Nope - you've not missed it :) We're a little slow publishing our instruction booklet - it's on it's way today.

Points are earned as follows:

1 point for a check in with text
2 points for a photo check-in
3 points for an audio check-in

If you include all three in your check in, you score 6.
They provide an incentive to make media rich check-ins.

We plan to reward points accumulated with both real world and virtual prizes, but we're holding out on a firm view of how this should work until we've seen how people use the app. We're keen to avoid too many random 'badges', as seen in other location based apps. We feel that our core proposition - connecting people with great local food, should stand alone, without the need for elaborate gaming systems, as a more long term framework for food change.

At a more local level, the more points you score checking in with a local producer, the more loyal you should be considered to that producer. We're working on the best way to reflect this.

Finally, thanks for the feedback. Keep it coming, we're aware everything is a little rough round the edges at the moment and we're really keen to shape the app to suit the community.

Cheers

Mark

Hi Mark,

On the point of gaming systems, this is worth 10 minutes of your time: http://noteandpoint.com/2011/03/long-after-the-thrill-sustaining-passionate-users/

Thanks Mike - interesting slides.

We're currently building social features for the app, which bring points into play more.

Lovefre.sh deals with building personal community / social networks differently to anything before it - you'll see this more clearly when we launch our take on the 'Follow'. We are building a system that rewards app use and content creation, with serendipity and network growth - but that requires no effort on the part of the user to maintain.