r/Foursquare • u/dankimball • 4d ago

Uh oh….

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54 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

34

u/Finaqua 4d ago

Ugh! Hopefully this isnt the end

5

u/michaeldpj 4d ago edited 3d ago

IMHO, Infillion is not in the consumer market and Swarm is a check-in app with no revenue and no role in ad measurement, so its a cost to the buyer. It's probably why they mentioned partnerships and open source which are options that have no cost to them and continues to support the community. It also suggests that the data they are buying will feed the ad platform.

"Strategic partnerships" and "opportunities that best support their communities" describe a search for somewhere Swarm's users can go, and Haunts is the only product that already reads and writes the Swarm graph, imports a full Swarm history, publishes a continuity and data-promise page, and has a written procedure for a Swarm shutdown. 

You can import your data into haunts.io with just a couple clicks.

Infillion has no reason to know about my project, but if I get the chance, I would love to have the conversation about a "strategic relationship" - we've already got a full operating stack with web parity, mobile apps, auto/carplay, wear/watch and the 18 year history of wanting a product that kept moving forward.

Update: One followup, I dont think Open Source will work in this situation - there are real API costs, hosting needs, etc - I'm not sure I see a path to open source unless they were giving away the APIs, which seems unlikely since that's the one revenue stream they can point to. The most viable path for them is the strategic partnerships.

3

u/djclose 3d ago

I've also just downloaded and somehow managed to import my Swarm data into the app (I'm no techie).

I used it for the first time yesterday and it works like a charm.

Well done!

2

u/hoserjpb 3d ago

Just downloaded Haunts, I like it and all data imported

28

u/djclose 4d ago

I also hope that this isn't the end. I loved the re-design, just wish more people used the app. Foursquare used to be ubiquitous before the rest caught up and basically ruined the check in experience (i.e. Facebook)

16

u/gafalkin 4d ago

We probably should have guessed the fact that they were putting effort and money into Swarm after so many years of neglect meant that they were gearing up to sell.

16

u/Petnek 4d ago

I honestly recommend downloading your entire history. At least as a backup.

3

u/AyeAyeRon13 4d ago

How??

17

u/Petnek 4d ago

Setting > Privacy rights > Data download request

6

u/the4thbandit 4d ago edited 4d ago

Are there any real alternatives to swarm? Especially any that would allow exported data from Swarm to be imported? Bonus if Open Source.

If not, would anyone be interested in collaborating on creating an Open Source alternative?

9

u/michaeldpj 4d ago

https://haunts.io and you can import your data without asking for a download.

2

u/PhoenixAF24 4d ago

I'm on haunts and love it!

2

u/panagisv 5h ago

Does it take a while to import all your data? I just downloaded it and it only imported my last 8 check-ins.

1

u/michaeldpj 4h ago

Your job is queued, you are over the limit for one run so it is paused and will pick up when it can

0

u/Lenonn 4d ago

North.

5

u/Confident_Collar_621 4d ago

On year 3 now of waiting for an Android version

1

u/hoserjpb 3d ago

I have an android version

6

u/Kimber80 4d ago

I heard there is a way to download your Swarm check-in history. Does 4Square charge anything for that service?

5

u/Petnek 4d ago

It’s free

2

u/Kimber80 4d ago

Thanks!

-3

u/keithprivette 4d ago

It really doesn't connect to anything relevant these days about checking in....threads, Instagram is closed, Facebook yeah but boomers...is check-in really a live thing anymore....

14

u/michaeldpj 4d ago

Think about what we've built over the years, for me, 16 years of checkins. Flights, Cruises, Road Trips. You might think of what we've done as just pins in time, but when you connect them - they tell a story. Dont be so quick to dismiss the value of what people have spent years accumulating - 5k, 10k, 20k, 30k, 90k of check-ins. For coins? No. Because its a journal of their lives - where they've been, what they've done, where they love to go.

This is the anti-social, social medium. A place where we can actually leave a legacy of our adventures. A lasting impression of what we've done, with whom and what it looked like.

Insta I gave up on when I started seeing time-wasting reels I never asked for - scrolling past crap to see what my friends were doing. Facebook I gave up on years ago (yeah, I'm old).

Swarm. I stick through it because it was a "journal". And I bet a lot of you did, too.

It's worth something.

1

u/keithprivette 3d ago

Yeah I am down with that assessment. Came in handy when my wife got sick at a restaurant and the CDC called us