You are correct, Foursquare provides a good way to meet-up with friends and family at a specific location. However just announcing your general whereabouts, even if its just the gas station, let's those who know you that you maybe in their vicinity. One could call a friend who is known to be close by for a meet-up at a more convivial location. Without that 'ticker' you may not call at all to meet up.

The other side of Foursquare is the competitive nature of the leader-board, you get points for checking-in to locations, and of course one wants to be as honest as possible with friends, but still be top dog

I've been experimenting with Gowalla recently and that gives one more incentive to check-in at locations to pick-up and drop off 'items'. I foresee the Gowalla model promoting widespread check-ins.

JP

What about Gowalla? MyTown?

Would you tell everyone you're at a bank in the hopes of meeting up with people? Probably not. Would you tell everyone you're at a restaurant, bar or — in my case — a cigar bar in the hopes of meeting up with people? Maybe.

Could you express why you checked into a gas station, bank, etc. in the first place? Curious as to what your reasoning is.

The irony of it is that the check-ins were genuine.
Gas Station, Bank, Grocery Store and Home Improvement store, all inside 10 minutes and I did a business transaction at every location. When you only spend a minute or two at a location and there is little or no travel time between them, one can get flagged.

Clearly no system is perfect. The god news is that Foursquare are clamping down on the cheaters by observing usage patterns.