about these places I could understand creating a spot for it, but creating a spot for every 38-Geary bus stop seems a bit excessive.
That being said, I personally would rather see spots get deactivated instead of deleted. This way, no other user can check into the spot, but the spot creator doesn't get punished (as in, making their checkin count go down) for creating the spot. This is already somewhat done for limited edition spots. Theoretically, though, this could be used to game Gowalla to get the spot-creation-related pins (even though I don't see a real reason someone would do that).
The gray area: What about chains? What would be the guidelines for a "delete-worthy" spot? You can probably tell, going down this road could get messy.
Your thoughts are appreciated.
Is there a process to nominate spots for deletion or deactivation? I don't want to name names, but in San Francisco I'm starting to see a lot of spots being created for things like mailboxes and every stop for certain bus lines. If there were something special about these places I could understand creating a spot for it, but creating a spot for every 38-Geary bus stop seems a bit excessive.
That being said, I personally would rather see spots get deactivated instead of deleted. This way, no other user can check into the spot, but the spot creator doesn't get punished (as in, making their checkin count go down) for creating the spot. This is already somewhat done for limited edition spots. Theoretically, though, this could be used to game Gowalla to get the spot-creation-related pins (even though I don't see a real reason someone would do that).
The gray area: What about chains? What would be the guidelines for a "delete-worthy" spot? You can probably tell, going down this road could get messy.
Your thoughts are appreciated.
I’m worried this will turn into a flame war
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Inappropriate?What's to say that even if a less-than-desirable spot was deactivated that someone else wouldn't come along and make another one?
Not trying to stir anything up; it's an honest question.
I’m not flaming!!!
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This answers the question
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I had the same thought. Like I said, it's a tricky situation and I was hesitant to even bring it up. But imo, I see things like generic bus stops and mailboxes as spam, no matter how you play Gowalla.
It's hard to say what would happen if the spot got recreated, but I'd think it'd be like dealing with duplicates: deal with them as they come up. -
Inappropriate?This does bring up an interesting idea. The reason why I didn't go with Foursquare was that when I pulled it up, I saw a bunch of "mundane" spots. Being an early adopter with Gowalla, I was hooked with my first trip out to Berkeley to check in. I really liked the fact that I was finding places of interest to see (i.e. I seriously never knew about Normandy Village while I was at Cal). The fact that we are in a big city will mean that literally every spot could potentially be covered, thus cluttering up our spots to browse, and we may miss out on something cool/interesting. Personally, I think how one can "play" this is to just not check into those spots. The great thing about being a spot creator is to see how popular your spot is, maybe you just don't "reward" it by not checking in? It's interesting to see how new players go about when they first load Gowalla. They're most invested in creating spots anywhere and everywhere. Hopefully over time they learn to appreciate the art of creating quality spots.
But yeah, I'm not really a fan of creating spots at bus stops, mailboxes, etc unless they have something of interest, and if so, that spot creator should add such detail in the description. Nothing worse than going to check in to the spot, and look blankly around you like "what gives???". -
Inappropriate?It's a tricky question and worthy of discussion on here, so well done for bringing it up.
As Irene has pointed out, having too many spots in an area 'masks' other spots on the 'nearby spots' tab of the app. Twice recently I've checked in to a spot I've created to find that someone else has created a spot a few metres away. Like Irene, I was thinking, 'What?!'. It seemed to me that the spot had been created for the sake of creating a spot, not because it was a worthy place to visit. On top of that, both spots were actually covered by the spots I had created and were effectively a spot within a spot. I'm sure that there are numerous examples of this around.
I don't have a particular problem with mundane spots per se (Gowalla does say that it's about sharing your experiences everywhere you go) but I think that an 'on the face of it' mundane spot is all about the description making it interesting. Does that make sense? -
Inappropriate?Interesting, I just posted something very similar here: http://getsatisfaction.com/gowalla/to...
I knew this would have to be discussed sooner or later.
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Inappropriate?Going back to the original question which was a process to nominate a spot for deletion, I don't see why you wouldn't just report it under the current process the same as you would a duplicate spot or a spot in the wrong place.
I don't think anyone except the person that created the spot or the Alamofire staff should be able to delete a spot.
However, as Gina said, there's nothing to stop someone else (or the same person) from creating the spot again.
As for "chains", I don't see how the existence of the Starbucks on your iPhone screen truly impedes your ability to enjoy Gowalla. I think not checking in to those spots you deem to be boring or unworthy is enough. (Especially if Alamofire finds a way to either filter spots or increase the number of spots that show up on your phone.)
Personally, I'd just be happy if people would take the time to check the location of the spot they are creating to make sure the spot is in the right damn place. Half the spots I run across are in the wrong place, sometimes off by a block or two.
(Disclaimer: "YOU" is the universal "you", not any one person in particular.)4 Comments Add a comment
This answers the question
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I think what we're really looking for are more filters when searching nearby spots. SoCal doesn't have as many spots as up here in SF. If you were in the SF Downtown area, you'll see what happens when there's "congestion". Makes it tougher to pick up a spot that you are looking for in your "Nearby spots" search results list. Although there are other categories available to filter, it'd be nice to have one for filtering out the places you've already visited, and "chains", especially if you are looking for something unique or interesting to the area.
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Agreed on a filter to remove spots you've already visited - often I won't check into spots I've already been to because I'm on a mission to increase my stamp count.
As for checking location - a lot of the time this is caused by the GPS being out, or the older iPhone hardware having to use a far more approximated position. All you can do is ask for them to be moved, I guess. -
I think the main question I had was what would determine a delete-worthy spot? What is mundane to me may not be mundane to others (or Alamofire), so some sort of criteria would be worthwhile. And I agree, no one but the creator or Alamofire should be able to delete a spot, but the Gowallasphere (I love that word) should be able to nominate spots for deletion.
FWIW, I'd much rather see 100 McDonald's spots than 1 mail box spot. -
This makes total sense...
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Inappropriate?Personally, the rule of thumb I use for whether a spot is interesting enough to be tagged or not is category. There's no mailbox category under services (and I hope there never will be) so I don't tag a mailbox. The thing that cements this for me is that bus station/depot is a category, but bus *stop* isn't.
This is what makes me feel justified in making a spot for each London Underground station (and indeed suggesting a trip for some of them) but not making one for every bus stop.
As for chains... I think as we see more achievement-style pins like the 10 coffeeshops pin, the more chains we'll see starting to pop up. It's telling that Starbucks is the default example that people use.1 Comment Add a comment
This answers the question
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Each Underground spot I think is valid, since it's a major thoroughfare. My main concern, like you pointed out, is that there is no category for a bus stop. Most bus stops aren't very interesting, so what's stopping someone from making a spot for every street corner?
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Inappropriate?I love the idea of filters, especially if there's a way to toggle them on and off. I wouldn't want to filter out spots I've been to, only to forget that I've already checked in somewhere and mistakenly create a duplicate spot.
I also like the rule of thumb from Lewis. Excellent point.
Great ideas to be brainstormed into realities. -
Inappropriate?Love this discussion, everyone. Keep it going!
Feedback on spots is definitely worth considering.
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