What's New

October 15, 2009: Members can now have Private Messages emailed! - Want to send a message to a friend but they aren't online? Now you can optionally have your message emailed to them! (Hint: If you don't want to receive Private Messages by email, edit your profile and check the box that says "Don't email private messages to me when I am offline.")

September 10, 2009: Hosts can go "on" and "off" duty! - By popular demand, our Hosts have asked that they be able to take a break now and then to play quietly with their friends. We added a special button on their Winster Home page for this feature!

August 12, 2009: Messages no longer pop-up over the Spin button! - Private messages and invites will now pop-up on the left side of the screen, so they won't interfere with your playing.

August 12, 2009: Private Room invites from your Friends List! - For members, you can now click "Invite" on your friends list to invite friends to your private room.

August 12, 2009: Surveys added - collect points for participating! - For non-member players who see a 'news player' on the right of your screen, we've added fun, short surveys. You will get 10 points for each question you answer! (Members can optionally turn on this feature as well - Just click "Show Surveys".)

July 20, 2009: Replies to Private Room invitations! - Now you can reply when someone sends you a message responding to a private room invitation. This way, you (or they) can discuss when they are free to join you!

July 20, 2009: Improvements to your Friends list! - Now you can Hide/Show friends! Go to your profile and click on friends you want to hide, then click "Hide" at the top of the column. Click it again to show all your friends. Also, you can now see your friends' first names (in addition to screen names) in your friends list! You can also click on the column heading in your friends list to sort your friends alphabetically!

June 24, 2009: Reversed the order of Chat and Announcements! - You know the Player Chat and Announcements windows? Well, a player suggested that we put the latest ones at the TOP, instead of the bottom, so you wouldn't have to scroll down or look at the bottom of your screen to see the latest. This may take a little getting used to, but we think it's an improvement - hope you agree!

May 5, 2009: Ad-Free Week option added to the Gift Shop! - Don't like watching ads? I sure don't! Lots of people have asked if we can turn them off. Problem is, this is how Winster pays for the prizes. So we've just added a way for you to BUY a whole week with no ads in the Gift Shop. Just 99 cents for Members, and $1.49 for non-Members! Click on your 'Home' in the brown menu bar at the top, then 'Gift Shop' on the left to check it out!

April 22, 2009: Spin performance improvements! - We're trying something new to reduce 'lagging' when you spin. You should see the spinner start immediately, but it's possible that it will spin longer than usual if there's a delay in communicating from our servers to your computer. Hope you like this!

April 3, 2009: Chat buttons added! - Check out the new 'canned message' buttons above the player chat area. If you click quickly, they will say "Thank you!", "Thank you very much!" "You're welcome!", or "No problem!". Click and HOLD, to get a list of player's names to personalize the message. There's also a "+" button with some more messages.

March 12, 2009: Changes to Thumbs Up and Down! - In response to comments about the "Thumbs Up/Down" rating system, we decided to make a few changes. Before, all ratings expired after 60 days. Now, Thumbs Up ratings never expire, but Thumbs Down ratings expire after 7 days. Anyone can still give Thumbs Ups, but only Members can give Thumbs Downs (a Day Pass player counts as a Member). Hope you approve!

November 13, 2008: Room Introductions now optional! - By popular demand, we've added a way for you to 'turn off' the room introductions if you don't want to see them. Just click "edit" on the menu above to edit your profile, then check the box near the bottom that says "Don't Show Room Intros".

November 4, 2008: Room Introductions! - To make joining a room a little more friendly, Winnie now 'introduces' each player as they are seated. She uses your first name and state if available, or your screen name if not. You can also add a personal quote for her to include as well, such as "I love kittens and puppies!" - just edit your Profile (click on the menu above), and enter the optional "Room Intro" text near the bottom. If you prefer not to see the room introductions just click "Don't show room intros" at the bottom when you edit your Profile.

November 4, 2008: First names displayed in rooms! - Ever wonder why the other players are calling "Supermom199" Nancy? That's because they know her first name. Now, first names are displayed under your smiley. To see a player's screen name, just hover over their smiley - it's at the top. If you don't want your first name displayed, edit your profile and either mark it as "Private" or uncheck "Display in games".

October 14, 2008: Display of room numbers! - Ever want to join a friend but can't figure out what room they are in? Now it's easy. Hover over their name in your friends' list on your Friends page, and it will tell you what game and room they are in before you click to join them. Ever wonder what room YOU are in? Look in the Announcements window at the lower left. When anyone joins or leaves your room, it now tells you the room number!

October 14, 2008: Announcements appear on login! - Now Winnie can send you a message that will appear in a window when you log in. In most cases, this will appear only once - so please be sure to read it carefully!

October 14, 2008: Prize changes! - We've added a new prize. By special arrangements with American Greetings, the greeting card company, we now offer a six-month subscription to their online e-card service. Note that this is not available elsewhere, even on their web site. Even if you are currently one of their subscribers, you can win this prize and use it to extend your current membership with them! At the same time, we revised and simplified our Amazon gift certificates prizes. We replaced the product-specific ones with more generic ones, mainly in five dollar denominations. (No more "Burts Bees" - (sob)!) Note that the $15 Amazon prize is the same number of "points per dollar" as the old $5 Amazon prize, while the larger denomination Amazon prizes are better deals (and the smaller ones are worse deals)!

September 20, 2008: Fancy New Home Page! - Our graphics wizard Simon has built a completely new home and related pages for us. Among other cool things, it will show which Hosts are currently on line and available to welcome Newcomers! Be sure and look around at all the improvements, like an easier-to-use FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page. But of course, if you're reading this, you already saw the new Home page - it's the only way to get here! :)

September 20, 2008: Apply to be a Winster Host! - Now you can apply to be a Host online. Just go to your Home page (click "Home" on the menu), then click on the "Apply to be a Host" on the left. It will instantly tell you if you qualify or not, and if not, why. Once you qualify, you can become a Host any time you want!

August 28, 2008: New Enhanced Gift Shop! - If you visit a player's Profile page (or your own Home page or Profile page), and click on the "Gift Shop" button at the left, you can purchase several types of Gifts for your friends (or for someone whom you would like to be friends with)!

Probably the coolest new thing is that you can buy 300 extra spins right away for yourself or another player - even if you (or they) are already a Member. If you run out of spins, want to keep playing, but don't want to upgrade your membership, you can purchase additional spins whenever you want.

You can also select a nice Gift picture to put on your own Profile page or someone else's Profile page along with a note from you. If the recipient is currently playing, a Private Message will pop up on their screen telling them of your generosity, and a note will go in their Personal Messages on their Home page. You can make your note public for the whole Winster community to see, or private so only they can see it, or even anonymous - so it appears to be from "a secret admirer"!

Instead of cashing in points for Hats, you can now purchase them in the Gift Shop - for yourself or a friend's Hat Closet! Also, you no longer have to 'unlock' a level of hats by reaching a certainly number of lifetime points, so you can buy any Hat you want. Note that some of the Hats are scarce, so you can wind up with some very rare ones to wear. (Hint: You can get to your Hat Closet to change which Hat you are wearing from your Profile Page, by clicking on 'Select a Hat to wear' right underneath the display of your Hats.)

July 17, 2008: Members Earn Points for Surveys! - Members can now get 50 bonus points for each survey question they answer. To participate, just click "Show News" to the right of your game. Every few minutes between stories, a survey queston will appear. You have 30 seconds to answer - and get your points!

July 17, 2008: Winnie Speaks! - Winnie appeared on "View from the Bay" (Channel 7 ABC in San Francisco) on 7/16/2008! Check out this Video Link.

July 17, 2008: Only Members can give "Thumbs Down" Ratings! - Based on community reaction, non-members can now only give "Thumbs Up" ratings.

July 3, 2008: Member Referral Bonus Increased to 25,000 Points! - Members now get 25,000 points for each successful friend referral!

July 3, 2008: Change to Non-member Daily Free Spins! - Back to the future! Non-members now get 200 free spins each day they visit, but can get 50 more each day by referring 3 more friends. Oh those marketing geniuses!

June 26, 2008: Refer-a-Friend Reminders! - Did you refer a friend,but they didn't get the message? Now you can send a reminder email - just go to your Friends list, click Show Referrals (on the left), then click on Remind. It will send a message to YOU, suitable for forwarding to your friend!

June 26, 2008: 1000 point monthly Bonus! - The first time you log in each calendar month, you now get a 1000 point bonus as a thank you for playing!

June 5, 2008: New Player Rating System! - Now you can compliment your friends with a "Thumbs Up" (or ding them with a "Thumbs Down")! Click the "Rate" button on their profile, or when you hover over their smiley. Your rating is displayed as a fraction (example: "5/8" means that 5 out of 8 other players rate you Thumbs Up). Note that ratings expire after 60 days, so you can work your way out of pergatory if you get poor reviews!

June 5, 2008: Increased Daily Spins for Non-members! - Non-members now get increased to 250 spins each day they visit!

May 16, 2008: New Game: Bingo Bash! - Our latest, greatest game is ready for you to try! First, select a Bingo card, then spin the mixer to pick Bingo balls. Fill the shaded pattern on your card to win. But as usual, there's a Winster twist: You can switch your Bingo card any time you want, as well as trade Bingo balls with your neighbors to win faster!

May 16, 2008: Increased points! - Back by popular demand - we've increased the points in some of our games - Poker Pals, Spell Squad, and Facets - by 15% to 20%!

May 16, 2008: Day Pass! - Enjoy playing with your Winster friends, but not quite ready to sign up for a monthly membership? Now you can get 300 extra spins, four times the points, no video ads, and enjoy all the benefits of membership for a whole day - any time you want. This is a great new option if you are too busy to play every day, but want some Winster 'quality time' when you do. Best of all, each Day Pass only costs 99 cents!

May 16, 2008: Gift Shop! - We're just getting started on this one, but first up is that you can buy a Day Pass for a non-member friend! Just click on 'Buy a Gift' on their profile, or click on 'Gift' in the detail panel that pops up when you move your mouse over their smiley. They get 300 extra spins and all the benefits of membership for a day! This is particularly useful if you want to continue playing with a friend who runs out of spins!

May 16, 2008: Profile photos! - Now you can display a photo of yourself in your profile, for your friends to see. Just click on the silhouette on your profile to get started, and earn an extra 500 points!

May 16, 2008: Video news feed! - Members now have the option to turn on a video news feed that shows a selection of short news features, entertainment news, and fashion tips right on their computer screen. Look for a 'Show News' link to the right of the game. You can skip to the next story or turn it off at any time. To acquaint you with this feature, you may occasionally see a short example that will run automatically. If you don't want to view it, simply click 'Stop News' to turn it off!

April 23, 2008: Now play for free! - Don't like to pay to play for prizes? Now non-members can claim prizes as well! But you don't get the membership benefits, like four times the points, private rooms, more spins each day...and more!

April 23, 2008: More spins for your membership! - We've increased the number of spins you get for your membership, so you can play more for the same price! (But we had to reduce the scoring in the games...)

March 27, 2008: Private Messages are here! - You can now send a private message to your friends - even if they are in a room that is full or is a private room. If you go to your friends list, click the button in the "Status" column labeled "Send Message"; Or, you can go to a friend's profile page and use the "Send Message" button at the upper left; Or if you are in a game room, you can send a private message to anyone in the room by hovering your mouse over their smiley face, them click the "Message" link. When you send a private message, it will pop up on your friend's screen, and they will be able to enter a response and send you a reply. Note that only Club Winnie members can send private messages, but anyone can receive and reply to them.

March 27, 2008: Chat Area Now Expandable! - If you click on the little "+" at the top right of the chat area, it will now expand to fill any available space!

March 5, 2008: Doku scoring increased! - We have increased the scoring for Doku Deluxe to 1000 points, and 2000 points for a properly colored board!

March 5, 2008: Quicker prize claims! - We used to send the prize claim emails overnight. Now we send them out right away (except for those that are held for manual review for some reason)!

March 5, 2008: Removing players from Private Rooms! - Want to kick someone out of your Private Room? Check out the "Evict Player" link if you hover over their smiley!

February 21, 2008: Pizza Pizza Pizza! - Hungry? We've just added gift certificates for Papa John's Pizza. Enjoy!

February 17, 2008: New look for games! - We completely revamped the look of our games, and added all sorts of features too numerous to list here - check it out!

January 28, 2008: Back by popular demand - a Wal-Mart Gift Certificate! - We describe it as good for $10 off any toy, but regular Winster players already know you can use it for anything you want to buy at Wal-Mart online!

January 23, 2008: Personal News feed in your Profile! - Now your friends (and you) can see your latest accomplishments in the Personal News section at the bottom of your Profile. Items marked "Private" are visible to you only, "Public" items are visible to all your visitors!

January 23, 2008: More points in Match Maker and Slot Social! - We've raised the scores, so you can earn prizes faster!

January 4, 2008: New Game: Match Maker! - Love to mix and match jewels? You'll love our latest game - Match Maker! The more jewels of the same type that you line up, the more points you score. Don't like your jewels? Spin again or trade with a neighbor!

January 1, 2008: Scoring adjustments! - To avoid issues caused by certain playing strategies, we changed the number of bonus points awarded when all players in a room match across their spinners, to 1000 points each. Also, matches now occur only on the center line of the spinners. Sorry about that!