Why do some foursquare users add their own home addresses as public venues?

I do this for a number of reasons: Firstly, I use foursquare as a method of maintaining location awareness within my social circle.  If the people I choose to give access to my location know I'm at home, they might not ask me to do something 5km away.  Letting people know where I am is a decision, and I don't make it based entirely on each location.  For me the decision is first, do I want this person to know my location, and then second, do I want to share my current location, not the other way around. Secondly, foursquare is seemingly focused on social venues like bars, restaurants, coffee shops, etc.  I want my home to be perceived by my friends as a social venue, a place where they can visit, have fun, and leave.  As well, treating my home in this way lets friends know when a few people are over - in general, if you're on my foursquare friends list, I wouldn't have an issue with you stopping by with a minimum amount of notice, regardless of where I am. Finally, it's fun.  There's something amusing about getting the mayorship of a friends house, and that sense of fun is part of what keeps people using the service - saving a buck here or there for being the mayor isn't going to motivate anyone for more than a week or two.

There are a few reasons: It's easy to stay mayor of your own home. Too many places are way too competitive to become mayor. Easy points for adding a new venue. As you can see in the above screenshot, adding a new venue netted me 11 points! It can be useful for seeing what's going on, depending on your friend group. e.g. You could see that everyone is hanging out at Jason's house. Of course, this could be awkward if you weren't invited. That said, I think these venues add to much clutter to foursquare. I believe their algorithm downweights these types of venues, but I still see them way too much. It would be better if there was an option to designate these as private venues, available to only your friends. This would reduce the clutter for most users. As important, it would reduce the privacy risks associated with such venues.

Some people may do it out of a sense of gamesmanship.  I mean, you'd think that you can easily stay the mayor of your own home. I love hearing stories, however (whether they're in person or on conference panels) about how this is easier said than done. To be less cynical, though, I think that it's closer to the spirit of why Foursquare was developed than you'd think.  I've heard the story told several by Foursquare founders of how the service was created in large part so that they would know at which bar in NYC their friends were.  Why should I be able to share my location with friends when I'm at Moe's Tavern, but not at Moe's house?  Maybe he's got a pool table. :) Personally, I don't share my home address out of privacy concerns, but I can see why others do it.  As far as whether the influx of personal locations would be a mess (and it already kinda is in parts of my quiet suburban town), that ultimately comes down to how the Foursquare team evolves the service. As Foursquare partners with more brands and local stores, does the UI for these locations have to change?

Most homes have been added as "private" locations but Foursquare just hasn't activated that functionality yet. When they give you the option to make a venue you've created private, they state that it's for future use.

Perhaps I'm just cynical, but people do seem to be rather obsessed with the points and it is an easy way to get more check-ins and raise your score, get badges, etc.

Macaulay Culkin checked-in and you know the rest of the story... Great idea! You can geotag your own home, do check-ins when you are there an not and inform to the robbers about the exact place where you keep your jewelry using a Foursquare photo.