- Impact
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As you have heard by now, Namepros has been sold by its esteemed creator RJ, to the new owner Matt of Bodis.com.
The suggestions, arguments and debates are already beginning, and I thought it was important to highlight a thread specifically for this discussion, inviting all NP members to add their two cents in the way of which areas they think could use improvement, changes, or getting the axe.
We don't know all the plans Matt has for Namepros, but a forum is all the stronger when the owner/leader can see first-hand suggestions from its many experienced members.
I'll start:
1 - Just a personal dislike: I really, really miss having the discussion forums at the top of the home page. I know it may be a business decision to see the marketplace first upon coming to Namepros... but it hasn't led to me using the marketplace any more than usual, and it's a minor annoyance to have to scroll quite a ways down in order to get to the most interesting stuff, the discussions, news, appraisals, etc. Again, I get it if it's a biz decision; but if it hasn't strongly increased your traffic/business in some palpable way, my vote is for the discussion forums back on top.
2 - This is a very minor point, but still worthy of mention: in the appraisals section, when submitting a new thread for an appraisal, quite awhile ago the 'subject' line became automated, so they all now have to start with 'Please appraise' and then limited fields for up to 4 domains. That totally bored me when it happened. It used to be very entertaining to create your own subject line. Even if I was scanning the rest of the forum, I'd often run straight to the appraisals section simply because there was a funny/interesting/whack subject line. Now all it says on the home page under the appraisals section is 'please appraise' for every thread. I often just skip it.
As I said, it's a minor thing and I can see your reasons for automating things... yet IMO the value of automating it is not worth the loss of 'fun'.
Remember: Fun, Interesting, Odd, Exciting, these are the things that entice new members to join, and keep term members wanting to come back.
3 - In the spirit of that last comment, I'll make a very vague, generalized, but I think very important mention: a lot of the pure fun of this forum has somehow left, over the last couple years. It used to be quite entertaining, practically daily there was a thread or three that were so entertaining, interesting, potentially volatile (?), that it was hard to not come back often to see how things were playing out.
Somehow it seems much more sterile here now.
It's important to mention that I am still here because IMO this is the classiest, most informative, best-run domaining forum around. I signed up at the other best-known ones, but would keep returning here because it had that certain balance of all elements that I found was stronger than any other forum.
I don't know what the answer is as far as making things less sterile, and that is the main reason I opened this discussion. Perhaps with a lot of input we can figure that one out. It has something to do with rules and how they are modded... but that's not to say there is anything wrong with the rules and the modding, I feel no complaints about them myself. It may also have something to do with the layout of the forum categories... or not.
Perhaps it is also a consequence of the 'balancing out' of domaining. A few years ago there was this larger-than-life, delusional grandiosity still hanging on to domaining, people were still flocking to it in droves, regging any kind of name and thinking they had a million dollars worth. Now domaining seems to be entering a 'maturity', steadiness, professionalism, where a lot of the 'unknown' and 'growth' excitement is gone, values seem to be mostly predictable and sober.
Perhaps the steadiness or decline of traffic to domaining forums is simply the levelling-off of something that has now passed beyond its initial (decade-long) infatuation phase, and has entered a more sober, less exciting, more steady professional phase.
It seems the business-model of domaining forums has to somehow now change with the times... yet I don't quite know what those changes will be... where the trend is going next. Maybe if we get our heads together and throw the right suggestions against the wall, the right one will stick, NP can use that and get right to the cutting edge of where domaining is headed next. Where??????
Anyway, I will have other comments/suggestions, but that's enough to get this thread started I think. Welcome to anyone who wants to contribute their dos centavos.
Oh, a comment: this thread probably belongs way way down at the bottom of the forum in the Namepros comments & suggestions area... however, no one visits that, and since I'm starting this thread specifically to address the switch-over period and possible changes/improvements that may happen during this transition, hopefully mods will keep this thread in the discussion area. Even stickie it for a week or two...
The suggestions, arguments and debates are already beginning, and I thought it was important to highlight a thread specifically for this discussion, inviting all NP members to add their two cents in the way of which areas they think could use improvement, changes, or getting the axe.
We don't know all the plans Matt has for Namepros, but a forum is all the stronger when the owner/leader can see first-hand suggestions from its many experienced members.
I'll start:
1 - Just a personal dislike: I really, really miss having the discussion forums at the top of the home page. I know it may be a business decision to see the marketplace first upon coming to Namepros... but it hasn't led to me using the marketplace any more than usual, and it's a minor annoyance to have to scroll quite a ways down in order to get to the most interesting stuff, the discussions, news, appraisals, etc. Again, I get it if it's a biz decision; but if it hasn't strongly increased your traffic/business in some palpable way, my vote is for the discussion forums back on top.
2 - This is a very minor point, but still worthy of mention: in the appraisals section, when submitting a new thread for an appraisal, quite awhile ago the 'subject' line became automated, so they all now have to start with 'Please appraise' and then limited fields for up to 4 domains. That totally bored me when it happened. It used to be very entertaining to create your own subject line. Even if I was scanning the rest of the forum, I'd often run straight to the appraisals section simply because there was a funny/interesting/whack subject line. Now all it says on the home page under the appraisals section is 'please appraise' for every thread. I often just skip it.
As I said, it's a minor thing and I can see your reasons for automating things... yet IMO the value of automating it is not worth the loss of 'fun'.
Remember: Fun, Interesting, Odd, Exciting, these are the things that entice new members to join, and keep term members wanting to come back.
3 - In the spirit of that last comment, I'll make a very vague, generalized, but I think very important mention: a lot of the pure fun of this forum has somehow left, over the last couple years. It used to be quite entertaining, practically daily there was a thread or three that were so entertaining, interesting, potentially volatile (?), that it was hard to not come back often to see how things were playing out.
Somehow it seems much more sterile here now.
It's important to mention that I am still here because IMO this is the classiest, most informative, best-run domaining forum around. I signed up at the other best-known ones, but would keep returning here because it had that certain balance of all elements that I found was stronger than any other forum.
I don't know what the answer is as far as making things less sterile, and that is the main reason I opened this discussion. Perhaps with a lot of input we can figure that one out. It has something to do with rules and how they are modded... but that's not to say there is anything wrong with the rules and the modding, I feel no complaints about them myself. It may also have something to do with the layout of the forum categories... or not.
Perhaps it is also a consequence of the 'balancing out' of domaining. A few years ago there was this larger-than-life, delusional grandiosity still hanging on to domaining, people were still flocking to it in droves, regging any kind of name and thinking they had a million dollars worth. Now domaining seems to be entering a 'maturity', steadiness, professionalism, where a lot of the 'unknown' and 'growth' excitement is gone, values seem to be mostly predictable and sober.
Perhaps the steadiness or decline of traffic to domaining forums is simply the levelling-off of something that has now passed beyond its initial (decade-long) infatuation phase, and has entered a more sober, less exciting, more steady professional phase.
It seems the business-model of domaining forums has to somehow now change with the times... yet I don't quite know what those changes will be... where the trend is going next. Maybe if we get our heads together and throw the right suggestions against the wall, the right one will stick, NP can use that and get right to the cutting edge of where domaining is headed next. Where??????
Anyway, I will have other comments/suggestions, but that's enough to get this thread started I think. Welcome to anyone who wants to contribute their dos centavos.
Oh, a comment: this thread probably belongs way way down at the bottom of the forum in the Namepros comments & suggestions area... however, no one visits that, and since I'm starting this thread specifically to address the switch-over period and possible changes/improvements that may happen during this transition, hopefully mods will keep this thread in the discussion area. Even stickie it for a week or two...
