I used to write for Viewpoints and still log in occasionally to update a review. Does anyone still write there?
When I logged in today the whole site was totally changed. I couldn't figure out how to sort my reviews or find any other living being on the site. Looks like the community aspect had been totally wiped out. What did they do to the site???

I used to write there as well and last looked at my account a couple weeks ago. It didn't look different then. I'll have to take a look and see what's up.

Edit:

I looked and... WOW! It's all different and much more basic there. My guess is that Viewpoints got hammered by the recent Google changes, simply lost its income stream and laid off most of the staff. I used to post several photos with every review, and those photos are no longer visible. That's a real shame, because I thought the photos helped the reviews considerably. The only pictures that remain for my reviews are the actual product photos that I uploaded, a feature that Epinions would be smart to add.

And there are no more forums over there. I was active on VP's forums once, but they got taken over by silly games. So, no more community there.

--Bob

I rarely sign in but I did so last week to make sure I wouldn't write the same exact review on epinions. Wow! Was I ever surprised with the changes. I, too, posted many of my photographs on the site and now they are gone. It seems like they are going downhill. I am proud to be a reviewer on epinions, for the caliber of writers is a lot higher than on Viewpoints. Just my two cents.

They've eliminated many categories (books, TV, music, home furnishings, cars, local, travel, etc.) and have decided to focus on just a few of them like HG, beauty/wellness, kids, electronics, computers, etc. They also are looking for very specific types of product reviews in those categories so a review of a vitamin suppplement would be welcomed in the health area while a review of cough drops or a prescription medication would not.

They also got rid of the "I am" tags, the ability to add photos to reviews, the ability to add products to the catalog, the blogs, the member pages, the community blog, and the discussion boards.

Yes, Google's change seriously impacted their traffic. They ran so many 5 for $5 and 10 for $10 Amazon gift card promos that required just 200 characters (yes characters not words) that Google decided the place didn't contain any valuable information.

I found this article about it last week: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-02-25/
business/ct-biz-0226-viewpoints-20120225_1_viewpoints-
google-matt-moog

(I had to break that link up into bits in order to be able to post this message. Just take out the breaks)

Found this too: http://m.techcrunch.com/2012/03/03/how-google-panda-changed-our-business/

Wow - I didn't realize the site had so many problems. Thanks for the update. Live by Google...Die by Google.

For some reason I decided to check out Viewpoints again last week and saw the huge change as well. I figured it had something to do with Google's "Kung Fu" Panda. Needless to say it was a shocker because I couldn't even figure out how to navigate through it all.

For all the complaints we have about Epinions, we should be grateful that it has survived and weathered through a lot of obstacles and is STILL standing strong.

~C

I was going to update a review on my account and it's no longer listed anywhere. Did they delete a lot of them? Too bad - it was one that got a decent number of views.

I was a very active member of Viewpoints...I was even a paid writer and Community Liaison. I loved writing in books, movies and music and they eliminated all those categories. I had published almost 1,000 reviews in less than 3 years. I lost about 500 when they purged the initial categories. Then I lost 100-200 when they purged subcategories.

Now the weirdest thing has happened..My profile name is there with all my visits but no reviews! I have googled some the product names that I wrote about and it takes me to a generic page on Viewpoints...

I wish I would have been given the opportunity to save the reviews...I worked long and hard on most reviews, especially the movie and book ones and I even shared them with the authors/cast members on Twitter but now if/when I click on that link there is nothing there to show for my work.

I read all the information about Viewpoints changes and so forth but I think they changed too much. I hate that you now can't find your friends unless you're on Facebook. I just google their screenname and get to them that way.

I guess you can't beat a dead horse BUT you can teach an old dog new tricks and perhaps they should stick with my philosophy: If it ain't broke...don't fix it!!

Are you related to Schrodinger's cat?

I don't know who that person is so I'm guessing I'm not related. To the best of my knowledge I don't have any family on Twitter or Epinions. All of my family uses Facebook for social networking and I'm the only one that does Twitter rather than FB.