Foursquare users: Beware of badge spam

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For Subscribers

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAbdul El-Sayed tries to woo MAHA voters as Democrats seek inroads with RFK’s supporters

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKratom-like substances are popping up in a typically benign supplement

FOR SUBSCRIBERSGOP super PAC increases its spending for Sen. Jon Husted in tough Ohio race

FOR SUBSCRIBERSRecords reveal tumultuous marriage between slain New York Times executive and wife

FOR SUBSCRIBERSFrom clean energy warrior to ‘wall of shame,’ James Talarico reverses on a fossil fuel money pledge

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCongressional staff planned official trip with luxury stops in Italy and France weeks before election

FOR SUBSCRIBERSA harrowing ordeal aboard an Israel-bound plane

FOR SUBSCRIBERSOpenAI CEO Sam Altman to skip congressional hearing on rogue AI agents

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKey DOJ lawyers departed Trump ‘grand conspiracy’ probe amid pressure to produce, source says

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTrump’s new AI chatbot often links to a site launched under Clinton 26 years ago

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAt MAHA summit, industry CEOs the movement once vilified take the stage

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThis Paralympian has two goals: Win medals and give away $500,000 to her teammates

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCornell rape allegation spotlights stringent New York state laws that have long drawn criticism

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThe debate over AI’s future rages on both coasts

FOR SUBSCRIBERSDecades-old march dispute reignites in Northern Ireland, threatening political crisis

If earning badges through Foursquare is one of your motivations for check-ins, then you might be in for a roller coaster ride of emotions, as some site maintenance might have resulted in some Twitter spam getting in.

The Next Web wrote about this, as users are experiencing the highs and lows of sudden badge achievements being tweeted out — some of which they'd already earned — but upon checking their accounts found the badges had been deleted. They'd find, as Toronto-based Cheryl McKenzie did, that they'd lost their 30 badges and earned a newbie badge after 1,258 check-ins. Talk about playing with a person's emotions.

Foursquare's database software maintenance Tuesday night and problems with the site and app might have contributed to the snafus. Its latest status update, as of 6:19 PT Wednesday, reads: "Some users are experiencing trouble with badges," and that they're working on a fix right now. We've also reached out to them and we'll let you know what they say.

Not sure how widespread this problem is, thought tweet complaints keep on coming, but with the site recently announcing its 10 millionth member, it's probably in their best interest to solve this problem fast before it becomes too annoying.

But really, maybe it's a blessing in disguise. Who really needs to know where you are all the time? Besides stalkers, thieves and serial killers? 

UPDATE: Foursquare got back to us and told us there was "a temporary issue with one of our badge servers and all badges should be restored now."

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Check out Technolog on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Athima Chansanchai, who is on Foursquare sporadically.