Firstly, the published reason is they intend to let people contribute and maintain the dataset. This is a good open data mindset to allow a dataset to maintain its health and grow. It would make the dataset sustainable.
An unpublished reason is that it could be a sign that things within Foursquare are winding down. Making the dataset sustainable reduces internal costs and increases the value to themselves and others. (like the reasons to open source software)
Foursquare City Guide is shutting down, and recently laid off 105 (25%) employees. I would imagine releasing data before things stop is a good ethical move.
"The letter does, however, address which units were impacted and, relatedly, the divisions that Foursquare plans to ditch, including Visits, OCF, and Foursquare City Guide.
According to Little’s letter, Foursquare is also pausing work on a number of other initiatives, including "Mobile Developers Tools, Geode, and the current version of FSQ Insights."
That's right. I would actually expect there to be a few more than 7!
And if we extend the search to all placenames dedicated to St Michael quite a bit more!
It's not pure coincidence but it is a kind of observation error as highlighted in other comment. Increasing and decreasing the variables and measurements effects the odds.
Basically you can get a line between many things on earth, but 1) the dimensions of that line cannot be chosen if you also want to choose the things that define it or 2) the dimensions can be chosen but the things that make it up cannot.
Perhaps we need to identify a substitute before quitting a certain thing? Something pleasurable and beneficial (not work). Like reading a book.
Simply cutting something out will leave a gap where that something was. We should fill it with things of our choosing otherwise it will be filled up with something of a similar gap shaped thing!
I'm guessing that there is some automatic system that works on certain words in comments. Flame detection has been mentioned before. Probably in combination with account age or karma. I also imagine that users vouching for these might offset the behaviour.
One way Reddit could make money and please users is if they targeted commercial non-advertising use. Many subreddits are either customer support, product PR, or brand management factories even if they don't explicitly state so. Everything from interviews (AMA), sports, entertainment, movies, music and news to porn. A significant portion of active submissions and comments are from employees being paid. Big and small companies are spending money on people who spend time on reddit.
By identifying and charging commercial users it will clean up reddit for the normal user and increase income.
this says 4 days ago:
https://hn.algolia.com/?query=What%20do%20people%20see%20whe...