ViewBug

I have an top notch tremendous and excellent involvement in you and i like your operating style and you are the most reliable, but i'm no longer content with you due to the helpless behavior of your consumer.

What does Elite awards from viewbug mean? I got this notification 2 days ago and i dont know what it means.

I have put much effort into my gallery and some challenges, community interaction and, guess what my photos. Been a paying member for 7 years.

First of all, they lure you into making points... even promising you a 'swag' after 500.000 points. I can assure you if you dreamt of an Aussie swag, there isn't even one for your beer tinnie coming up. Nothing. It's a lie.

There was a good forum where you could tell them about flaws, quirks and (View)bugs. Not anymore, it has been cancelled.
Challenges used to get a meaningful description. Not anymore.

Contests should differentiate between photos and digital artwork. Nope, a photo contest is won by a clearly fake, composite image.
In the middle of the pandemic, they do contests like 'haute couture' fashion in the city or Wedding moments which must have recent photos! That really tops it, weddings being limited to 4 guests and no reception.

Why not do a contest like 'health service at work? Heroes of the pandemic, enjoying at a distance, keeping safe, making the best of it. Might be more appropriate.

Which gets me to prizes. Win a podcast interview? The ' possibility' to get your photo published? Are you kidding? Why not donate a computer to poor kids who need to follow courses online if you don't want to give anything to the photographer?
Another good one
Get Your Photos Exhibited
As part of our mission to empower photographers Worldwide, we are running the first-ever ViewBug Virtual Exhibition Project with the goal to showcase unique images and feature the best creators of the community.

Now how is this a 1000 bucks prize value?

I wish I never had put all the effort in it.

Last but not least.
Now they want a GeoTag OK. Fair enough you should think...
Now WHY does San Carlos de Rio San Juan (Nicaragua) create a common tag with all the San Carlos in the world? Why does a very well know landmark in Australia not come up in the search abnd you have to use a town 200 kms away?
Why bother, let's use coordinates as in 9.45 N 91.23 W as in google.

I have enjoyed putting my photos on viewbug but its such a frustrating site, 1 when it comes to voting I can only see a few photos before going to next page (there could be 20 pages). 2 there should be some form of forum. 3 Its definately biased this is not sour grapes at all, but I have come to realise that its more who you know not what you know, seen some terrible shots win in some cases that it beggars belief. What I do now is use viewbug as a sort of link for other to see my photos. As I said frustrating because it could be a great site with a few tweeks here and there like feedback on photos etc.

I have had a free account on Viewbug for a few years, now. I have no intention of ever "upgrading," as I know the site is all about making money, not about promoting my photos. My objectives in using Viewbug are probably very different from most of its users. I regard it as a free onliine portfolio of my best photos, and to that end, being limited to posting only 10 images per week has helped me to post only my best work by forcing me to be more selective about what I post. I use my Viewbug address on the cards I hand out to people I meet and, thus, it serves the function of an online portfolio on which anyone can see my work. I'm fairly certain that most of the views I get are coming from real people I either know personally, who know me, or from real people I have met, and most are not photographers, but that's fine because an audience of nothing but photographers will have a very different viewpoint than an audience composed of people from all walks of life. Anyway, as long as my cards are out there somewhere, I know that people are being exposed to my work and it is the exposure of my work to as broad an audience as possible that I am interested in, whether I ever hear from them or not. A "comment" like "Nice shot" or just a string of emojies is meaningless to me, but hearing genuine praise from people I have talked to face-to-face and can discuss my work with is far more edifying. As for Viewbug's focus upon contests, I couldn't care less. I know the lure of winning awards and so on is how they steer you toward buying a subscription and continuing to pay for it every year. I now have approaching 2,000 images on the site and I get spam from them daily aimed at getting me to subscribe. They have even resorted to giving me an additional 10 images for the week, as a bribe, an enticement to pay for a subscription. So, sure, I'll upload 10 more images, but I'm still not buying anything because there is nothing they are selling that is of any interest to me. I'm sure that, at some point, I'll reach some limit (I haven't heard of any, yet, though) on the maximum number of images I can have on my page, and if I do, that's fine. As long as it continues to be maintained, I'll continue sending traffic to my portfolio via my cards, email links, etc.

I want to know a few things about this site. I joined anf got selected ro join adobe stock photos.

I can't find ANY legal stuff as to what my percent of sales would be for my work.

This bothers me.

I checked adobe's stock website and it's 33% of the sale that I make that way.

If i go through viewbug I simply can't find any info on what I'll make for my work. Of course i can't reach a human to answer my questions.

Another thing, the adobe istock link Viewbug sent me had the words "viewbug sponsored".

What does that mean? It makes this offer sound like I'm being suckered into a vanity publishing thing. Did viewbug pay to send users this link?

I would appreciate an answer to my questions.

Thank you.

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.

The main reason it is impossible to get an answer, I had a problem with two of my contests, I searched for answers and found none. I sent in requests for help, all I got was the automated answers which didn't help my situation. Also if I pay for something I would like to be able to download my photos if I should loose them. I can find no way to download them and find no answer on the automated answers. I am sure this question has been asked. I have enjoyed my time there but it seems there are much fewer photos being uploaded, most contests are the same pictures. Also there needs to be a way of deleting photos that I want to remove as having over 1,000 photos is hard to find something. So, you have to go to edit and delete and then start over again, very slow especially if you internet isn't working well.

After just being on the site for a few weeks, I concur with most. Too much emphasis on going Pro. Why bother? Just use the site for inspiration. You should have to PAY to enter a contest.

I have been on Viewbug for over 5 years. When I started there were photographers posting quality work. Now 75% of the photos posted are garbage. I am a professional photographer and instructor of photography. I would never, even in my early days of learning photography, posted some of the images I see on Viewbug. Apparently, the individuals posting this junk really do not care and just load up the Viewbug site. It's clear they do not care that their junk they post reflects on them as a photographer. I do give peer awards to the photographers work that recognizes the beautiful art of photography. 25% of Viewbug has photographers that display absolutely beautiful work. In teaching photography the novice learns by viewing the work of other professional photographers. Unfortunately Viewbug is not the place for a novice or aspiring photographer to view this type of work 75% of the time. Some of the images I see that win in contest are awful and clearly shows the judges have no clue what their doing or the photographer solicits votes from all their friends (very unfair) not caring if their work is worthy of a win. To a serious photographer I would not recommend posting your work on Viewbug if you wish to be noticed. If you want to be noticed try Fine Art America. For over 35 years I have made my living doing professional photography and teaching photography. When Viewbug began it was a great site now I would not recommend it. Also, to be a paying member is out of the question. With this said good luck.

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.

This site is wonderful for sharing photos with others, but the problem is within the contests. There are all these amazing prizes that I used to get excited about but now I've realised an amateur like me with a Canon 100D could ever win them. The photos that people post to these contests are exceptional but clearly taken with very expensive cameras. So they'll probably get the prize and sell it off or give it to someone else. I really think that this voids the point of the contests. Also people who win resubmit their photo for the next contest and could still win. Us people who haven't got £3,000 to spare are getting buried under the professionals.

I joined, but thankfully only the free version. I thought the contests were a great idea, until I noticed the same images placing high time after time, many of them winning contests. There is obviously no filter on resubmitting images that have won a contest, which for me is disappointing. It brings the contests down to the point where the winning pool can keep winning, and new images don't have a great chance to win. Like other reviewers here have said, there are also no filters on the kinds of images making it into contests. I thought about getting a paid membership, but I think I am going to pass as I can always join a club to get feedback if I want it.

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 think it's a fun site, to see where you're at personally in the world of photography, mostly. One of the drawbacks is that most of the time the photos that win are the most edited and altered. It's a bit of a bummer that in that way, that a great, more pure image isn't held in the same regard that a good image that has been extremely modified is. But it's a good place to get some feedback and see lots of great photos and photo illustrations.

Be honest I have not as yet made up my mind and am skeptical about it. On the plus side they offer some free contests without entry fee and without joining fee, which offer some ok prizes, allegedly. Also they gave one free premium contest entry; possibly an attempt to suck me in to pay their premium joining. I have seen some excellent work by other members, but also some not so good, but the not so goods are paying the premium membership; but so are some of the good ones. Consider that larger reputable publication like PDN that promote their own major contest and the curator contest also charge entry fees to pay into the prize pool and to allegedly discourage frivolous entries; yet National GEO contest does not; even small contests like popular photog monthly does not. Viewbug as expected does promote their annual membership for their premium buy to join; but as yet they have not solicited buy their book or buy your own award. Some things they do are suspect, but so far they have not tried to really push or force anything though they do try to sell the membership which is suspect. So far I have only paid them about $30.00 in individual contest entry fees that "offer" significant prizes and one free contest for a decent prize. They have offered a free trial premium contest, and some free ones wi various prizes. If they still offer the free trial one premium contest and the free ones, your safe and can't be forced to any monetary commitment which they will try to promote and encourage you but can't force you, so just stick to your guns and maybe if your comfortable try one or two individual premium contest entries for the individual roughly $10.00 fee each; this does not obligate or require any membership purchase or major investment. You can always stick to free safe contest wi National GEO; POP photog; better photo; digital photo pro mag, but regardless be sure your clear on retaining your ownership and copyright rights n their terms and conditions stipulation. The most suspect are the ones that solicit you to buy their books with your photo in it and you have won an award that you have to actually buy; so far viewbug has not pulled this as far s I know. Viewbugs members seem nice but it does raise a question that as long as you buy their membership they will accept poor work as long as you pay them to; I'm curious to see what quality work actually wins their $3000. 00 and $1000. 00 prize contests; as said you can try them wi low or no financial risk and don't go any further then their free non-premium contests or one or two entry fee premium contests without paying any joining fee or committing to any further purchase. For now I have gone as far with them moneywise as I intend to unless and until I am convinced otherwise; I will look at their free nonpremium contests and prizes; but for now until I see some really convincing facts or results, that's as far as I go. But you can stick to the legit free contest I have listed or the large upfront entry fee pro-level, contests sponsored by PDN but regardless read and understand the terms and conditions of ownership and copyright rights and publishing; and once more stay away from the ones that solicit you to buy your own work in one of their books and buy/pay for your own award certificate, trophy or anything else. View bug is not the only join our membership photog contest site; in fact they are pretty common like fanartreview, others. So do your research, use your best judgement and don't jump in too deep, and even though viewbug may turn out to be a we just want your money scam like others or maybe not), just be cautious limit your financial commitment to minimal so as not to get burned really bad or stick to the tried and tested free ones.
Gary auerback

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.

I love the site its a great opportunity to get my shots out for others to see, but... I am becoming a little discouraged about the competitions. It raises a red flag when the last 3 contest (perhaps more) were won by people who have joined JUST BEFORE a contest submission period ends... if you go back and review several recent contest, you will find this is becoming the norm and these "activities" seem quite questionable.
Case in point:
>> Winter Photo Contest - The latest winners' "portfolio" consist of 2 shots, which just happened to be the maximum # of shots for the contest; they won 1st place (a BX2 Backpack plus a BX2 Holster) (new member)
>> Thunder Photo Contest - 12 photos in winners portfolio (new member)
>> Natural World Photo Contest - - 15 photos in winners portfolio (new member)
>> Joy photo Contest - 2 photos in winners portfolio (new member)

Now don't get me wrong, the "winning" photos are great shots... and I've placed a few "Judges Favorite", "Featured Shots", and even a few "Featured Store". 8 "Awards" in all... just enough to keep me enticed...

As others have mentioned, the sight really lacks proper critiques from peers and seems to be post/point driven. It (the site) also lacks the meta data to "see" how the shot was taken and/or what software was used to edit the shot. There are also still "bugs" with the site that will place images in the wrong category. I don't know how when or why it happens but I've had on several occasions shots where I went in to edit the title or description and found B&W in color category. Landscapes (Nature) in animal category etc...

Bottom Line: I will continue to use the site perhaps past my subscription... but will continue to keep watch over the powers that be... the "contest" prizes are variable from inexpensive 120mm Holga cameras, gorrilla pod tripods. Or the likes to several $1000 prizes. You be the judge.