Swarm Creator Coins: Another Hackday Project Launch
This post is about another hackday project on Foursquare that we were able to quietly launch into the Swarm app recently.
I always felt that Foursquare and Swarm should give recognition to people who contribute to our database. We want our venue database to be as accurate and up-to-date as possible. I also feel a little bit of pride whenever I’m the first person to add the venue to the database.
For example, I added the 7-Eleven in the East Village to the Foursquare database on it’s grand opening, and now it has over 150 unique visitors on Swarm! Now that’s not bad, but there are some power superusers who have created things that are a lot bigger. You need to be first, and it needs to be someplace important, so it’s tough.
What creator coins does is reward users who create great venues. You don’t get points just for adding any old thing to the venue database – but if you add something that stands the test of time and becomes popular, you will be rewarded with coins whenever you check in.
Also when your friends or friends-of-friends check in, they will recieve some coins, and they’ll be reminded that you are the creator. In that way, you get some recognition!
So, I built this with some pointers from the Swarm team during our hack day a few months ago. We had to get some of the copy I wrote translated, but it’s not live on the site. Tweet at me if you find a good one! Here are some examples:
Typical example, street car with 90 checkins:
This person created an airport terminal venue with almost 34K checkins!
Here’s my own creation of Atlantic Center. I created this venue a few months ago when I was reorganizing Foursquare Supervenues. Turns out that Atlantic Terminal Mall and Atlantic Center are 2 different things, even though they have the same owners and are connected. Confusing!
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And here are some cases in my own feed where I learn about Friends of Friends who created places that I love going to:
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