Foursquare has announced a new, easier way for users to make the step up and become Superusers.

Essentially, Superusers are users of Foursquare that help manage information about venues. Superusers can merge duplicate venues; flag venues for deletion if they have been closed; and edit venue names or other venue information. They can also add venue categories and create aliases for venues.

As pointed out by Scribbal co-founder Chris Credendino, these Superusers have been traditionally passionate, active Foursquare users who have been handpicked by the location-based service to help manage venues. However, Foursquare is now encouraging anyone who would like to reduce the number of duplicate venues or fix spelling errors to apply to become a Superuser. Those who reach Superuser Level 3 status can also lock venues so that Superusers at lower levels cannot edit, close or add tags or categories to venues.

To apply, you can fill out this application while you are logged in to your Foursquare account (it might be a good idea to check out the Superuser guidelines first too).

Meanwhile, Foursquare has rolled out a new dashboard with all the tools, resources and tips that Superusers might need. There is also the option to suggest other users for a Superuser upgrade — when you suggest someone for Superuser status, that person will receive an invitation inviting them to apply.

Foursquare also has an official Superuser forum, where Superusers old and new can come together to discuss venue merging and editing.

This is a logical move for Foursquare — as the service grows, so does the number of duplicate venues and errors in venue information. Having more Superusers means that Foursquare can clean house faster and get rid of errors in the venues database. Having a cleaner database would help regular users who simply want to check-in to venues as well as make things easier for developers who want to create cool apps such as these using Foursquare’s API.