Mayor, Please?

In Response to Foursquare's New Mayor Feature

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 21:49:00 -0400

Hey everyone,

It’s been a while since I’ve posted an entry here. I’ve been really trying hard to re-build the current site and make it more engaging the user. Based on the news story today about Foursquare adding a feature to let you know how far off you are from obtaining mayorship - I felt it was important add a response to this new story.

Here at WWIBM - we are NOT a investor sponsored company nor have 10 to 100 developers working on this product. It’s just me - Greg Avola - and I built this product for myself and the community. I thought it would a great way to engage the users of the foursquare to plan your attack on getting the mayorships you want.

Now that foursquare has released their own version of this feature - everyone is saying what will happen to WWIBM? The short answer - nothing. We are not a competitor to foursquare. We just enhance the experience of foursquare to users. That is what the site is designed and developed to do and we will continue to do that as long as the users enjoy it.

Coming in September - we will have a brand new site with new feature including the ability to vote on public shares, better sharing options, and faster response time. Foursquare has also indicated to us that they are going to allow this new data to be sourced by the API which means we can do more stuff about this - including sorting by number of times it will take you to be mayor and a lot more.

Thanks again for your support and we can’t wait to show you what’s new!

Greg
Creator of When Will I Be Mayor

What do you want to see in the next WWIBM release?

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 07:43:19 -0400

Hello everyone,

As I mentioned yesterday - we’re about to hit 8K registered users. I have never thought this site would be as popular as it is today. With that in my mind - I’ve gone back to drawing board - trying to craft up some new features that will make When Will I Be Mayor to best yet - however I would love your input.

So send me a reply on Twitter to @mayorplease, a comment, or a link with your favorite feature that you are dying to see in the next release!

Just a note: Al ot of people have been asking for a list of venues that they are closing to loosing the mayor title. This is currently no possible due to the fact that Foursquare doesn’t allow developers to access any “top 10” or “list of all users who have checked into the spot” option.

Thanks, Greg

New Features - Sharing, Searching, and Stats!

Sat, 05 Jun 2010 13:31:06 -0400

Hello everyone! I hope you having a good weekend. Over at WWIBM, I’ve been cooking up something good for you - based on all your feedback. Today - I’ve release some new features that hopefully will get your pretty excited to use When Will I Be Mayor for your foursquare needs.

Stats - We’ve added a nifty feature that allows you track the statistics of your check-ins. I know what your thinking - “Doesn’t foursquare already have this on their website?” The short answer is: Yes - however, these stats are bit more details - by basically telling you what type of venues you go to in the last 250 check-ins. Check it out by clicking the stats icon in the top banner to view your stats.

Search By Venue, and Venue ID Some people requested the ability to search by venue ID. Since we only previously had the ability to search by venue name and location - sometimes your results wouldn’t get you want you wanted. Now just enter the ID of the Venue you want information on you’ll get your check-in information! Share your Race to Be Mayor! - Now you can share your foursquare mayor-ship quest with your friends in real-time with When Will I Be Mayor! All you need to do click the share icon at the venue - and you’ll presented with a short URL (http://wwibm.me) to share with your friends through Facebook or Twitter. This updates in real-time, so as you check-in - your count will get bigger! Don’t want to share it anymore? Head over to your settings page, and delete it! Add as many shares are you want! Go nuts!

We hope you’ll enjoy these features - and as they are new - let us know if anything goes bonkers by sending a tweet to @mayorplease.

Thanks Greg

Riding the Wave [STATS]

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 09:26:00 -0400

So it’s been about 4 days since our posts on Mashable, TechCrunch, and CNN - and we are still in shock on all the positive feedback that we have been getting and press. With that said, We thought it would be a great idea to dedicate a page to show our appreciation for all the wonderful people that have made this site what is today. You can view all the article that mentioned WWIBM at http://whenwillibemayor.com/press. If you are wrote a story about us - please let us know by sending a tweet to @mayorplease and I’ll add your link the page.

So with all the generous press that we have been receiving, I wanted to share with you how that press as turned this “little website that could” in to a success (at least for me). Personally - I’ve never had any of project go viral like this - so it’s pretty humbling. On Memorial Day Monday (5/31), we had about 500+ registered users. That is pretty amazing considering that we didn’t have any press - and the site was spread by just word of mouth. On the day of the TechCrunch and Mashable article, we jumped form 500 users to 3,000. Yes - 3,000. That’s pretty amazing in a 24 hour period - and I only have you guys to thank. We’ve been growing steadily - and as of this writing we are closing in on 4,000 users. Take a look at the sign-ups per day screenshot below - to see how crazy it has been since the TechCrunch and Mashable article releases.

We also had a crazy 7K unique visitors on that day, generating about 30K page views. Absolutely amazing. One of the cool stats - that we had at least 1 user from every State in the US visit the site in the past 4 days. Below is a screenshot of the top 10 US states that have visited the site:

So in closing - I wanted to thank you all for visiting, signing up, and continuing to support the site. I’ve received some good feedback from a lot of you. I really appreciate it. I am currently working the next version of the site that will feature many of your feature requests - including searching by Venue ID, Monitoring Venues where you are already mayor, and adding a feature to share your progress with your friends. Look for new stuff soon - and thanks again for all your support!

Thanks, Greg

photo credit lemontwist

About Privacy

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 19:47:00 -0400

We realize that privacy is important to everyone - especially when you are dealing with a geo-location application. That is why I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce our privacy policy for WWIBM. Here are a few notes that hopefully will keep you at ease:

We do not store any historical data on your check-ins from foursquare. This means that your check-in data is not housed on WWIBM servers - it stays on Foursquare’s server. So rest assured that your data is safe. This tool is only used for visualization purposes. The only data that WWIBM stores is the following:

— Your email address

— Your username that you choose at signup

— Foursquare Token and Secret

— Venue names/IDs that you have monitored

That’s pretty much it! I know that most you might have already detected this - but I wanted to make it clear that we are not storing any username/passwords or any history data from foursquare. All calls to foursquare purely done through the API.

For more information on our privacy policy go to http://whenwillibemayor.com/privacy

About "Gaming" The System

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 08:29:00 -0400

Maybe by now - you’ve seen the Mashable article about WWBIM. If not - you should read it prior to reading this post. I just wanted to post a quick follow-up on my thoughts on “gaming” foursquare via WWBIM. The article make a point that WWBIM is “gaming” the system to determine when you’ll get mayorships. The point of WWBIM isn’t to “game” the system - but just to give you an idea on how you are doing. “Gaming” to me - is affecting the outcome of something, while I think we are just providing “guidance” on mayorships.

With all the new promotions out there to become Mayor of venues to gain discounts at your favorite shops - I figured that this would be a great application to track that progress - and the indent wasn’t to allow people to game the system - rather give them insight into their history on foursquare.

And now we're on Mashable!

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 06:44:37 -0400

And now we're on Mashable!:

It’s like a dream come true! Thanks again for all your support - and let us know how we can make it better!

We've Been Featured on TechCrunch!

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 20:57:16 -0400

We've Been Featured on TechCrunch!:

It’s pretty amazing to feature with other great applications like Be The Mayor. who use the Foursquare API.

Monitor Emails, Check.

Mon, 31 May 2010 10:51:48 -0400

Hello everyone,

This morning we sent out our first batch of monitor emails that everyone had been asking about. For everyone that monitored a venue from 5/21 until now - should have received an indicating your progress your favorite venues.

From now one - you should receive an email every Sunday. If you didn’t receive the email - or you have problems going forward with the monitoring process. Let me know at @mayorplease on Twitter.

Greg

New Feature - Search is King!

Tue, 25 May 2010 22:15:15 -0400

It’s been about 6 days since 2.0 is live, and here I am already pushing out a new feature - and its search.

Now you can search a venue and a location and get the mayor and your check-in history for that venue. While it may be a small feature - you might curious and want to see is the mayor of the world’s favorite venues like Twitter HQ, or Times Square. The possibilities are endless!

Want a feature added to When Will I Be Mayor? Send us tweet on Twitter @mayorplease

Greg

When Will I Be Mayor - 2.0!

Fri, 21 May 2010 15:18:00 -0400

Well, I’ve listed to your feedback and I’ve put myself to work build you a better way to check how when you’ll be mayor next. In this release we’ve added brand new features such as:

OAuthentication: - Now you never have to share your foursquare password with When Will I Be Mayor again! This also allows for faster processing times with getting your history. However, this does force you to create an account with When Will I Be Mayor. I hate making new accounts too - however it’s the only way. I’m sorry.

Pagination - Some people requested the ability to paginate through their results. Since we only display 10 results per page (due to API limits), you might want to see other checkins at later date. Now all sort options have paginate enabled so you can paginate forever!

Venue Monitoring - This is another cool features that allows your “monitor” venues within When Will I Be Mayor. Every week, we will check to see your progress on getting that Mayorship at your favorite place. We’ll inform you of how many more checkins you have to go and the current mayor via email. Just click the binoculars icon at the top right hand-corner of the venue listing, and you’ll be all set! You are allowed up monitor up to 5 venues at a time. It’s that simple! This way you’ll never forgot your mayorship challenge.

New Mayor Algorithm - We’ve developed a much better algorithm on detecting how many actual check-ins you make actually count toward the mayorship total. That way you’ll know exactly how many more check-ins you need!

Real Maps, Yo - We now have real-true, Google Maps in the feed. This was you can move around the map and see where the place actually is! It beats having static pictures!

We also have a brand new theme curiosity of my good friend Tim Mather who redesigned the venue pages to make them look awesome. I’d say it’s a big improvement - and I have to tip my hat to him for making this website 100x better.

Go ahead and check the new version out, sign up and let me know what you think!

One more thing - remember to follow When Will I Be Mayor on Twitter at @mayorplease.

Please send all feature requests, bug and defects to @mayorplease on Twitter.

Thanks,

Greg

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Introducing: When Will I Be Mayor?

Wed, 12 May 2010 15:18:00 -0400

Sometimes an idea for a stupid website starts when you wake up. For more of you, you know what foursquare is. For those you don’t, I’m not going to waste your time. I was on the this morning, checking into the station and seeing that I had still not taken over Mayorship from my local train to my job downtown. I wished there was an easier way to find how many more times it would take you to take over your favorite spot.

And thus - When Will I Be Mayor was born. It allows your to sign with your foursquare credentials (OAuthentication coming soon!) - and it pulls in your most recent checkins and see how many more checkins it will take to overtake the throne.

So next time you want to see if you will be mayor at your favorite spot - head over to whenwillibemayor.com to try your luck! Are you up for the challenge?

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