Meredith's Featured Reviewer of the Week... Meet Telpher!

Meet Telpher. This Brooklyn native turned West Coast-girl keeps us informed and interested with her quirky reviews. Take these for example: the Best Movie Theme Songs EVER! and Ten Depressing Movies Worth Watching... Both creative and funny reads. Telpher joined us way back when in August 2007. She contributes helpful reviews in various categories like Travel, Food and Home & Garden. She's a frequent flyer, avid online shopper and movie connoisseur who earned her Writer 3 status quickly on the site. Folks who read and posts comments on her reviews can always expect a thoughtful reply back from Telpher. She always keeps the discussions going with other Viewpoints members... That's important in our book!

A strong voice and valued friend... Meet TheBard

He's a poet, movie buff, world traveler and family man (just to name a few). He's also our featured reviewer this month... Meet TheBard. He has been with us for a while so he's practically family by now. He has a large following of Viewpoints fans out there (including our entire VP office staff) who truly look forward to his contributions each week. Whether it's the latest software, faraway destinations, or a good read... TheBard has wise words to share about them. I encourage you to seriously read his thought-provoking Scribbles and phenomenally-written reviews (there are 594 of them!) Also, drop by to meet TheBard's lovely wife, Loveisjoy! We feel extremely fortunate to have these two wonderful folks in our community.

Changes keep rolling in! Check 'em out.

Just wanted to give you all a heads up on some of the new changes on the site:

1. Check out VIDEO REVIEWS on the home page. This will give you a sampling of what video reviews look like. Todd and Scott are our featured video reviews and they are great!!!!!!!

2. Take the video review survey-- it is at the bottom of the videos page. Tell us what you think. Do you like them? Love them? Hate them? Can live without them.

3. Check out the VIEWPOINTS VIDEO. It is on the video page in the welcome tab.

4. Have you noticed our new product page? Here is an example. We now feature a favorable and critical review prominently. We also give you a summary at the top as well as few graphics on whether people rec the product or not. Last, but not least, we are now adding your photos to the product page. Check 'em out.

5. Ratings no longer appear on your profile if you havent written any. The 0 was really bugging us- -and, Im sure you!!!

6. Ratings now automatically filter to the bottom on a product page. A review should always come above a rating.

What's coming next? A few more page redesigns and then stats!!!!!!!! WOO-HOO. The next month will be busy at Viewpoints.

If you have ideas for what you like and what you dont, we want to hear from you. We welcome any and all feedback, so please feel free to send your ideas along to us. We are here to listen!

Happy Easter to those that celebrate this weekend.

We are influencing the world of products!

Hi all.

Thanks to all of you who have reviewed the apple Iphone and participated in our survey. We have summarized the feedback from your reviews and survey and published a Press Release on the Iphone. It is definitely an interesting read.

Happy reading!!!

Raise your glass for a St. Patty's Day toast!

What's the first thing you think of when St. Patty's Day rolls around each year? Leprechauns? Pots of gold? Ireland? The color green? Of course not, silly... You think of BEER! That's why our featured reviewer this week is one of our own resident beertenders (not to be confused with bartender)... Aleconner. He's a hops enthusiast and mad brew scientist who has reviewed over 100 different beers!! Are you bored with traditional Irish stand-bys like Guinness and Killian's? If so, Aleconner has a long list of alternatives for your St. Patrick's day libations.

Sit down, pour yourself a big ole' pint of goodness and read up on Aleconner's recommendations. Be sure to check out his Scribbles to find out what the heck an Aleconner is. I'll give you a hint - It's NOT his name.

Here's a fun Irish drinking toast to use this weekend:

Here's to a long life and a merry one.

A quick death and an easy one.

A pretty girl and an honest one.

A cold beer—and another one!

Happy St. Patrick's Day weekend!

Salute to Friends/Family referrals

Meet TracyAlana... She joined Viewpoints back in Nov. 2007. She managed to not only start writing great reviews, but also recruited friends and family members to the site!! She won the Simple Thanks award for her contributions and community interaction. Tracy had no hesitation reaching out to other members of our site for helfpul information and advice. She's just another warm and welcoming member of our VP community and we're glad to have her (and her crew) on the site. Cheers to Tracy!! And Cheers to Friends and Family referrals!!

Quick side note: In the spirit of friends/family referrals... Big thanks to Jo for bringing up this topic on the Community Message Boards: http://groups.msn.com/ViewpointsCommunityChat.

A few changes we released last night

Hi Everyone.

We are going through a redesign of the site. We are moving some boxes around, adding some new functionality and looking for ways to highlight our best content.

As of late last night, we released a new REVIEW PAGE. Hopefully the changes are subtle but helpful. A few changes to note:

1. We added tabs to the page with details and price information
2. We changed the star placement on the page. We used to have two sets of stars
3. We made the name of the product clickable. So, you can easily go back and read more reviews
4. We added orange to the page to highlight when you can buy the product at VP
5. All the way at the bottom of the page, we added links to the authors other reviews (we eventually want to be able to show other reviews you have written in the category)
6. When you dont have pros or cons, the space just moves up
7. We added a thumbs up or thumbs down at the bottom of the review showing whether or not you rec the product or not

I know there are a lot more minor changes, I just cant think of them all right now!!!!

Let us know what you think. We love getting your feedback!!!

Happy Friday.
J