"Serving pinballs to the web since 2001!"

Pinside Karma

Written by Martijn on March 12th, 2008.

Pinside Karma

What is it?

The Pinside was once created because its designers thought pinball is a great hobby and therefor should be more present on the Internet. And off course we want the pinball community to be as large and active as possible. For the new Pinside we would like to get you, the visitor, to get more involved. That's why we introduced a new concept: Pinball Karma.

First things first

This help text assumes that you've already created a Pinside account. Go here to read how you can create one.

How does it work?

The idea behind this concept is a simple one: the more you participate on the Pinside, the higher your Pinball Karma will be. This way people who are active will get credit for their contributions. Actions that contribute to your Karma are: Signing up and telling us something about yourself and your collection, writing news items, stories and reviews about an individual machine or about the pinball community in general, rating machines, making comments to posted stories and adding content like images to the archive.

What's in there for you?

So what good will a high Pinball Karma do you? Well, beside the warm and cosey feeling of being a highly valued member of a great community, once you gain more points, you will climb the rankings of the Pinside hall of fame that can be visited in the 'Community' section.

Great stuff! Now how do I start collecting Karma?

To get a great Pinball Karma, you'll first need a Pinside user account, so if you didn't register yet, start by
Screenshot: pinside karma signing up. After signing up, you can tell the Pinside community something about yourself, about how you started playing pinball and why you like it so much. You can also fill out your profile and choose an avatar or tell us which machines you own or would like to own in the future. You can optionally choose to share this information with our community, so other pinheads can get in touch with you. If you finished completing your profile, you can participate more by rating machines you've played or uploading photo's of your own machines. Or if you have something interesting to share you can comment on the articles you read or write an great article yourself.

So how many Karma points do I get for a certain action?

We believe that the following distribution of Karma points is fair compared to the amount of time an certain action will cost you. Please note that because this feature is new, we can't be sure yet that this is a good reflection. So there might be minor changes to this distribution (which might cause your Karma to rise or drop a bit).

For now you will receive the following amount of points for a certain action:

Signing up: 100
Completing profile: 50
Choosing an avatar: 100
Writing a story about yourself: 100
Writing an story / article: 100
Writing an story / article that gets featured: 150
Rating a machine: 15
Making a comment to an article: 10
Uploading an image: 5
Suggesting a video: 10
'Starting' a collection: 50

Already signed up?

Off course we want to thank our existing users for all the hard work they did for the old Pinside site. After all, without your help we wouldn't have been able to create this new site in the first place. That's why we decided to grant Pinball Karma for all actions done by users in the past as if they were done at the new site. So, if you've been a longtime Pinside user, log in and check out how much Karma points you've already collected. The 100 points for signing up should be there as a bare minimum.

There are 24 comments to this story

magoo commented on May 02, 2008 16:43:09

Play pinball everyday !
Pinball Forever !
Antoshka commented on May 19, 2008 10:05:51

Baywatch was one of the earlier machines i have played, apart from the big
distracting DMD, it had amazing multiball action, and surprizing lock mechanism, this is the best big DMD display machine SEGA pinball had ever made. Well, second best, after maverick
caidon commented on May 29, 2008 23:55:16

My first Pinball Machine is the Bally "Kiss" .. i played that for the first time when i was about 17 years old ,in a store in Florina city .. after many years by best friend ( we was playing together as kids with bikes and all...) set a club, there he met the guy that had all these machines in florina's area .. and for sure we bought this pinball .. it was in the year 1996 i believe .. i had it in my house as much as i was single.... after i get married the pinball moved to the basement , it stayed there for some years and after my divorce finally my little daughter met the KISS pinball machine and she like it too much she's 7 years old . NEFELI the name... so now after all these years the KISS are with me and will go on with my daughter...
bevanm commented on June 10, 2008 16:27:06

What is with the herd of cows Mooing across the screen?
I can't figure it out. Cows have nothing to do with the theme..............
and how the hell do they get there
georgeb commented on August 22, 2008 11:03:39

my first machine was theatre of magic but i sold it should have kept it is one of the best machines,i have now fish tales good machine but not as good as my first.
Original_Rocker commented on September 27, 2008 06:41:00

Pinball is a very expensive hobby. I wanted one for ages but for a guy living in the city and in an apartment it can be difficult to negotiate space with the little woman let alone the investment. I finally have a house and making okay cash. I married the girlfriend and NOW I can finally afford a couple cool machines. I got Silverball Mania, but I'm buying Bram Strokers Dracula tomorrow! WhoooooHoooo!
pingrams commented on October 05, 2008 07:19:27

Rocker, I am happy to know of someone with a Silverball Mania, mine is 1980 I believe and my husband and I will be fixing it up. How well does yours work and where are you finding your parts? pingrams
LorenZ commented on November 11, 2008 16:51:23

Mecanic, Electro Mecanic, Alpha Numeric, Dot Matrix:

Enjoy pinballs .... all pinballs .... it's good for your KarmA ! ! !
LOTTABALLS commented on November 24, 2008 10:07:32

I was always fascinated by pinball machines. I never dreamed I'd ever own one. Well, actually I think I DID dream I had some! So when I got the chance to buy one, even though it was expensive to me at the time, I jumped at the chance. Then one turned into two, two turned into four, four turned into TEN!!! And I know it's only going to keep growing.
My other comment...pinball sharpens your reflexes almost to the point of ninja. That bar of soap doesnt hit the shower floor anymore when it slips out of my fingers! Zap! Got it! Pull out some money out of the wallet and a bill falls out...swoop...nabbed that too. And I ponder...wow, where'd THAT come from?...oh yeah...PINBALL!!!
Envisiond commented on December 03, 2008 22:20:10

First machine I owned was a Star wars Trilogy. I got sucked in by the theme even though the machine play was not great. I sold the machine with no regrets and replaced it with Theatre of Magic.
tomdotcom commented on December 06, 2008 00:14:56

Just signed up for pinside recently, I have a great love for the old classic arcade games, and even more love for pinball machines. I am currently looking at getting my first pinball machine. The Tommy Who machine!!
Autumnfade commented on January 22, 2009 02:41:16

I digg the idea of Karma points may get members more active
onedeath commented on February 16, 2009 22:04:20

I love collecting pinballs, now I just need more room for more machines. :)
grosganja commented on February 27, 2009 00:24:08

hi,my first pinballs were pinbot williams,victory gottlieb;now i have a twilight zone bally and a stargate gottlieb,i am looking for an attack from mars,theatre of magic or a gun's & roses(for the music) a lotlotlotlot of beautiful machines to restore ,enjoy pinballs!!!!!!
jbscar commented on March 16, 2009 02:11:36

Bought my first pinball machine when I was 15 years old with my paper route money. Had a pinball machine before my first car! What's up with that???
dglover4569 commented on March 31, 2009 01:03:23

Pinball, beer, and woman... What a blast!!!
stingray4me commented on May 01, 2009 03:20:18

I remember when me & my friends were about 14-15 around 1976-1977 growing up on Kentucky Lake in Dover Tn. we used to ride our Honda SL-70s to a bait store that had several EM machines, I can't remember any of them but it was a blast to play them. I got my first arcade games from the mall in Marysville, Ca. I had Space Ace, & a few others starting in 1984, I still have Bomb Jack, Altereded Beast, & Turbo Out Run & my 4 Pins. I got my first pin in93 which I still have is Pinbot, then I got Baywatch, Gorgar, & most recent Sound Stage.
ayrton2727 commented on June 09, 2009 08:08:12

Just got my first pinball machine last week. A Joker Poker SS. I remember as a kid playing this game at little spot across from our highschool. The place would only hold about 3 machines and a counter to buy food but we would live in there playing the pinball machines. Everytime I look or play my machine it takes me back to when I was a kid. It is great because now my 11 year old daughter is hooked on pinball.
brentxyz commented on July 27, 2009 14:07:13

PINBALL,ROLLERCOASTERS,SKATEBOARDS,CORVETTES,HEAVY METAL,BEER & BABES! NEED I SAY MORE?
Movits commented on August 23, 2009 20:55:24

Pinball - The best game ever made - Pinball Forever
bluedntattood commented on October 11, 2009 08:10:10

I play every night after work, and start my day with picking a machine at random. One game before I leave for work to psych myself up for the day ahead. This bug bites HARD!
jrrdw commented on October 20, 2009 14:08:53

Playing pinball everyday helps keep the doctor away...
Pinhead76 commented on October 22, 2009 04:30:32

First pin I remember playing was Whirlwind at a local bowling alley. Man I wish I owned that one just for the memories! Pinball will survive!
pinrad commented on January 16, 2010 00:02:42

If it ain't a Harley then it better be a pinball

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