Help and Frequently Asked Questions

Registration

Is Registration required?

No. It is not required for reading the reviews. However, if you want to add your own reviews, or if you would like to add workouts to the database, you need to register.

Picking your Reviewer Name

The Reviewer Name you choose will be the signature for your reviews. If you have written a lot of reviews in the past and signed those reviews consistently, it is recommended that you choose that to be your username. This will link all those old reviews to you and your new user record.

Changing old Reviewer Names

If you would like to change the way you signed your reviews in the past, we can fix this for you. Many people used their last names to sign their reviews in the early days of VF, but if you would like to change to a more anonymous name using intials or anything else, please contact us through the "Contact Us" page. If you pick a new Reviewer Name, we can assign all the old reviews to your new name easily.

Will Email addresses appear anywhere?

No, your email address will never appear on the reviews, and it won't be shared anywhere. It is required because the system does send emails for lost passwords or when the workout you added to the database is posted. Please use a secondary email address if you are concerned with giving out your personal email.

Purpose of the VF ID

If you would like Review readers to have access to your VF profile and see your workout preferences, level of fitness (whatever you put in your profile), you can add this to your user record. Only Reader forum members will have access to this information, just like they would when in the forum. The VF Id is completely optional. If you choose to not link to the profile, just leave this field blank when you are registering.

Finding your VF ID

Your ID is NOT your VF Username. It is a numeric id that the forum uses to display your VF profile. To find this ID you need to be logged into the VF Reader Forum. Look at the top of the page on the right, where it says "Welcome, yourname". Click on "yourname" to see your user profile. Find your ID # by looking at the link at the top of your browser. At the end of the link, it should say "member.php?u=xxxx". The number xxxx is your VF id and what you should type into the VF field, to link to your profile.

Searching (Title, Reviewer, Instructor)

Searching Help

The search functions right now are very basic. The best way to search is to type a portion of either the title or name of instructor/reviewer. What you type, must be spelled correctly. For example, if you are unsure if the name is "Kristen" or "Kristin", you can search on "Kris" in the first name box. If you don't know the full title of a workout, try to pick the most unique part of the name you are sure of. What you are seaching on does not need to be at the beginning of title or name. For example, if you search on the word "best", you will find everything from "All My Best" to "Your Personal Best", including "Best of Cardio". Please Note: Do not use quotes when you are searching unless the title includes a quote.

What does "Top Instructor/Reviewer" mean?

Instructors or reviewers that have 10 or more workouts or reviews. If you click on this checkbox, it will reduce the size of the Indexes so you can see only those with the most activity.

How to find workout by a Series (i.e. The Firm, CIA, Spinervals)

There are currently no indexes by series of workouts. This feature may be added in the future, but is not available now. The best way to find workouts in a series is to use the Title Search and type the series name. For example, all Firm workouts can be found by typing The Firm in the search box.

What is the purpose of the link on the Review's date?

It simply allows you to see one review at a time. This may be useful if you want to link to a specific review in the forum (you can copy the link from the address bar). It could also be useful if you want to print a specific review that includes some nice breakdowns of the workout, but you don't want to print every review for that workout.

Category Index

Where are the Audio Indexes?

The audio workouts were joined in with the other categories. However, all audio workouts are distinguished by a headphones icon, so you can easily spot the audio/mp3 workouts in any list.

Can more categories be added?

Yes, feel free to make any suggestions through the "Contact Us" page and we will consider adding new indexes if there are enough workouts to support the category.

Adding Reviews

Where is the Submit Review Form?

There is no longer a link to submit any review. Instead there is a "Review this Workout" button on every workout. To review a workout, you need to log into the system, and then click on that button. This eliminates the need to type in the workout name, instructors, etc and you can just type in your review and any instructor comments.

Can't find the workout to review

If you can't find the workout that you want to review, it probably hasn't been reviewed before and needs to be added to the database. If you want to review it, you need to submit a request to add it to the database first. Get there using the "Add Workout" link when you are logged in. It will take a day or two, but after the workout is approved, you can review the new workout.

Can Reviews be modified later?

Not at this time. It is possible this functionality will be added in the future, but for now, please choose the "Preview" button to review your changes before you submit them. You can Preview and Edit your review as many times as needed before you submit the review. It is permitted to submit more than one review per workout, so if your feelings change about a workout over time, you might want to submit a second review.

Adding Workouts

Why is this step necessary?

It is important that we don't add duplicate workouts to the system. Moderators need to verify that any new workouts added to the database are entered with the correct information, so this intermediate step is important for brand new workouts. Please do a search for the workout, to make sure it is not already in the database and ready for review before you use this program.

Can a Review be added immediately after a Workout is Added?

No, moderators need to verify that the info is correct first. This should not take more than a day. New workouts will be approved faster if you make sure the data you are entering is correct (spelling, all instructors listed, correct title, etc.) You will be notified by email when the workouts is added to the database.

Knowing when new workouts are available for Review

If you have added a workout to the database, it should normally be approved within a day. Once it is approved, you will receive an email letting you know that it ready. The email will have a link to the new workout, so you should be able to easily get to the correct place to submit your review.