gowalla:

Yesterday we turned the page on a new chapter for Gowalla. For our fans keeping score out there, the reaction has ranged from “The new Gowalla is the best thing ever!” to “I absolutely and utterly hate the new Gowalla with a passion reserved for spammers and ambulance chasers!” I’m happy to…

Never know Gowalla can turn out so poorly. A year ago I picked it up, picked it over Foursquare, and have been loving it. I love Gowalla for its “journal” style, how it keeps my check-in record as a virtual passport, and at the same time letting users collect items and leave footprints everywhere.

And that’s why the new update, so called 4.0, has ruined everything:

1) Items are removed without a real good reason. They just claimed that only 2% of users are actually using it. So they have to remove it. How do they come up with this “2%” thing? No one knows. And do they count inactive users as the whole population too? [GAMING factor removed]

2) Challenge pins silently gone as well. There is even no explanation or mention of this removal. Those pins you collected by satisfying certain conditions, vanished like the thin air. [GAMING factor removed]

3) Your stamp archive (check-in history) gone as well. It might be stupid but I did sometimes look into my stamp archive, checking out when I have been over the last year, the special spots and memories. Not to mention they are now gone without any mention either. [CHECK-IN HISTORY hidden from users]

4) The new app itself is VERY unfriendly on checking in. It has basically turned to be a “travel guide” app, that lets you check in to enrich their database. Even when you go through so many clicks to load up the “spots list”, it actually shows you the “recommended spots”, which are usually the tourist hotspots that you don’t need to see every time you wanna check in. [CHECK-IN unfriendly, or discouraged actually]

5) Well the Gowalla Team themselves have even been ignoring feedback of the new 4.0 too. When their blogs are swarmed with negative comments, and the Android Market / iTunes Store flooded with 1 star review, they still claimed that “happy to see that positive refrain has far outweighed the negative”, and people who are hating the update “hate with a passion reserved for spammers”. I can accept that they made a wrong turn on the update. But I couldn’t stand how they ignored users’ comments like we are the stupid ones. [If you don’t wanna play a game that will drastically change the rules suddenly, then don’t play it. The developers DON’T CARE.]

Well I still remember how much time I have spent to create as many meaningful spots as I can, and sorting out the wrong ones too. Foursquare has been improving over the years (especially the Explore feature). But I still stayed exclusively at Gowalla, and just to find out they make use of the data we came up and turned it into something we don’t want, and yet they can care less.

It’s a pity for the time and passion I have put on Gowalla. But I would really like to see how it will turn out. Will they thrive to the next level or fall even more behind? Nonetheless my effort on the pins, items and check-in history are all ruined. I got nothing to lose anymore. :)