Foursquare’s crisis ends with a symbol

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Smartphone application Foursquare eventually created the Bosphorus Badge with 48 places, including the Bosphorus Bridge, Maiden’s Tower and the Hagia Sophia.

Foursquare, an app for smartphones, has finally ended a debate over its badge symbol for Istanbul by replacing a contentious picture of a fez with Üsküdar’s Maiden’s Tower.

Foursquare, an app which has over 15 million users, recently made a special Windy Badge for Chicago. Witnessing the demand for more badges, the site decided to create new ones and started with the cities trending the most, such as Paris, London and Istanbul, Foursquare Turkey officials said on their website.

“They probably realized the number of the trending places is higher in Istanbul than the other big cities across the globe,” Foursquare Turkey said, adding that they sent a list of places which they thought would be appropriate in representing the city’s atmosphere.

Foursquare eventually created the Bosphorus Badge with 48 places, including the Bosphorus Bridge, Maiden’s Tower and the Hagia Sophia. However, users who had the badge were shocked to see the city represented by a fez.

“I stared at it for a while, but I couldn’t understand the object at first,” an official at Foursquare Turkey said on the website, adding that they immediately informed officials in the main center about the 1920s hat reform in Turkey that outlawed the wearing of the fez.

Afterwards, Foursquare Turkey asked that the Bosphorus Bridge be used as the Istanbul badge’s symbol, but officials from Foursquare rejected the suggestion, saying symbols must be unique.

“They offered Hagia Sophia, but some users might have thought that it was consciously done by Foursquare in the knowledge that the museum was once a church,” the official said.

The problem was eventually ended by choosing the Maiden’s Tower. Users can utilize the badge, which shows users’ popularity and activeness.