In 2009, Foursquare changed the landscape of mobile applications by introducing a location-based social network and discovery app.

Foursquare has won over a significant number of users around the world and has an impressive following from its fans. However, recently Foursquare decided to split its app in to two: Foursquare and Swarm, and along with the split they have decided to remove the 'game' aspect from the app - therefore users no longer compete for check-in points, mayorships or badges as they have traditionally done so before.

When talking about the game aspect to Foursquare, in a recent blog post, the company said:

"When we built Foursquare, the game mechanics were meant to do two things: help you learn how to use Foursquare, and help make your real-world experiences more fun. We never set out to make a ‘game.’ We wanted to make people’s experiences more fun and playful. Points gave you a way to measure how exciting your outings were; badges were to give you a sense of accomplishment; and mayorships allowed you to compete with your friends. We thought they were all fun ideas, but even we were surprised by how much people loved them." (Source)

So moving forward, Foursquare has stopped check-in points, mayorships and badges as we know it - to focus instead on helping users and their friends instead stay better connected with each other, rather than the game.

But what about the users who live in areas of the world where Foursquare hasn't really taken of, and have very few friends as Foursquare users? What about those who use Foursquare primarily for the game aspect of the app? Swarm and the new reworked Foursquare won't appeal to these users.

This isn't a petition opposing Swarm, or further improvements to Foursquare. We are however asking Foursquare to reconsider some of the new changes they have made and to reintroduce check-in points, mayorships and badges - to put the fun back in to Foursquare.