Mostly I like helping others with technical things to get their games playing perfectly. Like buying parts and games. And a little drama once and awhile...

The people

1. I can get help on fixing my specific pinball machine at 3 a.m. on a Tuesday. People are very helpful and will answer with specific tips and even photos if I ask specific questions.
2. It is a like minded group of people (for the most part) at a similar point in their lives with similar interests, hobbies, and worldviews.
3. It is fun to speculate about new pins, talk about pins we like, and rag on Thunderbirds.
4. This is the absolute best place to buy, sell, and trade pins. The reputation system (as flawed as it is) is far superior to that on facebook. There are no well established scammers on pinside.
5. There is still a realm of anonymity on this site. Unless you are buying or selling a pin in person you don’t know who I am. You don’t really get that with facebook.
Also… when I commissioned in the Marine Corps they told us to delete our facebook accounts. I’ve never looked back.

I like learning things I never knew from Lloyd.

I like Odin's funky humor.

Watching Levi's funny forums turn into a comedy show.

Keeping up with Pinsiders I rarely get to see, like Forceflow.

Living vicariously Sharing Alaska.

Finding new pinball locations to travel to like the Pinball Palace, Freeplay Arcade Rhode Island, and the Pinball Sanctum.

Just being able to check in when I'm having a bad day, to see new posts on my favorite topics.

Pinside is a happy place for me, and I wholeheartedly believe for many others. You just have to weed through some of the flame wars to find its Heart of Gold.

Pinside makes me feel like there are others out there that like this nerdy hobby too

Pinside helps feed the addiction.

I’m just here for the price bubble threads.

…and I’m just here to gripe about playfield dimpling.

If you can weed through the nonsense, there are fantastic people here and a tremendous resource for help when you need it. I find it very easy to ignore the noise, then it becomes a fantastic place.

The People! If it wasn't for Pinside I wouldn't have bought my first machine, and I never would have been able to diagnose and fix them when they go down. Oh, and the entertainment factor, helps me kill a lot of time while I'm bored at work

it smells funny

I enjoy Pinside for the interaction, it really has helped expand my horizons and helped build friendships. So many aspects of pinball that I feel will never end with possibilities. What I also appreciate is the level of well educated, well rounded individuals that have helped me discover and discuss things I would never of thought about or found elsewhere. Lots of really smart & cool people on Pinside-love you guys(and gals)!

Ha…so really, why are you here?

Phase one: 2014-2018
1 market
2 tech help
3 fandom

Phase two: 2019+
1 market
2 hate-reading on pages upon pages of judgment of new reveals based on a couple photos
3 fandom

Learned lots of good repair tips over the years. Went from being afraid to even open up my game to doing all my own board troubleshooting and work in about 5 years. Like the marketplace alot as well and general industry news/rumors/reveals.

FB groups are useful for this sort of thing too, but they are near impossible to search and don't archive well at all - alot of the threads on Pinside from many years ago helped me work out issues and avoid having to post at all. The "archive" of sorts is invaluable and you can't really find that anywhere else.

haha believe it or not I consider you a well educated individual that is very well rounded and interesting to interact with despite all of the trolling you perform. From brain surgeons to rocket scientist to porn producers-Pinside gives me all the flavors I am looking for.

What other pinball forums are available?

I like Pinside because I can find out about games and mods first here, as well as info on code updates and maintenance.

I also like the fact that you can apparently start GoFundMe drives here for any damn thing...even to start your own arcade, for instance. I'm starting a GoFundMe soon to get a Pinside Plus account. It's tough for me to afford it now because of all the money I've got tied up in my row of LEs and toppers.

Pinside is an awesome community; I know they'll pull through for me.

Well...that makes one of us.

TECH: EARLY SOLID STATE
Pinball Horror Pics!!
Favorite childhood toys
Ode to the Filet-O-Fish

Great community always willing to help
Lots of great off topic threads
Kaneda Free Since 2020

I like pinside because it is all about pinball.
Not having to be on Facebook is a plus and not getting spammed by endless advertising.
Lots of interesting intelligent people that discuss all types of things pinball related.

Pinside is great for so many reasons, many of which have already been stated.

One reason I find it special is that it's an old-school style internet forum with a truly great UI and no mega-tech corporate overlords controlling things.

It does suffer a bit from being an echo-chamber of 40-65 year old men but... well maybe that's a feature not a bug?

I love train wrecks.

In all seriousness, in between all the rants and arguments, there is a lot of great information here to help you with the hobby. There are also tons of great people contributing to make the hobby better for all.

And yes, I admit, I do like watching (but rarely participating in) the “train wreck” threads.

I don’t understand people saying it’s toxic, if you don’t like someone block them, if you don’t like a topic drain it. I’ve personally never done either, I don’t lose any sleep over anything said here. Oh, and I’m mainly here for Lamberger.

Most people I talk to IRL think I am bonkers to have any pinball machine, let alone many of them...

Ya’ll make me feel normal.

100%

I just don't see any major drama or toxicity that some people claim - maybe I just have the capacity to ignore it

Great community and it's fun discussing pinball with people who are also in the hobby.

Here's an example of how great this community can be. Over the years I've been working on a STTNG playfield swap. Well I'm pretty sure I accidently threw away a proprietary part that connects one of the canon motors to an arm linkage. This part couldn't be found anywhere, looked for months with no luck. Well after a few months of having a wanted ad posted on Pinside someone from the other side of the world said "Today is your lucky day, I have the part for you". I couldn't believe it, he charged me a very reasonable price and just said "If you see me at a show buy me a beer". That's why this community is awesome.

Like every forum I've been on.

Someone needs help with a game.

LTG : )

Gas, fumes, toxic waste, it's all here.... But kidding aside Pinside has a great community of pinheads that are eager help each other and be apart of a great community.The market place is great and knowing ballpark values on games is nice to have.The format and layout far exceeds anything you could have on Facebook or other apps.Aside from the toxic peps, it's a great place to hang out.

Misspelling.

LTG : )

Haven't been active on here much at all until recently, but I've gotten so much help and suggestions from people about my machines. Plus just BS'ing about this hobby is a great time waster. Also love looking through the Market at machines ill most likely never be able get my hands on

Tiltforums.com

I’m here mostly for celebrity death threads

Because 99% of people in my circle don't care - let alone want to talk about - pinball. This is the best place to talk with people what are as passionate (even more so) than I am about pinball.

I'm here for tips on "cutting the cord" and how to execute that properly

Is it necessary for me to use Pinside? No, but I do it anyway because it's sterile and I like the taste.

And, the people. Yeah, the people.

I like that just some random day like today I learned that squid game is coming.

It's a great place to learn information about pinball. The tech support for pinball machine repairs has been super helpful for me.

Came for the pinball, stayed for the drama.

KLOV has a pinball section, but not even close to as active as Pinside.

Learn, teach, laugh/share/commiserate - but I especially like to see people progressing on their projects, especially since it seems to take me forever to get anything pinball or game room related done.

Owner's Club threads and of course the amazing "Let's see pics of game rooms!" thread.

So appreciative that even before delivery on my Stern machine, first one - a Mando LE, the game issues and solutions were posted in the Owner's Club type threads so I was able to prevent some problems. (Ramp cracking prevention with cliffys, washers under ball guide and the rest of it).

Also, being able help someone in the same manner.

Once you know what boundaries not to cross, Pinside is civil enough. My biggest mistake so far on Pinside, asking if the Groot hands move on the GOTG premium.

I think you mean commiserate?

Since way before the days of Pinside on RGP same as then…to help, to learn, and share the enjoyment of the hobby with others.

That's THE best one. Get so many ideas from there!

I'm here for all the shenanigans in the Basement

For me, there is just so much information here. And alot of people willing to help.

Of course you're going to get the complainers and shit disturbers, but I think it's offset greatly by the other side.