Say Hello to Wellow

Let's have a round of applause for Wellow!! (Seriously, start clapping your hands please.) She joined Viewpoints in November of 2007. In the past 5 months she's made quite the impression on our community. She won the Simple Thanks award for her quality contributions, community participation and overall enthusiasm ;) Wellow's most frequently used "I Am" tags describe her as a Christian, movie-lover who's very picky about TV, always online, and totally into bargain hunting. Wellow has written 99 reviews to date. I dare you to visit her page and help coax her into hitting that lucky number 100. OR just leave a mellow hello and ask if her favorite color is yellow or if she likes Jello. Okay, I'll stop. That was beyond cheesy. All in all, we're just really glad to have her here.

Good-bye Goodpoints, and hello lots of new features

The day has finally come!

We have officially decided to retire good points. DO NOT FALL OFF YOUR CHAIR. The bottom line is that we listened to you. We know you think they are kind of confusing and not widely used. So, we will be replacing them with HELPFUL RATINGS. You will now have the ability to give a review a helpful or "not helpful" vote. Now you can tell us if you think a review is really great, or really poor. Your feedback will partially control where/how the review displays. Oh, and did I mention that everyone can vote -- even unregistered members?!

Also note, you will not be losing all of the good points you have earned to date. Instead, we will transition them into "helpful votes". We are working hard to make this change today and set the changes live tonight. So, be on the lookout. Worst case scenario, it will be up by weeks end.

Also in the works (to give you a sneak peak)
1. We are putting the finishing touches on STATS. We have the basic funcionality built. Now, we just need to port in a lot of historical data. That's the hard part since we didnt always track "reads" at the review level. We hope to have that ready in a couple of weeks-- at the latest. We will keep you posted.

2. Message Boards. Next week we are hoping to have our own message boards. That means, NO MORE NEEDING TO VISIT YAHOO. You can just come to viewpoints to chat. The other major plus is we will have an announcements section where you can see all the latest and greatest product updates. We are super excited about that!

Those are just a few of the highlights! As always, we really value your feedback and very much look forward to hearing what functionality you like, dont like and cant wait to get!

Where in the world is Mark Stevens? Luckily, he's on Viewpoints.

Meet Mrkstvns, our resident rambling man and Tex-Mex know-it-all. He's visited places all over the globe. He spends lots of time sharing his favorite (and least favorite) "south of the border" & "Lone Star State" spots in particular. Pretty sure he's earned the "I Am a family traveler" tag with over 200 reviews in the Travel category! Are you heading to Mexico anytime soon?? If so, you better check out all Mark's reviews of Mexico Hot Spots for great, insider tips. He's covered the cultural spectrum with tourist-filled places like Cancun and Los Cabos to remote locations like Oaxaca and Huatulco!! Mark's shared his knowledge about anything from Mexican Airline advice to Best National Parks in Mexico.

Need a chuckle? Many of our users are especially enjoying Mark's creative use of Scribbles for daily joke posts! Check 'em out :)

We heart Jo... So we're featuring her this week!

Jo's extensive involvement at Viewpoints includes Publisher Circle member, Message Board leader and outstanding review writer to boot. She's super busy balancing many important roles... daughter, mother, wife, travel goddess, fitness guru and dog lover (Shout out to Hanna... Woof!). Lately, Jo's most demanding role, "daughter", involves caring for her mother in Florida. Our VP community wishes her well through this very challenging time.

Jo shares knowledgeable advice within her special niches of interest like Best Books for Mother's Day gifts, touring the Best National Parks on the East Coast, and a guide to buying the best treadmill. Don't forget to check out her slice of the web pie at: http://josspaceontheweb.blogspot.com/!!