ViewBug

This site is such scam! I joined couple months ago and submitted to numerous contests, but never get into final stage until I got membership paid. After this couple of my pix get the top 10 number of votes, but never get to final (they send you email VOTING UPDATE and where is your picture ranked). I emailed asking for explanation - how come that my picture is ranked top10 at the and of voting, but didn't get to final 50?... no answer. I also noticed that one photographer won 2 cameras in 2 different contests, with pretty much similar picture within a month. According to latest contest for Photo of the year the is a over 180K pics submitted. You could estimate that they have around 20-30.000 monthly paid subscribers (PRO $9, Premium $6). So they are getting minimum 100-150K per month and still scamming who will get most attractive prizes!
THERE IS NO SUCH A THING AS FREE LUNCH!

I've been a member of ViewBug (pro level, though I'm not a pro photographer). I used to have great fun with it and have uploaded a great many photos to the site. Recently, I created a challenge and now they are refusing to post it among the available challenges. The only reason I can determine as to why they are doing this is because I don't have time to write everyone that follows me and ask they to enter. A pro photog who helps me from time to time says the banner photo for the challenge is excellent and the description for what should be entered is fine (you don't get much room to begin with). My photos receive a fair amount of likes and awards which is fun, and also the inspiration is good. My experience with the challenge has soured me a bit on the site, however. Maybe i just shouldn't have tried doing it, I put it off a long time, but wanted to be more involved. Also I think their judges need to be more open about entries. All photos don't have naked people, children or long-timed shots, yet they are still beautiful and well planned shots. I'm not saying don't try it, I'm just expressing my disappointment. I liked it better the way it was when I started.

The prizes aren't just cool. They are amazing! It feels so rewarding to be recognized for your hard work.

Viewbug has opened doors to endless creativity. The contests and community support have fueled my passion like never before.

I've had a ViewBug account for years and it's honestly a waste of time.

They have a lot of gimmicks that will lure you into thinking it's worth it. There are viewbug "awards" given at random that act more as participation certificates than anything based on skill. These company "awards" are heavily given when you stop using your account as a means to try and lure you back. Users can make and judge their own contests, which doesn't mean anything, and the contests themselves are only won by judges of other contests, no matter how good your photos are.
At the end of the year, they will send a summary that showcases where you place among viewbug users but fail to say how many users there are, even when you ask them. Being the top 3% of a million users is far different than being the top 3% of 100.
They also have a feature where you can sell photos but no one buys the photos because unless you win their major contests, you get no publicity and even then the publicity is solely other photographers (who are more likely to want to frame their own work than someone elses).
ViewBug also added a feature that encourages interactions with other user photos, but even then it's not anything constructive outside of auto-phrases like "good job" or "I like this", and users are prompted to send these messages for specific photos for account goals, not done of their own accord.
The site does try to offer some lessons, but I found them to be more like stories of how the photographer took or edited their photo instead of actual lessons. I found more helpful lessons on YouTube and in advanced photography books.
Overall, it's a cheap joke that convinces people to spend money while it offers very little in return. It and it's users are not genuine and it lacks anything helpful to improve your skills.
The only thing I found helpful by the site is searching for photos for inspiration, but even then that's what Google is for.
Take my advice and use a different website.

I really like this site for the learning experience and to get ideas for photoshoots. I like entering the contests to get an idea if the image is worth anything. I've NEVER won a contest yet... I doubt I ever will, if I do it will be very surprising. I've been a finalist several times and featured but nothing to get too excited over. Ive been a member for 2-3 years i think... IDK it's been a while. The one thing that keeps it from getting a 5th star from me is the reward points. They mean nothing. You can't redeem them for anything. They give you a free entry into a contest when you reach certain goal marks but you can't turn them in for anything... I would be cool if you could get a t-shirt or small momentos for the rewards. I've given up on trying to earn them. What's the point. I realize the points are easy to get, just make the items worth a lot of points then, and to certain level members make them worth less or discount them. I just think the reward points should either be cut out or improved with something worth working for...

Started off very good with all the hype of badges, peer awards etc, but the main aim was to enter and get somewhere in some of these competitions. I managed to get to the final bit but never quite enough to get the top 50, I worked out that you need a lot of mates to get your shot up there and your photo is never judged by the judges unless your right up there, I know this because if a judge can view ******* entries in a day or 2 then you know they are not looking at them all. I approve of fairness in the spirit of a competition, and be judged on your effort, its no good paying for membership if you are not in a fair competition in the first place, got fed up with it after a while after making a lot of effort in all aspects and getting no where, I have had huge success with the same photos in other competitions in a "judge"vote and direct comps, so i know my photos are of some quality. Will not be renewing because there is no feed back from judges, and when asked to be a curator and help others, well last time i looked i paid YOU a membership not you pay me to run your own site, sorry chaps, great site if you want to play at it, but for those who wish to see rewards for effort, more work needed.

Update: I have since been contacted by View bug, fair play to the people who are customer service, however i stand by the fact, as a pro membership, its a lot of money to spend when you dont know if your shot has hit the judges table, Its a shame when someone enters a photo and its a really good technical shot, lots of effort but they know so few people who do not benefit from tactical voting, so their shot never makes above the top 10%, which if the judges reviewed ALL shots entered this would not matter, but i am sure they dont. Great site for those that like to FB in photo land and network, but for those wishing to progress in the comp not quite there yet.

This website used to mean a lot, but now from seeing fake edited photos, to being awarded on quite a few photos, asked to be "printed" and the like, I've never seen any of these things come to fruition. A site that has an app that doesn't keep up with the app, and allow all functions to be done on the app, as is on the website…makes no sense. The new coin rewards program was a good idea…but there are no prizes left, and the ones that are for a few…as a lot of us have been on here a long time, they're not even prizes, just discounts to buy more. This is an art based site, therefore the community wants more than to be taken for money and to pay for "VIEWBUG popularity." We're looking for real people, real contests, real fellow photographers, and real coverage on our art. The emails are just confusing, it's hard to tell if they're asking to use your photos due to you winning (I have "won" and was asked about being printed or having my photos shown) and still have no clue what ever went on. They want you to pay for any little thing you click on, and on top of that it's not all of this that makes people feel that this site doesn't give what it offers and advertises. It's how the site is handled and how you're treated as a human that puts love and creativity into what you do, and yes you want the exposure that you are expecting, and yes you want to be able to talk to real time people and be treated fairly, get real answers, be able to use the site as it's put in front of you. It's just not that way. They've taken a lot of things that used to be just free, for us posting and giving our photos to make your site what it is, you should be doing the same for all of us, no matter what even if it's just the nunber of photos that you accumulate, you're making profit off your members, and I mean paying and non. We're all members of a community, so it's time it should be just that…a community. ViewBug has great potential,, after being asked to be a curator more than once, you should be putting the contests in the hands of some of your top winning photographers…and from every category, and style. Not I just by what they spend.

I like the format of the site, what bothers me is how the original photo quality is degraded significantly by Viewbug. Example, here are 2 links to the exact same photo. It has been uploaded to Viewbug and also DA.
Viewbug
https://www.viewbug.com/photo/*******
DA
http://orig12.deviantart.net/1bca/f/2016/239/f/7/bomber_by_5bodyblade-dafjigi.jpg

Update: This update is in reply to ViewBug T. [ViewBug Rep]
The image from deviant art I posted is actually what you see if you choose to zoom in. I was trying not advertise the DA site, thats why I linked directly to what you are shown.
But here is the link with the DA borders etc
http://5bodyblade.deviantart.com/art/Beautiful-B17-*******

Now, what is really puzzling, when I click on the photo from viewbug's version, It does not zoom in and get clearer, it actually zooms out only, showing either the "compressed version" or a smaller "compressed version"
https://www.viewbug.com/photo/*******

The photo never becomes better than "compressed"
I totally understand why images are compressed (saves space)
Also, thank you for taking time to talk about the issue. Again, I really like the format of the site, I just feel let down by image quality. Maybe I am missing something, but as far as I can tell, the view is always presented with the compressed image, with no way to zoom in or view the photo in better detail.
Thanks.