Koinup Blog

A word from the new chairman

2013-01-08T23:16:00.000+01:00

Dear Koinup members,

ExitReality is pleased to announce that it has successfully completed the acquisition of Koinup. An acquisition which allows the company to continue the journey in 3D, virtual worlds and social media.
Koinup is a wonderful community that has a lot of heart, effort and commitment put into it and we are delighted to be a part of it. ExitReality already owns and operates other communities such as Twinity and vSide. We plan to continue to run Koinup with the same vision and with the same passion as it has operated to this point.
We want to assure all Koinup members that we will not change the way the community is managed. The acquisition will not affect the way you interact with the site, or submit your works.
We will try to make sure that accessing the site and uploading your works will not be affected in any way through this transition period.

Kind regards,
Danny Stefanic
Chairman - Koinup

ExitReality acquires games photo sharing social network, Koinup.com

2013-01-08T17:10:00.000+01:00

Just a heads-up to let you know that Koinup.com has been acquired by ExitReality, owner and operator of vSide and Twinity virtual worlds. We care deeply about our members and chose ExitReality because we are confident they will continue to operate the social network with the vision we created. You can read more here www.exitreality.com

Happy New Year!

2012-12-31T20:51:00.001+01:00

As we leave 2012 behind, the Koinup Staff wish you a Happy New Year, best wishes for 2013! For all the amazing content you have created and for making Koinup one of the most wonderful communities on the web, we want to say Thank You! We hope each and everyone of you are able to close out 2012 and ring in 2013 safely and warmly.

(image by Shayariel)

How to get the most from Koinup & Bigoom Partnership

2012-09-07T10:12:00.002+02:00

After the announcement of Koinup & Bigoom Partnership that allow Koinup members to buy and sell prints of their digital art, we saw hundreds of prints created by the seamless integration. Now let's us delight you with two new small but useful announcements:

1. In order to make it easy to find amazing prints, while developing a new whole section for such a use ( stay tuned with this blog for the release date), we're going to collect some of the most amazing prints in this Pinterest board: Koinup Prints - feel free to suggest your Koinup prints here in the comment to get featured in the board - we will add weekly new prints.

2. Moreover, we're glad to tell you that Koinup members can upgrade to Bigoom premium accounts - and get full control on the price of their prints - with a superlative 35% discount.

Just Insert the coupon: Koinup and voilà you will get the reduction

With Bigoom account premium you will have:
1. full control on the price of prints
2. 100% profit on the markup
3. Unlimited storage space

If you'are already member in Koinup, you can fill the coupon field here - otherwise login in Bigoom and visit the account page.

below of the prints in the Koinup print board - by Anna Anton

Source: koinup.com via Koinup on Pinterest

Koinup Prints. First Reactions

2012-07-28T08:59:00.000+02:00

We're only 2 days after the launch of Koinup prints and there's already a nice list positive reactions from media and users. Some examples:

1. More than 100 Koinuppers joined the Buy&Sell Prints group

2. More than 200 Koinup works were imported into Bigoom to be set as prints

3. Several Blogs talked about the release. The following are some of them

New World Notes - Koinup adds printed screenshots service

Mondi Virtuali - Koinup entra nell'ecommerce

HonourMcMillan - Monetizing your photos from Second Life

Buy & Sell Prints of Virtual Art on Koinup

2012-07-25T09:41:00.000+02:00

Koinup is pleased to announce the most impressive upgrade since the launch of the website. Thanks to a deep integration with the print service company Bigoom, you can now turn virtual art in physical objects and sell or buy prints of Koinup images.

"The partnership with Bigoom helped us to build a new way to think about the value of Koinup community and contents and now all the Koinup members can use Koinup & Bigoom not only to show off their talents, but also to sell prints of their artworks or buy them" says Pierluigi Casolari, co-founder with Edoardo Turelli of Koinup. "Recently we started to think that many images posted on Koinup were more than a form of self-expression. These contents are usually perceived as art on other social media as Pinterest, we thought that turning this digital artworks in "physical objects" would even increase the perception of them as art".

The logistic, billing and printing service is offered by Bigoom, an italian startup with a specific focus on helping online communities to print visual contents. Koinup built the integration upon the Bigoom API. With this integration, Koinup members can now easily create print versions of their images and display back on Koinup a direct link to their prints pages in Bigoom. With just one click Koinup pictures can be sent to Bigoom to set up a print version and then users can link directly on Koinup their shopping cart pages, where fans and customers can buy Prints. Info: www.koinup.com; www.bigoom.com

We invite all Koinup members and readers to take part in the discussion group, in order to give us feedbacks, tips, suggestions and help to improve this service. JOIN THE CONVERSATION

We're on Pinterest

2012-05-29T16:39:00.002+02:00

Click the button and follow Koinup on Pinterest. If you want to collaborate with Koinup, there's also a collaborative board called "Koinup.Top of the Top" that you can join. How to do it? Info here

The graphic dreamer of the week is Yasha

2012-05-12T14:29:00.001+02:00

According to the staff of MondiVirtuali - the italian virtual world magazine - the Koinup Graphic Dreamer of the week is Yasha. You can read the story here and/or enjoy the artworks of Yasha on Koinup

If you're a digital artist and want to get a mention on mondivirtuali, follow these simple rules:

1. Join the Graphic Dreams group on Koinup
2. Submit your most amazing creations to the pool
3. Check out weekly this blog and/or MondiVirtuali to see if you have been featured (regularly, MondiVirtuali staff reviews contents in the pool and pick a few for the stories)

Above one of the latest pictures of Yasha

Contribute to the Koinup Pinterest Channel

2012-04-27T22:02:00.002+02:00

We created an open board: "Koinup. Top of the Top" on our Pinterest channel and we're calling to action all the Koinuppers in order to contribute to it. The rule is basically to pin to this board your own - only made by you - most amazing artwork and/or picture, posted on Koinup. Only one content per member. Your top of the top.

If you're already on Pinterest, you can do it by yourself, by pinning to the board. In order to be added to contributors, leave a comment here with your Pinterest name and we will add promtly to the list of contributors. Then pin your own personal selection.

Other rules to pin:
1. No nudity
2. Only contents made by yourself
3. Only contents posted on Koinup
4. Only one content

Winners of the Koinup FB Timeline Cover Contest

2012-04-21T18:30:00.000+02:00

After one week of time to vote, here's the announcement of the winners of the Koinup FB Timeline Cover Contest - the contest that we launched in order to create a new brand cover for the Koinup Facebook Timeline.

According to the rules, the winning works are the ones with the most higher - cumulative - number of votes (Koinup favorites and Facebook likes are considerated votes). Koinup visitors and members are the judges of the contest.

Here's the winners

http://www.koinup.com/Jay_Age_H_/work/426405/ 5 favorites, 33 likes = 38 votes
http://www.koinup.com/Vero1324/work/425176/ 6 favorites, 24 likes = 30 votes http://www.koinup.com/Baroque/work/425836/ 14 favorites, 2 like= 16 votes http://www.koinup.com/VladMlad/work/425361/ 7 likes, 8 favorites = 15 votes http://www.koinup.com/GuinneV/work/427945/ 15 favorites = 15 votes http://www.koinup.com/LookatmyBack/work/426066/ 11 favorites, 3 likes= 14votes http://www.koinup.com/LittlebirdTrapt/work/427397/ 5 favorites, 8 likes = 13 votes

The winning images will be featured as covers in the Koinup fanpage and they will be showcased in rotations and in several "milestones" available in the timeline of the page. You can view (and like) the page here

Along with the winners, we like to make an honorary mentions of an other series of works that got a significant number of votes and/or that express with originality the subject requested

http://www.koinup.com/Myranua/work/428492/

http://www.koinup.com/JessiFirethorn/work/425112/

http://www.koinup.com/PriscilaOlrich/work/425634/

http://www.koinup.com/SilBrandi/work/427079/

http://www.koinup.com/SilBrandi/work/426730/

http://www.koinup.com/StephanieHelsein/work/425067/

http://www.koinup.com/Lilianea/work/426683/

Many others works would deserve an honorary mentions or a place in this announcement. What we can say is that the quality of submissions has been pretty high and we -at Koinup - are definitely honored to have around us such amazing creative community. Thanks to all participants

Above one of the winning images by LookatmyBack

Vote for your Favorite Koinup Timeline Cover

2012-04-11T22:17:00.000+02:00

The submission time for the Koinup Timeline Cover Contest is closed and now you can express your opinion by "voting" your favorite covers. You can vote simply by "adding an entry to your Koinup Favorites" or by "adding a Facebook like". The submissions with the higher number of "likes" and "favs" will be included (in rotation) in the Koinup Facebook Fan Page. Here's all the entries

Share your Koinup Contents on Pinterest

2012-03-31T10:25:00.000+02:00

We added the Pin Button in all the Koinup pages, allowing visitors and members to share on Pinterest their creations or their favorites contents. We're also running a Koinup Official Pinterest Channel as a central destination for fans - if they want to follow - and for all the people interested in discover amazing art imagery, picked from the best of Koinup.com.

At the moment, we're live with the following boards

Koinup Pic of the Day (most days of the week, we pick an interesting Koinup item and share it on the board)

Favorite Places (this is about awesome places shared in the Koinup Places section)

Digital Fantasy Art

Koinup Repins (a pretty random hommage to people that are sharing Koinup contents, and we will re-share and re-pin them)

Graphic Dreamer of the week is the IMVU artist Vero1324

2012-03-27T16:35:00.000+02:00

According to the staff of MondiVirtuali - the Koinup media partner and sponsor of the Graphic Dreams project on Koinup - the Koinup Graphic Dreamer of the week is the artist Vero1324. Vero is a graphic IMVU artist that use imagery taken from IMVU to create interesting and amazing avatar artworks. I invite you to read the story on MondiVirtuali and/or Enjoy the beautiful Vero gallery on Koinup.

On Any week, the MondiVirtuali staff picks an artist as graphic dreamer of the week. Discover here how to get a mention.

Mini-Contest for the new Koinup Cover on Facebook

2012-03-24T19:48:00.001+01:00

We're running a mini-contest to find the new cover for the Koinup Facebook fan page. In the next days, all the Facebook pages will be switched to the new timeline format and we're asking the Koinup community to create a cover. If you want to join the contest, you can do that by following this link and submitting your ideas to the group pool.

Above one of the entries by Stephanie Helsein

Koinup Pinterest Channel

2012-03-17T08:46:00.004+01:00

If you're on Pinterest you can now follow the Koinup channel and start to pin your Koinup artworks! Follow this link now . Almost each days, on the channel, you will find the "Koinup pic of the day" and a few of the most interesting contents published on Koinup by the community. See you there.....

Top on Koinup, this week

2012-03-06T16:45:00.001+01:00

The Virtual Oscar Fashion Photo Contest is over and Harper Ganesvoort announced the winners on the Around the Grid Blog. Among the winners there are some Koinuppers, so I'm sure you might want to read the announcements. CindyStarostin created a new amazing group focused on the best portraits of avatars: "wonderful portraits". If you love any kind of avatar art, then you can't absolutely miss this group. Join it now. The Second life blogger Felicity Blumenthal is great in using in a great way the Koinup places, the Koinup section that helps you to discover amazing Second Life locations. These days, Felicity landed at 6pi, one of the most popular Second Life locations among Koinuppers, and took some stunning pics..... Read the story.

(image by Felicity Blumenthal)

The Koinup Graphic Dreamer of the week is ToySoldier

2012-02-24T22:04:00.000+01:00

The Koinup Graphic Dreamer of the week is the amazing artist ToySoldier. You can read the story on MondiVirtuali and/or enjoy the outstanding ToySoldier art gallery on Koinup. Beyond the images, Toysoldier is well know as builder and author of a variety of art manufacts in Second Life. You can grab all details reading the story on MondiVirtuali.

If you're a metaverse artist, you can get a mention and become graphic dreamer of the week, by joining the Koinup Graphic dreams group and submitting your best artworks to the pool. Good Luck!

Join the Oscar Fashion Photo Contest

2012-02-13T20:37:00.000+01:00

Koinup members have only two weeks left to join the Oscar Fashion Photo Contest, sponsored by the well known Second Life blogger Harper Ganesvoort. The Oscar Fashion Photo Contest is at his second edition and it's becoming a highly popular initiative among Koinup people. Read all the info on the Harper's blog and submit your fashion shots in the dedicated Koinup group

Above one of the most recent entries, by StephanieHelsein

Metaverse Wallpapers now free on iTunes

2012-01-30T15:19:00.000+01:00

Metaverse Wallpapers, the iPhone an iPad app powered by Koinup, is now available for free on itunes and on the appstore. The app features almost 200 virtual worlds wallpapers created by the Koinup community (thanks guys!). If you didn't download the app, this is really your best chance to get it for free! Get it now!

(a special thanks to Cesare Rocchi, the amazing iPhone developer who helped us with the project)

The Koinup graphic dreamer of the week is Kanielle Bellic

2012-01-28T14:06:00.000+01:00

According to the board of MondiVirtuali - the italian web magazine focused on virtual worlds and "long-time Koinup top media partner - the "Koinup Graphic Dreamer" of the week is Kanielle Bellic.

Read the story here and enjoy the amazing gallery of Kanielle, here.

Each week, MondiVirtuali picks a Koinup artist for a dedicated story on the columns of the magazine. If you want to be featured, join the graphic dreams group on Koinup and submit your best artworks and pictures. The MondiVirtuali editors browse periodically the gallery looking for talents to highlight! So, the next one could be you.

Discover Real Life Locations in Second Life

2012-01-22T18:52:00.000+01:00

With more than 10.000 Sims included in the area, the Koinup Places is one of the most huge directories of Second Life destinations. We saw recently some bloggers using it to discover in the Metaverse virtual replica and remakes of real cities. On My Second Closet blog - authored by Felicity Blumenthal - you can read a very interesting story set in Venexia - a "Venetian inspired sim build, complete with waterways for gondola" (read more) found in the Koinup Places.

We are using the Google Custom Search on Koinup, so if you will use to search internally on Koinup for locations you will get always relevant results, based on the Google algorithm and on the thousands of excellent locations, shared on Koinup by the community.

How to use Koinup Places

2012-01-11T22:00:00.000+01:00

If you're a Second Life blogger, you can use the Second life Location Directory on Koinup to discover amazing and highly photogenic Second Life places to set your photo shootings. That's what is doing the awesome fashionist blogger Felicity Blumenthal. She browsed among the most coolest locations and found the outstanding Japan Chubu (here the Japan Chubu section on Koinup and here the direct teleport), where she set a shooting.

I really invite you to have a look at the Felicity Blumenthal blog and/or enjoy her fashion blogpost in Japan Chubu

The Graphic dreamer of the week is Betty Rogan

2012-01-09T13:15:00.000+01:00

According to Mondi Virtuali, the italian magazine fully dedicated to virtual worlds, the graphic dreamer of the week is the Koinup artist Betty Rogan. I invite you to read the story here and browse the amazing Betty's gallery on Koinup.

If you don't know yet, Graphic dreams is a project co-branded by MondiVirtuali and Koinup, whose goal is to promote and highlight the best examples of virtual worlds creativity and graphic art.

If you're a metaverse artist or photographer, you can submit your images to the graphic dreams group on Koinup and get the chance of a mention on MondiVirtuali columns. On a weekly base, Mondi Virtuali board pick an artist as graphic dreamer of the week. Who will be the next?

Happy 2012!

2012-01-02T12:01:00.000+01:00

We wish you all of you a wonderful 2012!!!!!

(image by Sonicity)

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T21:24:00.000+01:00

Merry Christmas from the Koinup staff to all the Koinup members and readers. Thanks for being part of this community! we absolutely want to thank you for all your kind support and for the amazing creativity you're bringing in Koinup. Have a wonderful and special new year!

Image by Shmoo_Snook