Not a Fan: Why I Removed OneTrueFan
I wanted to like OneTrueFan. It’s the Foursquare of websites and at first the novelty of seeing other people’s avatars in the toolbar was interesting. I especially thought it was interesting when browsing my company’s site (coffeecup.com) because I immediately wanted to know more about them.
That’s when it hit me. I’m not paying for this app… therefore I’m not the subscriber -
I’m the content.
I’ve seen it said before that these “free apps” where the users provide all the content and trade away reasonably private information are ultimately doomed unless they start providing tangible value to the users that keep shoveling coal into the furnaces.
So far I don’t see the new subscriber rate at Foursquare tailing off but it’s going to reach a saturation point and we’ve already seen multiple meme-waves of “Fuck this Foursquare thing - I Quit!” now. (followed by some smaller meme-waves of “ok I’ll try it again…”)
So I’m not using OneTrueFan for now. If there were tangible rewards for accumulating “points” then I might change my mind.
Keep in mind, they are working on deploying a page where you can see all the information they’ve gathered about you. You can’t delete your profile (yet?) but you can stop sending in data by removing the plugin.
