ViewBug

I have been a Pro+ member for several years now and at first it was reasonably good value but to be honest I now see no benefit from paid for membership and in fact no real benefit at all from the site. The incessant emails are annoying, the contests are pointless, and the so-called benefits of membership offer little that can't be obtained elsewhere, often free of charge.
I shall not be renewing my membership.

I love ViewBug, it's a great place to showplace your photography. What I'm not absolutely sure about is why, when I'm going through other people's photos, some of them are repeated on different profiles. I have emailed ViewBug about this twice, but they haven't as yet responded.

First of all i slightly disagree w the last post. I think most artists are their worst critics, all the ones i know anyway (including myself). Yes, there are a lot of really amazing photos and extremely tough competition. As an artist i also enjoy that. It challenges you to get better and inspires you to do more. If nothing else look at the entries for inspiration. I spent hours just looking at peoples work. There's a wide range from bad to professional. Win or not your work will be seen by the public. That's great for anyone just starting out!

While I find the site OK and continue to visit and lightly participate, I find it generally a bit confusing to navigate, particularly the contest sites. Also I often find random pictures of mine submitted to free contests when I don't remember submitting them.

What I really want is true honest feedback about my photos. They don't provide how many "likes" or "votes" your photo gets in any contest, nor really where it RANKED at all (unless you win, I suppose). You have to shuffle through the thousands upon thousands of entries until you find yours to know where you rank. This is dumb. Why don't they just tell me? Is this a premium feature?

I've been with viewbug for a couple years. It gets me upset that they will send you an email that your photo has been chosen in some things or another. But it never is. As an amateur you never win any contests. I paid once for the membership but will not do it again. I was so excited at first about this app, I was really into it but I'm just disappointed now. I'll never win one of their contests. I only have the mobile app and can't even access everything, it's frustrating. I'll be looking elsewhere for a better photography app.

Having been a freelance photographer for over 3 decades and experiencing a lot, this is just another website where one can post snaps. The flurry of badges, contests and activities don't yield much at the non-paying level, so if you are interested in spending hundreds of dollars/year in hopes of winning a speed light, then have at it. My time is worth more than that. Also, one cannot enter 90% of the contests void of having a paid membership, which is messed up.

I am a very amateur photographer that discovered this site by accident. I own no photo editing software. The most editing I ever do is perhaps a bit of cropping and some changes to black & white or sepia and creativity is not really my thing either. After looking at the images posted on this site I am quite certain I will never, ever even come close to winning a competition. However, once I got past this reality I discovered that it's fun just to post photos and see what people have to say. So, I will continue to enjoy the beautiful work of others and take whatever compliments come my way.

Plenty of photos to view. The "contests" seem somewhat odd--at least on first inspection. Level of buy-in is tagged to participation in most of the galleries. The available postings in some of the categories (contests) are very random or maybe its the oddly-cutesy titles... so what happens in "Faces and Places" is photos of cannons (from where?) appear with portraits (human, okay) and horses and dogs and insect heads and plants that might look like they have a human face! No rules, just "give-me-what-you-got."

I was a member of Viewbug for some time and it's a great place to see some awesome photos. The prizes for competitions are very good as well and I can see how people are enticed to enter. But if you view the entries, 99% of them are ultra-professional - staged, magazine-like entries from stock catalogues etc which are unlikely to be beaten by a photo that an average member would post. It has put me and many friends off entering as these photos always win.
The judging is also flawed, same winners and same type of photos. Very false and not a true reflection of the average audience who enter photo competitions. Good if you want to look at nice photos from a stock website/catalogue though!

While I do feel that Viewbug could improve on browsing and social interaction on their site, fewer sites have the quality of images and opportunities to network with so many like-minded photographers. I have enjoyed my time there, and will continue for the foreseeable future. Once they get a handle on advertising their print shop, making browsing easier, and including more interactivity, this will be a amazing place to go!

I have been a member of this photo sharing site. They have many technical glitches and they never fix those. They are polite in their response but they can't fix anything. When I first joined it used to be good. Last couple years whatever changes they made has made it worse. It keeps getting worse. I became a pro member many years ago in order to post many photos. I can still do that. However, what they call Challenges (contests created by a member) have become ridiculous. Too many technical issues which they ignore. I am fed up with Viewbug. I am going to look for another community and quit Viewbug. It is not worth my money or time.

It looks to me like just another phony site to get people to join and then requires monthly payments to enter most contests. I won an award of some kind but there is no explanation of what it means. It all looks like a useless exercise. Who are these people with their mysterious algorithm. How about some explanation of what your site really does. I would think time would be better spent on flickr or 500px

This site is actually a lot of fun, even for a professional. Art and photography are subjective, so this is by no means bible, its my point of view. I have seen some wonderful images on this site. Manipulation is part of photography and takes a lot of work to perfect, so for those of you that are complaining about these types of pics, learn the craft before you say its easy, or just a person clicking a button. Remember that its not the camera or how big your lens who takes great pictures, its the person using it.
I am a free member mostly to keep my social media aspect for my website. If I can have fun in the meantime, even better.

Viewbug have taken money from my account at least twice in the last year even though I have not bought or entered anything... these payments are for nearly £50 each time! I cannot see how to stop them or cancel membership which I have never consciously paid for! Anyone else have this problem? I have replied to emails but have had no response and another payment gone out in November. I never enter, upgrade or buy anything and want to cancel.

I just found this site, i happen to like it... "rigged" or not. I think its a good way for people to get their artwork out there to get it looked at, besides using flickr, Viewbug is pretty good, simple to use, and not too many bells and whistles... and as for the Redbubble statement. Redbubble is for selling your photos. Not just getting them viewed. If you have that much of a personal vendetta against viewbug i got an idea. How about just don't use it, say whats wrong with it. Where it goes wrong, what its good for, but don't make it seem so personal. Just makes you look like a twat.

Constantly getting emails saying I have a private message, only to find it's another spam message to sign up for a membership. The difference with these messages is there is no way to reply to them. Any other message in my inbox has a reply button. This shady practice has led me to delete an account with hundreds of photos and thousands of awards. Sick and tired of underhanded practices.

I remember that when I first found this site, I was enthralled. There was so much to do and try out for a photographer! Since then, however, it really hasn't improved. I would actually argue the site has declined.
The biggest pull of the websites is its photo contests. This is where you are made to believe you can receive big prizes for good photography. However, this has turned into another cash grab for them. Most contests are reserved for their memberships. Finding a contest that you like and can do for free is a chore. There used to be a way to sort out the free contests from the elite ones, but now there is no way to do that. Viewbug makes you go through all of the elite contests to find a free contest, which creates a feeling of fulfillment with your free membership: a ploy to make you buy pro.
If you want to showcase your photography in any way, this is not the best site for you. The only thing you will get is a lot of spam and no prizes.

Documentation needs a lot of work... I don't understand how most of the site works or what the heck "you're almost there" means! I also have trouble voting, because the voting menu does not offer an "are you sure?" Option to confirm a choice... I have given so many people a "peer award" when they deserved so much more, because the button is so sensitive. Also, I only vote one per four or not at all because the next four come up right after the second vote, and I have often gone on, so that leaves me with a skipped set not voting at all when I should, so I feel like a terrible judge! Quality of photography is great, and would SO love to win a better camera. Appreciate the decent prizes. Also appreciate the articles to improve technique.

So, I receive a message that I have a new follower. I haven't been to the dang ViewBug site in months, or maybe years. I decide to go take a peek and see what's what.
Well, I can't login under my email address account, so I login via Facebook. That brings me to an account with ZERO of my photos. I realize I must have two accounts and try the "lost password?" link. That link takes to some ViewBug wall page.

OK, so I figure maybe it's just me. I'm tired. I'll just send a detailed message to tech support explaining all the things I've tried, all the links I noticed that were broken, and what happened when I clicked on those broken links. As a programmer, I write very detailed bug reports. I know how important details are when reporting an issue.
Twenty minutes later I have completed my email to support, click the "Send" button and... nothing. The link to send to tech support isn't working.

So, there's that.

I have really enjoyed my experience with ViewBug. It even inspired me to take my hobby more seriously and now I have my own photography business. While I understand that adult content photographs have their place in the art world, I don't think ViewBug is the best venue to display this type of art. We have a lot of under aged patrons at ViewBug and I think there are a lot of other places these photographs could be displayed.

It seems recently there has been an increase in the number of adult content photos. I even tried to report one photo because of the nudity and the picture ended up on my Facebook page. As a result, I stopped reporting these images. While I will continue to support ViewBug at the Pro level, I wish more was being done to make this site a little less "sexual" and a little more artistic.

I have participated in other photo contests elsewhere but I find ViewBug's approach to be the most unbiased and credible. It's reassuring to know that your work is evaluated based on its merits. The ranking and voting is clear and you cannot buy votes which I think is as fair as it gets

I have so much to learn and only making slow progress am always surprised, delighted and encouraged by ViewBug members awarding my images. This is awesome! Can't tell you what a lift this gives when most of the time I even struggle to decide what is good and what isn't. This site is amazing, it not only encourages its members but provides every opportunity to learn from others images it also inspires us to try out so many options. I enter contests and challenges for wider exposure and points, never thinking I would come close to achieving more than that. Thank you ViewBug. Cheers Linda49

I have been on for almost a year, have about 187,00o points from all the "badges" you earn, I maintained top 10% of all the photographers for the year. My biggest complaint is the winners of the contests, whoever reviews the work is asleep at the wheel. I have been a commercial photographer for 40+ years and made a great living at it so I know good images when I see them and they seem to always pick the images that are over processed or soft and out of focus. I will be leaving soon.