Alkmaar
We -the guys behind Pinside.com- would really like to know from you -our beloved visitor- what you would like to see happen with Pinside.com next. Do you have a great idea for the site? Let's discuss it here!
(Topic ID: 12)
This topic is closed.
Guildford
erm, i think this a great site and can't think of anything new it really needs. the design is superb, the stats and info cool, and the map and market place are great features. plus, you have news stuff off pinballnews.com (another great pinball site) . Between this , Pinballnews, and ipdb you dont really need anything else!!
it only needs to be populated a little more by pinballers!! they're either too shy to write, or they're too busy playing pinball!!
oooh, i thought of a new section for you. "people giving away pinball machines for FREE!" that would be a popular section!!! 
)
Gee, thanks for those compliments. It's really very nice to hear those things! I agree, it seems like a lot of our visitors are either a bit shy or indeed very busy playing their games. But with this new forum we may have another reason to get all pinball enthousiasts around the world typing and communicating! As for the section you suggested, I'm affraid I would be building it for little use 
hey,
thought of another one. If you're bored and have loads of time to design it....
instead of your pinball karma chart, what about doing an end game DMD style multiplier points system thingie? You could make the scoring stupidly high, say, as in AFM. That would be cool (maybe?)
It's drawing on the pinball theme more than the spiritual belief thing. plus, i've never even had my palm read let alone considered the karma of my good or bad actions!! (mostly bad)
like i said, no pressure. Only if you're bored and have lots of time on your hands though
What do you mean by a DMD style multiplier points system thingy? Can you give an example?
I must say I like the idea of changing the karma-style to a more pinball-style kind of thing. Like giving out a pinball score instead of karma points. And showing a Dot Matrix-board alongside each Pinside user (or should I say player?) This way we could also create some nice titles for people with a high pinball score (such as pinball wizard, grand champion and the like).
Speaking of all this, we should probably award users some karma points for posting forum items as well. Hmmmm, I will have a look at this next week...
Yeh, you've got it exactly. a dot matrix showing their score (karma). Sure,you could even give them titles like "grand champ" etc etc, no one likes to be a novice though! that system would be very cool, and alot more relevant to this pinball site.
You could even do different styles (fonts) of dmd dispay too - say, in the style of indy, afm, TZ...you could even go back to 80's games like funhouse, whirlwind etc. I don't know how tricky all this is to do, but it'd be a cool addition!
2 weeks later
Eaux Claires
hello dear creators ^^
thanks for your great works and your passion for this crazy machine named pinball.
Only one question in my mind : why could we only make YouTube links in the video section? there's some things of interest on dailymotion for example ^^
a lot of thumbnails are not available in spite of the fact that backglasses are present in the picture section !?!
All the best !
Hi Lorenz, the YouTube thing is because of the way our current player works. I will take a look and see if more video sites can be added.. Stay tuned for that!
As for the thumbnails, could you provide me with a list of the machines you are referring to, so I can see what's going wrong there?
Thanks for your suggestions, keep 'em coming!
1 month later
Love the site,
Perhaps a running thread about where to find pinball?
from local arcades to bowling centers .
I know a small arcade that has a room set up just for pinball,
pins are in tip top shape that no one knows about.
1 month later
Middleton, MA
Maybe you could have a section for members to upload pics of their machines/game rooms. Cuz, just like anything we have to see who has the best one!!!! ;-P
I agree with the last 3 posts! W e need more info on where to find pinball game rooms,also I grew up playing 70's machines would like to see info on early 1970's pinball games and finally home gameroom pics would be great,just let me get afew more pins-LOL.
I think this site is awesome - like others have said, just wish more folks were on here!
Do you have any banner ads? I could post some on my website. It's not pinball related, but I'd be happy just to help spread the word.
RD
Wow, some good ideas here! Thanks so far!
As for the "where to play pinball" idea. This may fit perfectly in our World Pinball Map page (http://pinside.com/pinball/community/map), don't you think? We should build some web-based form on that page to enable users to 'pin' their favourite gameroom up on the map? Would something like that work?
As for the Pinside database "going back" to 1965 or possible even earlier, it could be done of course. The Pinside has originally always been about Solid State_ pinball, but if enough people would request it, we might consider doing EM games as wel. First of all, we would need someone to step up and compile a list of the games (in a format like csv or xml so we can easily insert into the database). If you have some free time on your hands and want to organise this effort, you could open up a new topic and we'll discuss further details there.
Uploading pics of your gameroom can already be done. If you go to your Pinsiders profile and edit your profile story there's an option to include pictures in it. Or isn't that what you mean?
As for banners, we don't currently have any. Maybe you can use the logo image from our site?
As for getting more people on the site, it's not only about visitors, it's all about active_ visitors. Pinside.com currently gets well over 600 unique visitors each day. The thing is: most of 'em don't actively participate. If you have any good suggestions on how we could more actively involve people in the site, I'm very interested. Are there things that aren't clear enough, things that could be re-designed? Did we make things too difficult? Do let me know! It's sometimes hard for us to visualize how our visitors 'view' and use the site, if you know what I mean.
And keep those ideas coming! I'm trying to spend the little spare time I have on implementing the best ideas on Pinside.com and any suggestion or help is most welcome and apprciated!
1 week later
One quick question, eh, make it two:
1) I know Pinside keeps track of the going rate for the machines, as it is listed on the "Bang for the Buck" page. Is it also listed on the machine pages somewhere? It would be very handy to have it on the market page. Guess I'm just curious where it is listed.
2) How are these numbers calculated? eBay, Mr. Pinball?
Thanks!
RD
Did you have a look at this blog post: http://pinside.com/pinball/blog/bang-for-your-buck
That's where the Bang for Your Buck list is explained in detail. All the prices come from Ebay alone.
Another handy tip to try out: Go to the archive page ( http://pinside.com/pinball/archive ) and in the search form, leave the big text box empty and only set the 'sorting order' to price (ascending or descending). Now click the "find machines" button and presto! A list of games sorted by price.
2 weeks later
here's a good one that I actually THOUGHT of before I logged on this site. Hey robin (since you are the ONLY moderator that loggs on here and has input) How about a pinball 'QUIZ' section? The masses could input a 'quiz' question and answer for other users to try and quess for, either for KARMA points or something else. Kinda like your 'quess the pinball quote thing' EG, 'What late 80's pinball from Williams has no POP bumpers?'................'SWORDS OF FURY' I guess it would have to be an honour system too with this damn internet! ;-P
6 months later
Robin this is a GREAT site, thanks to you and all that made it what it is. It is conversations like these that continually make this site my favorite pinball site!
Kenmore
I would like to see the city/country of the members under their avatar, just so you have some idea of where they are from when they are sharing their experience. I know you can look it up by clicking on their avatar, but I think that's kind of distracting when reading through a thread.
The "where to play pinball" was something I had thought of also - You could just integrate google maps (make things easy on the dev guys) and have people post thumbs etc. thru google - you guys could just pull the code. Which would also be nice because we could update that map using mobile device - so if your out and about and discover a new pin - snap a pict - upload thru your phone - give description etc
I've done this for other client sites and its really pretty fast and nice.
These would all be public pins
I also like the idea of a chatroom .. I posted it once awhile back and then deleted the suggestion as I didn't want to overburden Robin as he had just added picture support and some smilies.
CHATROOM??? I am already NOT allowing myself into that one! 
but it would be cool for sure for the site!
The 'where to find pinball' is still a good one too. You can add yourself to the 'PINSIDE' world map and I have noticed that alot of you haven't. That's kind of neat and its already on here!
1 week later
I was thinking a site locator and reviews section would be great. I imagine one that works like a combination of posterous.com but also has the ability to be self-policing, where registered users can flag inappropriate or redundant content.
Posterous, by the way, can receive updates via text message and email. This would allow people with an iphone or similar to snap a pic of a location and send it in. This would make additions and updates very simple and timely.
I'd like to see the option of having a "signature" line / picture that gets included at the bottom of your posts automatically. It would be set up via your profile like on other forums.
You know I always check the 'Forum' section first and hardly ever click on the 'Home' sec.
However the 'Home' sec. looks a lot nicer with all the colors and logos etc.
too bad we couldn't have the 'Forum' looks as good as the 'Home' ?
-but I dont know anything about building a site so..........
just a thought
1 week later
Umeå
Great site! Nice outlay, good graphics and everything.
A highscore table would be nice, where members can post their highscores on different machines. With two categorys where one would be "home" ( a game you own or a game your friend owns that you can play for free ) and "arcade" (a score achived somewhere else then home that you´ve payed for). And a field where you can comment the score you´ve posted (number of extraballs, buy-in or not, tournament play, friendly or unfriendly outlanes...etc.
Something like that...
I think that would be a nice future....If eveyone is honest
Idea stolen from the Swedish Pinball forum svenskaflippersallskapet.se
2 months later
This really is a great site as everyone else has said. The folks here are much nicer than certain other pinball related groups, it seems. And it's set up so well, there isn't much room for improvement, but I vote for:
-Home game room pics/ideas (loved the IKEA light strips!)
-Where to play in public site locator (I know a couple local spots!)
Thanks for this fabulous site!
Stickies in the troubleshooting section for each manufacturer. Would be a great way to stockpile and document a lot of useful info.
A "how to section". User articles written up with detailed pics. things like: Play field stripping,waxing / sound upgrades / sealing backglass / general tips and tricks(you know "tribal knowledge") / people could follow another members step by step restorations / home designed light upgrades etc.
I know this is a lot, I'm just tossing ideas around on the keyboard, work with me
FWIW - For the short time I've been here, I really enjoy and appreciate the comerodity and knowledge you've established on this site. Kudos to the "Behind the backglass" people that make it possible to have a site like this!!
This is a great site. I too wish there were a page for Where to play public pinball machines. Registered users should be able to add/delete and edit the postings. Required fields should be Name of Store/location, City, State/Province and Country, and Number of machines. Optional fields could be the actual address, names of the machines present, pics, how well are the machines maintained, store hours, and a text field to add other misc info. The website should automatically Date Stamp the last time that post was updated so we know how relevent the info is.
A separate archive for EM machines would be cool too. Wouldn't that pinball buyer's guide have a good list?
I like the more members idea, but that is not something the site can do.
The location of members would be great, that way we would know who is in our area and could host evenings to play different games.
What about a "swap" section where pinballers in the same area could possibly trade pins for 3-6 months.
I like the idea of a swap section. I'd like to swap in a different pin for a few months, it would be good fun. But you would be putting a lot of trust and faith in the person your gonna swap with, and I suppose they would too. I wouldn't mind someone replacing a bulb or rubber or fuse(something simple), but would you want someone trying to fix your circuit boards?. What if it came back with busted plastics and scratched bodywork....or worse completely dead?
I would can see the verbal contract policy "you break it, you buy it".
I like that swap idea too, but I don't think to many of us live close enough to each other to make it worthwhile. Maybe a member blitz would solve that problem! 
Also the dent and scratch factor might worry some people on premium machines.
Local cash tournaments are a cool idea I think. There is a big one in Toronto, and I missed it this past year. 10,000 bucks in prize money and they gave away a brand new machine. Kind of similar to the 2 big ones in the USA.
https://www.theplaydiumstore.com/TournamentPage.aspx?Topic=Tournament1
I would organize a local one for sure around my area, but maybe for a few hundred bucks prize money and bring your own machine if you want. Just more of a fun thing to play some machines and have some drinks.
Some really good ideas here. I would suggest a repair section with FAQ's, chatroom, I know that with the guys on here running an EM section and getting info for that would be no problem at all too.
I'd like to see some sort of homepage where there was a link to all the ebay auctions for ALL the pins in my collection (and wish list) from one single place. Would be so helpful in tracking things for my various pins that may come up for sale...
I think we should have our own pinball themed Carnival Cruise 
I know .. it's a nice idea but impossible .. still I dream ...
When I hit the lottery I'll sponsor one !
The cruise is a good idea. There might be some interesting movement on the balls.
As far as the swap idea, I would not "swap" my addams family, but would include Black rose or earthshaker. I would have to be comfortable with the other person. Remember you would have one of their games also.
Yes a mods section would be awesome. Today I ordered a backbox flasher kit for my LOTR from PinballLife. The kit places a bright led behind the eye in the backbox. whenever you shoot the ball through the ring spinner, the eye will flash each time the spinner is hit. I think it will be cool.
Ooh, sweet. Gonna have to get me one of those the next time I order from them. Which color did you choose?
Terry at Pinballlife recommends Orange so that is what I am going to order.
This topic is closed.
Reply
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!
Donate to PinsideGreat to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!
