Creating a Venue
Whether you tap the "+" icon on the Venue List, or are prompted to Add a Venue when creating a machine, you are presented with the Add a Machine screen:
Public vs. Private
As a general rule, if you don't want people coming to your venue, it should be private. That is the gating factor. We are committed to that functionality.
The reason to put your venue as Public is if you want to share the location and have fun with people knowing the name. The idea here is that you need to feel safe with someone opening up their app, seeing there is a machine .5 km away from where they are standing, and hopefully not be disappointed.
There are those who put the name, city, state and country as their address so they can call it public. While this may seem like a good idea, remember that every time someone pulls open a list of venues to play pinball, they see your venue pop up on the list and it's a path for disappointment that they can't come play!
Therefore, we strongly recommend you use Public for venues that you want people to discover, and Private for venues you want to stay hidden from lists and searches.
Regardless, Always Put Your Full Address In
It is highly recommended you put the actual address of your venue into the address fields in order for the app to have accuracy for the location. We never share address information for private venues, only general location such as City, State, or Country. However, even for private venues, many features of the app require accurate proximity to enable functions.
For example, when the app is configured to do so, it will automatically open to a list of machines for a player if the app knows it is within a venue. The more accurate the location settings, the better the app is at this convenient feature. Also, as we increase scale and security, players cannot claim scores for machines they are not standing next to, so it is critical that the app knows the location to prevent accidental score claiming.
When a venue is marked Private, any scores saved will still appear on the global leaderboard, but score cards in feeds will not reveal the specific location of the venue or score. Private venues do not appear on lists, and only appear to users who either created the venue or have been added to the access list.
Access Lists and Claiming
When a venue is private, the app can't find the venue, or the machines in it. Therefore, unless you're on the access list for the venue, you can't claim slots. It's best practice to add your friends, family, or anyone who might be playing on your machines to your access list. There is a full description of how to add someone to your access list in the next section, Venue Dashboard.
Safety Tip: If the app detects that you are standing in front of a machine (or within a certain range), this permission is overridden and the user can claim slots using QR codes! This is another reason to add your specific address to your private venue.
Location Privacy and Philosophy
We understand that no one wants to publicly advertise the location of a private home without permission. We absolutely want to make sure that this privacy is respected and enforced. This data doesn't belong to us and doesn't serve us in any way financially or for marketing purposes. We do not make this data available to others.
As for general location and time stamps, the reason we put a minimum of a city, state, province or country on a score is because we believe it creates a confidence and legitimacy to scores and the timing (or time zone) it's coming from. It also makes it way more fun to see where scores happen.
When you select Private on your Venue Settings the actual specific address and name of your venue, no matter what, will not appear on scores. Your venue will not appear in searches except for people on your venue access list.
We cover how to manage your venue and all your machines within it in the next section, Venue Dashboard.
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