Katrena said…

I've noticed that some are asking for a word count and some are asking for a character count for our draft boxes--is there a way to have both with a really obvious way to see which is which?

Also, I've noticed that when I search for an item and there's not a review on the item that when I click on writing a new review on it that I have to re-type the type of product (unless I remember to copy the name first)--is there a way to automatically display that information in the new review page once we select a category?

It might help to have the subcategories alphabetized. Sometimes I might stick something under misc. because I didn't see the subcategory.

Would there be a way to add a suggestion box for subcategories? For instance, I was writing a review for a sippy cup and was looking under baby for sippy cup and couldn't find it. I ended up backing out and searching for other sippy cup reviews to see which categories under which they were listed (bottles) and then went back in to write my review. If I had a box I could click for suggested categories for my selected product, that would help a lot.

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All good ideas!

We will look at ways to incorporate a character/word counter. This is def something we want to add. Interesting to hear you would want both character and word counts. For space and simplicity sake, ideally we'd chose to display only one of these. Does anyone else have a strong preference? Typically, similar sites display only one. We'll also do some research around this feature to find what works best. Thank you for putting this out there.

Re: the second topic you bring up...  I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean. Are you talking about adding a new product to the database or looking up a product within the search results on the Write a Review page? OR Are you refering to performing a product search in the search bar at the top of the page? If possible, can you email me a a specific example? (meredith@viewpoints.com)

If you are referencing the Read Reviews page... We generally list the subcategories by popularity and content demand. For example, under the Sports category, we find visitors are searching for the exercise equipment sub-category far more often than memorabilia.

Adding a suggestion box for subcategories is certainly something we can look into as we streamline the Write a Review process. It may be a little while until we get to this but we'll include this option as a potential feature.

I vote for the word count b/c that is the criteria we must meet for the post to count as a review toward writer levels and recognition.  The character count is not to exceed 150,000 and besides me doing that extremely large review that exceeded 150,000 characters I don't think we are maxing out that often ;+)

I would really love for the READ REVIEWS function to work.  There have been times when I wanted to read up on a product and that function just doesn't work.  When I type in what I want it doesn't take me anywhere.  It gives me the WRITE REVIEW format.  There are times when the item is so popular that it will take you to another area and give you an overall Viewpoints summary of a product and then ask if you want to review the product. 

 For example: Many times I want to review books by specific authors and I cannot get to them.  I can only read reviews thru my friends activity.

And the SEARCH engine still isn't working because that would be ideal for READING REVIEWS.  I can know the exact title of a product and know it exist in review format at VP and when I type it into the SEARCH area it comes back as "nothing found."  I think the SEARCH function should be like googling.  If I type the word Danielle Steel then give me a list of her novels that have been reviewed.  If I type Guess Jeans give me a list of those products that have been reviewed.

Other than those suggestions, I still think Viewpoints is a great place to hang out!  

Remember to

Someone

Making

It

Look

Easy

Make the best of this day!!!  ~Gigi girl

Hi Gigi!

I'd like to send you an email with some screen shots so we're on the same page but I do have a couple examples I can share here too.

About the search engine function:
The search bar at the VERY top of each Viewpoints page should allow you to type in a term and receive a list of results with reviews containing that term.

Let's use your Danielle Steel example... I typed in "danielle steel" in the search bar and received the following results:
(I can't make this a clickable link so please copy/paste the URL below into your browser.)

http://www.viewpoints.com/search?q=danielle+steel&commit=Find 

These search results supply exactly what you would want them to - reviews of Danielle Steel books.

Regarding your comments: I would really love for the READ REVIEWS function to work. There have been times when I wanted to read up on a product and that function just doesn't work. When I type in what I want it doesn't take me anywhere. It gives me the WRITE REVIEW format. There are times when the item is so popular that it will take you to another area and give you an overall Viewpoints summary of a product and then ask if you want to review the product.

I'll email you about this one because I'll need to send screen shots to make sure I understand what you are referring to. Not sure what "Read Reviews" button you are using.

All is well now.  I reviewed all the discussions and a few months ago I had sent a comment similar to this and Kevin responded back and said they were working on getting the SEARCH function to work.  I just assumed it still wasn't working b/c nothing ever appeared on the boards that the issue had been resolved.  I just tried to use both the SEARCH and READ REVIEWS functions and they both worked exactly the way I was expecting them too.  Sometimes I will remember a product but not the reviewer OR I am trying to read up on a product before I purchase so I like these functions.  Sorry to have bothered you and thanks again!!

   

Word count is what I vote for but that's not why I'm here.

I just noticed the subscribe to button but it is an RSS feed. If I adding everyone to my Yahoo page that would be crazy. As it is I know we get alerts but they aren't all of them. Is there a way to make our alerts come more often and be comprehensive of all our friends? Thanks, Jo

   Could we have the option to chose our own articles that we want to feature on our profile pages, including to be able to have up to 5 featured articles and we can change them anytime and in any order we want them featured? . . . I'm not sure if that made sense but I hope it does.

   I just think it would be interesting to see who's everyone's favorite articles of their own. Also, if you have articles that are seasonal, you can circulate them on the featured articles depending on the season.

Is there a way we could add choices to add a review to the favorites list, email to a friend, etc. at the bottom of the review? I usually have to read a review before I decide whether or not I want to add it to my favorites, etc. If it's at the bottom, people might find this more user friendly.

I hope you guys have a great weekend and get to go outside at least for a little while!

I would like to able to go back and edit the information entered when first adding a product to the site.  A couple of times, like on the review I just wrote, I've accidentally misspelled something, and there's no way that I can see to go back and edit that information.

I still want to be able to edit my photo captions. I have left typos in because I just could NOT delete the pic and find it again plus it was in a certain order meaning that pic would have been the last one or I would have had to delete all pics and start over. That and I would LOVE to be able to edit comments on people's profile pages. I made a stupid typo on a new member's page and went to edit it and there was no edit button. I know we can edit comments (thankfully) but not on profile pages.

PattyTherre said…
I still want to be able to edit my photo captions. I have left typos in because I just could NOT delete the pic and find it again plus it was in a certain order meaning that pic would have been the last one or I would have had to delete all pics and start over. That and I would LOVE to be able to edit comments on people's profile pages. I made a stupid typo on a new member's page and went to edit it and there was no edit button. I know we can edit comments (thankfully) but not on profile pages.

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Patty,

If you go to your profile page and click on your in-box then filter by comments you have written you can find the comment and edit it.

If it's a product title correction needed... email or private msg me with the URL and I'll fix it... meredith@viewpoints.com. I'm happy to correct any typos. ANYONE can send them my way :)

In an effort to keep our data as clean as possible, we only allow the brand and product name to be entered once when you add it to the database. Repeat editing of brands and products would greatly affect the way reviews are listed across the site. Also, the probability of duplicate brands can potentially increase so we've chosen to manage data adjustments on our end.

Okay, I hope I explain this well enough for others to understand where I am coming from.  This is pertaining to the way book reviews are titled.  When we click on "write review" we are taken to the screen to do a product look up OR add a new product.  Of course we are encouraged to look up the product to see if it already exists so that we are not producing a new one that others may have already reviewed, right?

IF the book I wish to review is in the system I merely click on "review it" and the system will produce the title, author, and most of the time a picture of the book. 

IF the book I wish to review isn't already available then I am given the option to "add it to the book category.  I am then prompted to enter the title, author and if I have a picture for the primary photo I can upload that.

Why is it that when the book already exists it produces the author's name in front of the title in my product name?  For example: I just reviewed The Stuff Of Life by Karen Karbo.  It was already available as a "review it" so I selected it.  Now, it has my product listed as Karen Karbo-The Stuff Of Life.  I think that looks tacky and someone else noticed it and mentioned it to me believing that I was randomly doing this.  Now when I recently reviewed the McKaslin Homecoming by Jillian Hart I had to add that book so in my product name it merely says McKaslin Homecoming.

Is there anyway you can do away with the pre-formatted style so that the author's name doesn't appear in front of the book title?  Wouldn't that also allow for uniformity in the product names?  

 

GigiandAdonai said…

Okay, I hope I explain this well enough for others to understand where I am coming from.  This is pertaining to the way book reviews are titled.  When we click on "write review" we are taken to the screen to do a product look up OR add a new product.  Of course we are encouraged to look up the product to see if it already exists so that we are not creating a new one that others may have already reviewed, right?

IF the book I wish to review is in the system I merely click on "review it" and the system will produce the title, author, and most of the time a picture of the book. 

IF the book I wish to review isn't already available then I am given the option to "add it to the book category.  I am then prompted to enter the title, author and if I have a picture for the primary photo I can upload that.

Why is it that when the book already exists it produces the author's name in front of the title in my product name?  For example: I just reviewed The Stuff Of Life by Karen Karbo.  It was already available as a "review it" so I selected it.  Now, it has my product listed as Karen Karbo-The Stuff Of Life.  I think that looks tacky and someone else noticed it and mentioned it to me believing that I was randomly doing this.  Now when I recently reviewed the McKaslin Homecoming by Jillian Hart I had to add that book so in my product name it merely says McKaslin Homecoming.

Is there anyway you can do away with the pre-formatted style so that the author's name doesn't appear in front of the book title?  Wouldn't that also allow for uniformity in the product names?  

 

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We hear ya, Gigi. Right now, when you select a book that is a Shopping.com product  in search on the Write a Review page, the listing automatically defaults to author first, then title. When you add a new book to our database, you are able to enter the title first, then the author because that product has not been found as a Shopping.com item.

We can eventually create a more uniform display. You're right, consistency is better. In the meantime, I can manually change the book titles for you if you'd like.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. This is on our list of to do's! :) We agree, we need to clean it up a bit. We will keep you posted on when we make the change. In the meantime, thanks for being so patient as we get it fixed.... and yes, I totally understand what you are talking about! Love the pix by the way.

great job on the characters/words! saves me so much time and now it's also easier to write what people NEED to read instead of writing too much and boring people. 

Along the lines of what was GigiandAdonai was saying..... I just wrote a book review and there are now 7 reviews on "Nora Roberts - The Hollow" and 2 reviews on "The Hollow".  Seeing as how these are obviously all reviews on the same book, is there any way to combined them so we have one spot that keeps track of all 9 reviews?  It seems like it would affect the average rating as well as just being more difficult to find all the reviews on this book.

onyx95 said…

Along the lines of what was GigiandAdonai was saying..... I just wrote a book review and there are now 7 reviews on "Nora Roberts - The Hollow" and 2 reviews on "The Hollow".  Seeing as how these are obviously all reviews on the same book, is there any way to combined them so we have one spot that keeps track of all 9 reviews?  It seems like it would affect the average rating as well as just being more difficult to find all the reviews on this book.

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I believe you will see that this is now fixed.  If you see duplicate listings please e-mail them to Meredith and she will make sure they get fixed.

I think a "Green Living" subheading on the top toolbar would be a good addition. I mostly like to research and review eco friendly merchandise, particularly because a lot of it is "new" or new to the mainstream shopper. I think it would be a big help to consumers. Thanks for reading my comment!

I too would like a green category - I am trying to use more green products too and many of them being new it's nice to know someone else's experience before I buy them. 

Maybe the could cross post?  say green and dishwashing liquid.  Just a thought and maybe it made the tech guys run screaming from the room

I think a homeopathic sub category under "health" would be useful. Most of these products don't have FDA approval, and are used because of recommendation's by personal users. Viewpoints would be the perfect place to offer personal experiences with homeopathic remedies, as well as reviews for homeopathic products that promise some sort of result but don't perform.

I noticed the front page has changed. At the moment a lot of the photos are not displaying for prodcuts.

You caught us in the middle of a software update. Give us a few moments and they'll be back. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Maybe I've missed in on the site, but I would love to see a way to share the Viewpoints link on social networking sites.  A lot of other sites (not just review site, but in general) have an option to share Viewpoints info on Facebook, MySpace, etc.  I'm a huge addict to VP and FB, so I'd love to be able to show VP stuff on my social networking page.

dmlichnerowicz said…

Maybe I've missed in on the site, but I would love to see a way to share the Viewpoints link on social networking sites.  A lot of other sites (not just review site, but in general) have an option to share Viewpoints info on Facebook, MySpace, etc.  I'm a huge addict to VP and FB, so I'd love to be able to show VP stuff on my social networking page.

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Interesting cause that link used to be on review pages... maybe one of the VP peeps can chime in on that feature.

Above your review, there is a link that says "Share This".  Click that for options to post on facebook and other sites :)

vivasuzi said…

Above your review, there is a link that says "Share This".  Click that for options to post on facebook and other sites :)

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Ahhh you are right... I missed it.  Surely it could have bit me it was in such plain sight.

A chat screen so vivasuzi and I can chat on nights like this :) Lol

Like I said, I may have missed it...I'm not always the most observant.  Thanks so much!!!  I'll try that out.

Haha just a special chat for me and you only :)  You know what would be cool though... this might be difficult but might as well throw it on the list!

Facebook has a thing at the bottom that shows which of your friends are online and you can click them to open a little chat box.  What I like is the IM is all built in to the page so as you navigae Facebook, you can still be chatting with the person.  The chat and list of online friends is always on the bottom of the screen and you can still browse :)

Anyway, that's it!

As far as the "I am" tags are concerned: sometimes I know I have an "I am" tag I want to use, but it doesn't show in the list (not even in the 'view more tags'). I don't want to add it, because I already know it's there and if I spell it differently, I'll just end up with another tag that is almost identical. It bothers me that I have so many tags that are similar. I try to remember the spellings and capitalizations so I am using the same tags all the time.

With "pros" and "cons" can we be allowed to correct spelling? I try to make sure, but if I misspell a "pro" the only option is to deselect it and retype in a new one spelled correctly. I don't really like doing that so I will use a "pro" or "con" misspelled by someone else.

I am not sure what the difference is between a friend and fan. If I add someone to my friends list, do they get a message saying that they have a new fan, or do they get a message saying I added them to my friends list? Is that the same thing?

Thank you..  pd