Some of you may have noticed the login buttons on top of the sidebar here at MakeUseOf, so today I’m here to explain what they are, why you might want to use them, and crucially – how to get more points!
Register Or Log In
First off, it’s a one-click registration or log in using your social credentials – Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft Live. Just click one of the buttons to begin!
Note: If you don’t see these buttons, please ensure you’re not running any Javascript blocking plugins such as NoScript, AdBlock, or Ghostery.
Once logged in, that section of the sidebar will turn into a personal profile space, showing how many points you have, what rank you’ve achieved, and more.
Why Should I Log In?
Well, first off you’ll be able to comment around the site without having to enter your email address every time. In fact, you’ll see a lot more of the site personalized to you in the coming months – such as being able to enter competitions with just one click.
You’ll also be able to get technical help from our wonderful community on the Answers part of the site for any problems you might be having. You’ll be automatically notified of responses to your question, and you’ll be able to mark it as resolved.
You’ll notice that your profile also has a points total, which is tied to your user rank. More on that in a moment.
Getting Points
You’ll get a few points just for registering, but how do you get more? Here’s how:
Commenting
You’ll get 5 points for adding a comment, but they won’t be added immediately – we tally them all up at the end of the day – so please don’t be alarmed if your point score doesn’t go up immediately. Check again the next day!
Answering A Question On MakeUseOf Answers
For being helpful to your fellow readers, we’ll give you 10 points! (again, tallied up at the end of the day).
Sharing Articles
Anytime you read an interesting article, use the social share buttons on the page to share it with your friends, and you’ll get 10 points for helping MakeUseOf grow our readership! Not only that, but you’ll also get points for every friend that clicks through because of your shared link – it’s our way of thanking you for being so influential!
There is a daily limit on how many of each action you can get points for, so don’t try to overdo it or spam your friends. If you go over that limit, we won’t punish you obviously, but you just won’t get any more points for that action until the next day. Also, I hope we don’t need to say this, but our comments editor Tina has eyes like a hawk, so anyone making nonsense comments will be banned immediately and their account deleted – so be warned!
What Can I Do With My Points?
Well, first off, there are various badges to collect, some with up to 5 ranks. You see your progress towards them all on your full profile page.
The main rank shown in your profile is your MUO Geek Rank – and every action you take on the site will go towards your Geek Rank. On your full profile page, you can also see the other various badges available – specific challenges for commenting, answering questions, and sharing articles. We’ll be introducing some special new badges at various points, too.
As you perform more of the relevant actions, your points total will go up and your rank will increase.
There are leaderboards too of course. They show top users this week as well as all-time high scores. You can be famous!
We’re also developing a point exchange system as you read this, and hope to have it up and running within the next month or so. You’ll be able to spend your hard earned points for entries into competitions or beta access codes to sites we highlight. Don’t worry though – your rank won’t decrease when you spend points – those are based upon your total so far.
In the future, you may even be able to exchange your points for real world goods like t-shirts or mugs, so start working on gathering points now! The exchange system is our way of thanking you, our loyal readers, for helping to create the wonderful community we have here; helping out your fellow readers with their technical problems; sharing and reacting to our articles; and basically just for you being awesome.
Feedback, suggestions and ideas welcome – we’re still very much in the early stages of developing this system, so expect some changes over the coming months, but we hope you’ll enjoy gaming with us!