Agreed. I've been a super user for years, and I was happy to give foursquare all of my data because they did two great things with it:
1) they gave it back to me so I had an accessible record of my check-ins which is very helpful if you travel frequently, and very lovely if, like me, your personality combines deep nostalgia with shocking forgetfulness. It also made Timehop worth opening.
2) they used it in seemingly intelligent ways to give me surprisingly good recommendations when I needed them, and showed me where friends had checked in, even if they hadn't left tips. A check-in from a friend can be a tiny endorsement of its own in absence of anything else.
Both of those benefits are what keep me checking in. Which is what keeps me using the app. I fully recognize that there isn't enough of me to support foursquare. I get that. But I'm still sad to see it go.
Honestly, I used the app the same way you did... I'm a bit dismayed with the new direction. It seems like they could have still left the checkin feature but made it less prominent (I still would have been happy as a super user)
1) they gave it back to me so I had an accessible record of my check-ins which is very helpful if you travel frequently, and very lovely if, like me, your personality combines deep nostalgia with shocking forgetfulness. It also made Timehop worth opening.
2) they used it in seemingly intelligent ways to give me surprisingly good recommendations when I needed them, and showed me where friends had checked in, even if they hadn't left tips. A check-in from a friend can be a tiny endorsement of its own in absence of anything else.
Both of those benefits are what keep me checking in. Which is what keeps me using the app. I fully recognize that there isn't enough of me to support foursquare. I get that. But I'm still sad to see it go.