How to use this website

If you are viewing this page, you are probably new to this website. You have came to the right place. Here we’ll cover some basics to help you understand how this site works. This is a free membership website where you can read and write reviews, make friends, create and join groups, and just plain talk to one another if you choose to. The members activity area of this website is where you can interact with one another. You can read reviews and write your own through our main page without using the members area if you choose to. The members activity part of our site allows you to do so much more than read and write reviews, so it is an option.

The basic setup of the main page

There’s 2 main menus on our website. The main one is the one that is used for most everything. The main one is underneath our logo where it’s expected to be and you probably used it to get to this page. On mobile devices the menu is at the top right corner of the ‘Packaged Food Reviews‘ Logo and it looks like 3 lines, sometimes referred to as a ‘hamburger icon’.  There’s different interactive links across the menu on desktop devices or down the menu on mobile devices. There’s a search option with the magnifying glass symbol in the main menu on desktop computers and laptops. There’s a search option at the very top of the page on all devices. The search option allows you to search our entire site for any content on our site ranging from food products to any other content on our site. There’s also a menu at the very bottom of the page with additional links.

  The way it works      First, if you are looking for a certain product such as ‘cereal’ or any other product, try typing it in one of the search options. As you type it in, it will display posts with images that may relate to what you are looking for. You can type in your search and hit Enter, or Return on your device, or simply click the search icon and a page of results will show up. There may not be any images on the search results page, but the post and page titles will clearly be listed. To see the most recent posts, scroll down the page, you will see the the newest posts first followed by older posts the further down the page. You can either click on any of them through the main image, post title, or the read more link to view them. If you keep scrolling down the page you will continue to see the most recent posts in descending order towards older posts. Eventually while scrolling down you will see an option to for ‘older posts’. When you click on that it will take you to another page of the posts that were previously posted. You can keep doing that and eventually you would reach the very first post that was uploaded. You can also go back to ‘newer posts’ by clicking that link after you have viewed older posts. If you are looking for something specific, you can search for it with one of the search options.

How to become a member

Our site is free to use and there’s plenty to see if you’re not a member. If you want to get the most experience out of our site, becoming a member is the way to go and it makes for a more seamless experience. It’s a fairly simple process to sign up. From our main page under the main menu, look for ‘membership information’ which is probably how you got here. Then scroll down and click on member registration. Then you will see a form to fill out. It asks for your name which is your day to day actual name, or whatever you want to tell us. Then it shows ‘user name’ which is where you choose the name that by default will be associated with any reviews or interactions you choose to have on our site. You can use a nickname or self given name, or just plain create something completely new for you. Then an actual functioning email that you want to use for transactions between you and us such as notifications or email digests. Please note that you can access your member profile and edit your notification settings to your liking. Then create a password which must be at least 8 characters long for security. Then below the submit button you will see links to our terms of service and privacy policy. You will notice the form says you must agree with those to become a member. Then all you have to do is click submit and you are now a member.

How to search for a product

There’s various search options throughout or site that say ‘search here’ and one that just looks like a magnifying glass symbol on the main menu bar on desktop and laptop computers. Click inside any of those options and start typing a type of product, something about it, an ingredient, diet style, or whatever and anything tagged with those results should pop up as options. You can either click search or just click what pops up as you search. Clicking search is likely to show you the most options. You can also use the search options to find parts of our website like this page. You can also use the ‘food categories’ option in the main menu to find a food product. You can scroll down and click on whichever category might contain what you’re looking for. Keep in mind that it’s a big world out there and there’s only so much we might have. Especially now while this is a new website. Sometimes being vague in the search section is more likely to find what you’re looking for. As time goes on we’re likely to add more categories to choose from.

How to read reviews from our main page.

So from our main page you will see what are known as posts as you scroll down your computer screen or internet device. Each post will show the name of the product on top, then followed by the author name of who wrote the original review and the date it was posted. Then you will see a large photo of the product. You can click on the name of the product or the large picture to bring up the review. After clicking on the product, you will see a big picture of the product known as the featured image. Below that you will see additional images of the product when available along with an average rating. As you scroll down you’ll see ‘first review‘ and ‘more reviews by members‘ to select. The first one that shows up is ‘the first review’ which is associated with the author that originally posted it to our website. Directly under ‘the fist review’ is where the member wrote their actual review along with a star and number rating of 1 to 5 with 5 being the best. Then you can either click on ‘more reviews by members’ or just scroll down to see more reviews when there’s more to read. Below any additional reviews you will find an option to write your own review on that product. There’s also either an email icon, a messaging icon, or both above the product name depending on the device you are using to view the reviews. You can click on one of those icons and either email or message the review to someone of your choosing.

Write additional reviews on existing products

Continue from the steps listed above. After reading other reviews of a product, or in some cases, only the original author review, scroll down to the available form fields to fill in. If you are not logged in, there will be a message to login, and if you don’t have an account, you must set up a free account to write a review first, then try again and you will see the form to write a review. To write a review you will see a ‘Review Title’ option. Be as creative as you like with your title. Whatever the product really makes you think or the impression it gives you is a good option. Then click a star rating under that from 1 to 5 from left to right, 5 being the best. Then where it says ‘comment’ is where to write your actual review. Say as much or as little as you like.  Last, under where it says ‘attachment’, you have the option to upload your own photos of the product however you want to showcase it. Feel free to be creative with it. When you’re done, click the ‘post review’ button and your done with your submission. Upon approval, your review will be posted live for other members to view within 48 hours and your display name will be shown by the review to give credit to you for your contribution. Then if people want to follow you (meaning when you upload a new public or members post, that they will be notified you have contributed) they can.

Be the First to Write a Review of a Product

We always suggest searching our website first to see if there’s already a review of the exact product you want to review. If there is, please open that post and scroll down to the ‘write a new review’ form under that post. The reason is so then there can be a more accurate representation of the rating of that product. When you do have something new to review, we would love to hear it! New reviews are exciting and help inform others when deciding what to try and write about themselves. To be the first to review a product on our website, click write a new review under the main menu. Then if you aren’t already logged in, you will see a place to login. Please login or create a new account and come back to the page before proceeding. After you are logged in, you will see a ‘product name’ field. Type in the actual name of the product which likely includes the brand name. Then click a star rating which is left to right from 1 to 5, with 5 being the best. Then type in a review title, which can be something that stands out about the product or whatever experience it gave you. Creativity can make it stand out, but simple is fine too. Then write the actual review where it says ‘review content’. Below where it says ‘featured image’ is where to upload a main photo of the product. It’s preferable for the first review of a product to have the featured image show the front label or main label of the product. It’s also required to upload a featured image with a first review brand new to our site. Below that is optional to upload up to 3 traditional photos of the product. If you really want to, you can upload more images of the product later under the members activity section of our site. Last, you must click the box if you agree to have your review post live on our site and then click ‘submit’. That’s it! Then upon approval, your review should be live on our site within 48 hours.

Interactive Members Area of our site

–Making your own post: One more feature we offer here is the ability to really engage with other members. Our website is centered around Packaged Food Reviews, but we still offer a place for your personalities to shine through. The activity area of our website may have a familiar setup to those who like to see an active stream, read, comment, post, and so on on various websites and apps. At the very top of the stream on the activity page you’ll see a bar with options with a house on the left and a bell on the right. On a desktop style computer you’ll see your member name with a drop-down arrow and other options. On a mobile device there’s three lines to click on and it brings up more options such as your member name with a drop-down arrow. The drop-down gives you options relating to your profile. Any time you are in the activity stream area of our site or on your member profile area, you will have options for your personal profile. There’s really a lot to go over, so I suggest just experimenting with what you find and you can see many options. So back to the activity stream area. Below the bar with the options is where you get to ‘the action’. If you want to just tell people about your day, something you discovered, or just plain share a photo, you’ll see an option to ‘say what’s on your mind’. Once you click in the box, there’s a variety of options that show up including what type of post it is, to privacy level, post scheduling, and so on. Before you posts what’s on your mind, you’ll notice where it shows a globe and says ‘public‘, that’s where you choose who you want to see your post. You can choose from public, site members, friends only, and only me. Public is everyone that visits this website. Site members are everyone that has an account with this site. Friends are anyone you have made friends with through friend requests on our site. Only me is only you and nobody else can see it.  You will also see other icons that are various options to choose from. Click on any of them and they will give you additional options to choose from. If you don’t choose any of those options, whatever you have inserted in the ‘say what’s on your mind‘ field will be submitted. When you’re ready to submit your post, there’s a ‘post‘ option to click on. Once you do that, it will be live, unless you scheduled a specific time and date to have it post, in which case it will be then.

–Selecting the Feed and Reading Posts:  As you continue scrolling down past the part where you can ‘say what’s on your mind’, you will see more options. The first option will allow you to choose what part of the stream you want to see. The first option which is ‘filter stream‘ will choose which posts you’re going to see as you scroll down the page. Each of the options will display under them exactly what they do. When you choose an option it will only show the posts specified. You also have an option to ‘show my posts‘ and ‘hide my posts‘. Those options decide rather or not your posts will show up in the your feed as you scroll down. They will not effect rather other people see or don’t see your posts. The options are only there so you can choose rather or not you see your own posts as you scroll down. Maybe you just want to see everyone else’s posts without yours showing up, so you would choose to hide them. You might want to keep your posts visible in case anyone has commented on your posts and you might want to see them. It’s all about your viewing experience with the stream filter options.

–As you scroll down the main activity stream:  As you continue to scroll down, you will see the most recent post made by a site member in our community at the top of the feed. As you continue to scroll down it goes to older and older posts with the most recent always at the top of the feed. Each post that you see will have the following set up: You will see their ‘avatar‘ which may be a custom picture or photo they have uploaded or it could just be the default which will show as letters. The avatars will appear in the shape of a circle at the top left of the post. Then it will show their chosen display name in bold print. Next it will show the name of their post if it has a name such as the main reviews have. Some posts do not have names such as if someone was just talking about their day. Each of the posts will show the date which they were posted so you can tell how recent they are. Some posts contain photos which you can click on and they will open full size. If the photos are a link to their post such as a ‘food review‘, they will open up the post and you can see what they have to say and click on any additional photos they have to share. While you are still viewing the post on the activity stream, you will see an option to click on a thumb’s up icon which will show other emoticons to click on as well so you can let them know what you think that way. Food review posts will have a ‘comment icon’. If you click on the ‘comment icon’ it will take you to where you can write your own review and have it count towards the total star rating of that product. There’s also a share icon under the activity stream. There’s a few options there that you’re probably familiar with. Those options will link to the post from your account on those sites. When you’re on the main page and reading a review, there’s an option to email or text message a link to the product review depending on the device you’re using to view it. There’s 2 more options as you view the posts on the activity page. There’s a bookmark symbol allowing you to ‘save post‘ so you can easily check back on it as time goes on. Then there’s the option at the bottom to ‘write a comment‘ on the post. You can type what you would like to say and even upload an image or photo if you choose to. That sums up the basics of the activity stream. Continue scrolling down as much as you like. Eventually you will probably reach a ‘Load more‘ option. Click on that and you can continue browsing. That feature is currently set up as a performance setting. It’s possible we might change that at some point.