Article was recently updated:
After publication of this article, Laura Covington, a Foursquare spokeswoman, said in statement: “This is a violation of our API policy, so we’ve reached out to the developer and shut off their API access.”
> we’ve reached out to the developer and shut off their API access
That's sounds so ... I don't know ... PR-ish and passive aggressive. I always thought "to reach out" means an attempt to help. In other words the one reaching out has good intentions and intends to help the other party. So in this instance, it is like saying "the police reached out to the family, killed their dog and arrested everyone".
It's absolutely PR-ish, and it's a bit annoying that the update could leave the naive reader with the impression that everything's been fixed when actually what's happened is that the visibility of the problem has been removed.
So far I've only once been threatened with being "reached out" to, by Oracle after I tried to ask them about one of their products. I found the expression vaguely sinister and was kind of relieved that they never actually got in touch.
