Viewpoints Review

I was one of the early ones to be invited to join Viewpoints and was one of the original 20 members appointed to the Publisher's Circle. I say this up front so that you know where I stand and you can judge this review with that knowledge.

With a long background writing reviews for all sorts of products and services, I'm a natural fit for Viewpoints. Of all the places I've written reviews, Viewpoints makes it the easiest. This could lead to problems in the future but, for now, it's a joy to come here and write reviews. I'll write a little about the good stuff before I get to the possible negatives, so bear with me for a minute or two.

The good

Since I write professionally, you might think that it would be equally good writing just anywhere. Nope, it doesn't work that way. When I worked on a magazine, I was assigned things to write and this can be a drag after a while. Words are always best when written with passion and it's hard to generate passion for some of the topics I was assigned to write about at the magazine. At Viewpoints, I can write about whatever I want to write about, as long as it's a review. Although it seemed dubious when Jolie said it, I have reviewed a doctor and two dentists on Viewpoints, and think I did a decent job. I've reviewed a hospital emergency room and two restaurants in tiny towns that would never get any sort of coverage in mainstream media. So Viewpoints does a nice job of filling some large gaps in coverage of important services, such as doctors, dentists and restaurants.

Therefore, my favorite thing about Viewpoints is that I can write a review about anything, including things I never thought could be reviewed.

My next favorite thing about Viewpoints was another surprise: pictures. I never thought that it would be so much fun to post pictures along with my reviews but I really enjoy this feature. If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then posting a couple of appropriate pictures with a review gives the consumer a great deal of information in an easy-to-digest form. Viewpoints would be a lot less fun without pictures.

Finally, the staff at Viewpoints has been friendly, accessible, professional and helpful. In particular, Jolie is everywhere on the site and makes it a more fun place to be because of her presence. She really seems to listen, as do the others responsible for making the site tick, and I've learned that any organization is only as good as the people running it. So far, the Viewpoints staff has impressed me very much.

The bad

On the negative side, Viewpoints is noticeably slower to access than any other review site I've been to. The slow speed can definitely be annoying at times. The worst delays are often clicking out of a display of pictures, since it is often a few seconds before the picture window closes.

Editing things on Viewpoints can be problematic. There's no way to edit (or even delete) comments left on reviews and it's amazing how boneheaded typos can pile up there. It's also hard to edit captions on photos, although I can delete the photo and start over. Editing the text of a review is easier -- my only problem there is that I've had consistent problems using Viewpoints' built-in spell checker. When the spell checker works, it's great. However, it often locks up and will not let me edit my text. (Incidentally, the spell checker worked fine for this review!)

There is only one way to validate reviews on Viewpoints, and that is with the "I agree" button. If someone has a lousy review with no information, or if it is on the wrong product, there is no way to flag a review as not worth the bits it takes to display it.

Finally, although this is not a problem for me, the time will come when the ease of adding new things to Viewpoints will be a liability. Since anyone can add anything, human laziness will cause two, three, five, 10 people to all add the same product because they will be too lazy to see if it already exists in the database. Human nature being what it is, there could be a jumble of reviews that will confuse consumers. This may not have happened yet, but it could easily happen if Viewpoints is not vigilant.

The Verdict

As a writer, I like Viewpoints. It's just plain fun to write about whatever I want to write about, and I also enjoy the picture angle. The people here have been terrific and the reviews I've read have generally been high quality.

There is room for improvement and the staff will have to stay on top of things as the site grows. This could be tough, since there are a lot of people out there to live to cause trouble, and some of them are quite clever about it. However, I like Viewpoints and plan to stick around.

I hope to read your reviews soon.