gary a.

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