ViewBugReviews 250

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've been a member for several years now. Every other day I'm getting a stupid email stating that I've gotten another award, stating that there's a special message from me which is actually just trying to trick me into purchasing a pro membership. I get messages saying They picked my photo to go into some competition or something but when I click a link nothing has ever been selected it's always them scamming. I've gone into the email settings and I have everything deselected. So I should receive absolutely no emails from these annoying scammers.

Yet for over a year I'm still receiving crap from them. EVERY! Time I get an email from these scammers I click on unsubscribe and everything in the unsubscribe list is already unsubscribed yet I'm still receiving tons of spam from these scammers.

They are just doing a numbers game. If they can try and scam one person multiple times and fail then they've wasted their time. But using technology like emails they can scam 1 million people a day and only need 1% of that million people to fall for their BS and they are making a fortune.

This world needs one of two things. It needs a Internet police that can go after despicable scammers like this that try to trick innocent people or some good hackers that can track these dogs down and let us all know where they are.

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.

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.

... Still have the free membership I had on joining! Sure they invite you to upgrade, and encourage you with eg possibilities of more entries into contests and other perks, but kind of expected that anyway. I enjoy entering their contests very much, and happy to say voted in the top 10 percent, 20 percent and 30 percent in a number of these. Also like browsing other members work, and learning more - you never stop learning with photography! Viewbug is fun!

Be cautious and don't be fooled by fake rewards. Your picture won the xxxxx award! Funny after I quit I got rewards almost everyday with harassing mailing that you can't spam away. Sorry I ever joined!

Been a member since last November, great community, good educational material available to members. Some of the photos you have access to view, are absolutely stunning.
I question their integrity in the rewards program. Rewards for most achievements are more points, which are awarded promptly. There are a few perks along the way, like extra entries into contests, but otherwise, just points! The big one that appealed to me was Ambassador level, which came with a "Swag Bag". I can find nothing about it on their site anymore, so maybe it is gone. To achieve this, you needed 500k points. When I finally achieved it, nothing! No congratulatory email, I mean nothing! After 3 months of correspondence with them, they finally slammed the door on me. So what did I finally get for my "bag"? A "mini pixie" tripod, available on line at $15-30! And one year additional membership for the inconvenience.
As I read through the emails, the wording is quite clear, until the latter end, when they added a "what we meant was" qualifier!
If you have issues, my experience is that it will go in their favor right or wrong! They have only email correspondence with the Help team, and based on my experience, it's more to deflect, than help.
This brings into question so much more! Do contest winners ever receive their awards, looms large.
If you want a good hangout, where you can have your ego stroked, and learn a bit about improving your skills, this will work well. If you want integrity and an honest bonus system, not so much!

I joined ViewBug about four years ago, back when I first got into photography. About a year before I even got my first "real" camera, when I was still using my cellphone to take photos. I was going through a very difficult time in my life and photography literally saved my life. ViewBug gave me a good place to look through thousands of images, talk with other members and learn more about photography. I actually won a contest this year and have won several contest finalist, along with many challenges. ViewBug has helped me, and continues to help me become a better photographer as time goes on. I know that I still have a lot to learn, and there is always room for improvement, but I know that I wouldn't be at the level I'm at as a photographer, without ViewBug. I have made several good friends on the site and the staff has always been beyond helpful, understanding and professional in every single email exchange I've had with the them. I'm actually very thankful for the site. I see many bad reviews on here, but to me, ViewBug is just like anything else in life, you get what you put in to it. I also wanted to mention that although ViewBug is a huge site with hundreds of thousands of members, they still have a way of making you feel special and cared about. And before I end this. If anyone from ViewBug reads this, I want to give you a huge thank you for all of the hard work that you do to provide such an amazing website for me and other photographers like me. To me there isn't a better photography site out there, that accomplishes everything that ViewBug does. So again, thank you, for everything!

I joined the ViewBug some time ago. Right after I joined, I received personal messages which I'm receiving even today.
Messages like: "Hi, I saw your account and no photos? Are they coming?" or "Hi, I want to meet other photographers. Care to hang out?" and these messages keep coming weekly. Where on Earth is such a super über ultra-sweet a super welcoming community, I thought to myself. It felt just wrong! Then I went research and saw reviews of others.

It is a scam, pyramid-like fake bull*hit webpage sucking up money from less fortunate, who does not smell the scam all over.

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.

Haven't used Viewbug in maybe four years, still doesn't stop them sending emails being like "AWARD winning PHOTO!" and other $#*!e nye on weekly. They just trick people into thinking their photos are amazing to lure them into buying premium etc.

ViewBug has thousands of great photographers from around the world. The contests are very competitive. I studied Photography and Cinema at The Ohio State University and their culture was to learn from great Photographers work. Thank you ViewBug for awarding my Photography.

When joining ads start to get discount to join. Then reduces the discount to increase pressure. I am not going to join a site I am not familiar with until after I experience it. The pressure to get them join right away and take away any discount is turn off. They should wait to offer discount. I will not join and pay more than others just because I wanted to try it out first.
Second... my supporters voted in challenge and my photo was NOT IN IT! So no guarantee you join a challenge you get fair chance for voting! Seems scammy to me. NOPE. After my photo did not get chance to be voted on I will NEVER give them my money or personal bank info. LOTS of good artists on there though.

Hard to navigate, constantly googling how to do things on you ViewBug. There's no useful FAQ. Alot of things are not explained on how to get setup and get started. You are on your own. Tech support is nonexistent.

I joined believing it to be a community for photographers to share feedback with each other. Paid for Premium membership too... waste of money. Every single day I have creepy scammers private messaging me asking for my email address and suggesting we communicate on Hang Out or such like. I have identified pictures stolen from other sites but there does not seem to be a way to report this kind of copyright theft.
At first I thought it was OK to be a Curator but quickly realised that it is just a system for gaining points which earn you pointless badges with no real meaning.
A Curator is asked repeatedly to "Award All" to sets of 4 photographs. Once that task is done you are asked to Follow a set of photographers and to send Invites and Messages to other users. These are generic and button pressing operations.
What is the point in "following" 20 new photographers every day when you are unable to look back through a directory to see who you are following? It is just a way to earn points.
There are too many photos of half clad and naked females for my taste and between that and the scammers I now find visiting view bug on a daily basis very depressing instead of the joy I was hoping for. It has an aura of sleaziness about it.
I just want to close my Account but I cannot find the relevant area to do that. The advice is either out of date of spurious.
A waste of time if you are serious about your craft. Stay away!

Went pro about a year ago not worth it... it's hard to navigate and no one interacts with each other, too many highly edited stacked photoshopped photos to compete with, not to mention all the trashy photos of half-dressed women even after turning OFF the adult option... the directory isn't working so I couldn't find the cancel subscription option or the delete account option and once you download your photos to this site you cant delete them... view bug puts their watermark on your photos so beware... big mistake! Also constant emails