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I was attracted to Viewbug by their long list of expert judges. There was virtually nothing to tell me about how the site operates, but I expected it to be similar to other sites that offer juried competition for a gallery exhibition or other prices.
This site is different. Most winners are decided members votes. Members range widely in skill level and experience. Look at the work posted on Flickr and similar sites to get an idea. If you are an advanced photographer, these competitions are not very useful and similar to the ones you can get for free elsewhere online. The juried competitions involve members narrowing the selection down to about 50 images (from thousands) and a more experienced juror (a website staff or other) just looks at top 50 images.
I found the nondisclosure of that up front together with listing of great many expert judges creating an impression that the competitions are juried by experts. Even when you do become a member, it is difficult to find out how the competitions are organised. By that time it is too late and 3 weeks after I signed up for a year, I was offered only about 1/4 of what I paid back. I found this deceptive. I hope that you didi better research of this site than I did and that you learn from the experience.
Pavel M.'s review of ViewBug earned 7 Very Helpful votes
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Hello Pavel,
We very much appreciate your feedback and would like to explain the situation when there has been a misunderstanding or dissatisfaction with our service.
As we described in our responses to your emails; only the People's Choice winner is selected by member's votes via the Photo Trifecta and that's why this specific winning category is called "People's Choice". Grand Jury Winner, Amateur Winner, and all the other winners are selected by one or more judges depending on the contest guidelines. You can see a list of some of our judges here: https://www.viewbug.com/judges
Per your reply; we understand some people may know ways to cheat the system however Photo Trifecta helps us avoid these type of issues. The Photo Trifecta is based on a proprietary algorithm that helps us choose the best photos based on the people's choice. The system displays set of 4 photos in a randomized fashion based on our algorithm which is designed to allow all entries the most opportunities for being viewed. Voters can only vote one time within a contest's voting trifecta and each voter views different photo sets.
We see that you purchased the upgraded membership with the BESTDEAL promotion which reduced the total cost of the Pro membership by $60 USD and included several third-party products as part of the upgrade which are non-refundable. As stated on our upgrade and FAQ pages; purchases that include redeemable third-party products are non-refundable - just like any other non-refundable services that you would purchase via other websites. For your convenience; we've provided the details below:
Please refer to our upgrade page for more details: https://www.viewbug.com/upgrade
IS THERE A 100% MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE?
If you are unsatisfied with your upgrade, ViewBug will refund any unused portion of your subscription. Please note that upgrades that include any redeemable third-party value added products are non-refundable.
You may also check out our FAQ page at http://help.viewbug.com/customer/portal/articles/2647982
We do appreciate your honest feedback as it helps our team best understand how we can improve the ViewBug experience. While we do have many happy members, we do realize that there are some members may not be as satisfied. In your specific case, we tried to do our best to assist you with your concerns, while still honoring the terms and conditions of this non-refundable purchase, for all members.
All the best,
The ViewBug Team