Rhea came out punching, demanding to know why Mark feels Foursquare is antisocial, claiming that social location is going to change and evolve the way we connect with people and stating the case for how Foursquare itself has helped her to find her current job and make friends in real life. But Mark was quickly on the attack, claiming that Foursquare takes time away from the important things in life and stating that, if Foursquare is to be the social network of the future, it must be compared to Facebook and Twitter.

After some opening sparring, the first solid blows were landed when Mark described Foursquare as a time bandit, an interrupter of other networks and of real life, leading to more staring into phones and less conversation. Rhea was on the ropes, but her attempted parries that it takes her two seconds to check in, so not a huge amount of time, that it’s conversation starter and that mobiles are cool were swatted aside by a rampant Mark. He continued to rain in blows, stating that at best Foursquare is a game but at worst it masquerades as a benefit while stealing the richness of life from us. And this was followed by a highly emotive play, a huge chin-crushing uppercut in the form of a statement that, in our busy lives, time is the commodity we value most but afford the least and that we should use our time for greater experiences: the goodbye kiss, the first words of our child. Ouch!

Just as the referee was about to step in and count Rhea out, the debate opened up to the watching masses. Some interesting points were made, notably:

• Stuart Witts’ assertion that NO social network increases social interaction by itself. It's HOW people use it
• Crispin Heath pointing out that we couldn't have had this debate on Foursquare. Twitter is what facilitated it
• Andy Nowlan asking whether even Foursquare knows what it’s for yet?
• Adam Vincenzini pointing out Foursquare’s cacth 22 dilemma that players will only get more rewards when more brands make the jump, but they won't jump without the players
• Rhea agreeing with Mark that it might not be the social network of the future, but countering by saying that it's helping shape what that might be
• Jonathon Mulligan saying that Foursquare has the capacity to be social, but the social aspect of it has the lowest active users out of his friends

It’s fair to say that the first fight night was a great success. The day itself saw over 550 tweets using the #bigtweetoff hashtag from 90 contributors and some fantastic and thought-provoking debate. You can read the full transcript here. And it was fun, too!

Finally, it came down to the vote, with Mark in the red corner taking the plaudits and the Big Tweet Off belt, claiming 58% of the votes cast. The debate will undoubtedly rumble on, but for the time being at least, Twitter has spoken: Foursquare has yet to convince us that it has the legs for long-term success.