Domain Appraisals is dead.

[Ringr]

Hello everyone,

I've noticed in the past few months that the Domain Appraisals forum is becoming increasingly inactive. There are so many people that go in there, and they ask for appraisals on their domains, yet never give appraisals to other people's posted domains. This is ruining the system. In order for the appraisals forum to work properly, you have to give back if you want people to appraise your domains.

Lately the Domain Appraisals forum has been just completely dead. I remember back when I first came to NamePros, it doesn't seem like it was that long ago actually; people always and honestly posted in the Domain Appraisals forum. Even if the domain the topic starter posted about was pure crap, you'd still see people appraising them.

Well, I am just disgusted at how the Domain Appraisals forum is becoming increasingly dead, and I was wondering if the members or staff here could maybe come up with a plan to help get people to post in there more or something. I don't know how many times I have posted in the Domain Appraisals forum and I've had to bump my own topics two, sometimes three, times. And I get crap for replies. The only topics that seem to do well are the ones with the best domains (ex. this, this, and this).

Please fellow NamePros members and NamePros staff, is there anything we can do to try and get the Domain Appraisals forum more active?
It's sad how many topics have little views and "0" replies.
It's sad how the topic authors have to bump their own topics just to get them notice.d
It's sad that the Domain Appraisals forum has came to this. I might as well go over to GoDaddy and pay $9.95 or whatever it is for an appraisal - at least I know I'd get one.

NamePros is the largest domain forum on the internet, there is no reason why such a quality place should have such a dead Domain Appraisals forum. It wasn't always like that. Having your domains appraised for free here is one of the things that I like best about NamePros, but this past year it's completely disappeared.

Worried,
Andy

 

[maroulis]

I agree..... I've personally responded to 50+ appraisal requests, yet the times I've asked for appraisals received no response...

some kind of hack which gives you 2 to 1 ratio would make sense (post 2 appraisals / receive 1 appraisal)

rgds,
SM

 

[Michelle]

Didn't we once get nps for posting in that forum :hehe:

 

[aznchong91]

lol, I guess a bit of incentive would help the forum a lot... maybe domain credit instead of NP?

 

[ubzweb]

its filled up with .info's

do u mean .infos dont deserve appraisals?
Ive just joined a week back here at NP, and have bought around 20+ .infos and put up a few of them for appraisal, bumped each topic atleast twice, never received more than 2 replies.
If its crap, atleast tell its crap!
http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=151560
http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=152319

some kind of hack which gives you 2 to 1 ratio would make sense (post 2 appraisals / receive 1 appraisal)

^^tht wud mean newbies like me appraising at 2 threads for any damn prices, wont tht make the empty place more crappier!? With totally unexperienced appraisers like me?

 

[Ringr]

I don't think it's really filled up with that many .infos. I have posted several .coms and .nets in there and they, like most other topics, just get ignored. I see other people posting generic .com/net/org/info/biz/us/ca/be/etc. domains and they're getting ignored as well. I don't think the forum is actually cluttered at all with .infos or any other particular extension, I think it's an equal mixture of all kinds of extensions. It's just sad that none of the topics seem to be getting the attention that they deserve.

 

[netPH]

1. Elect some NP domain appraiser officers to take in charge and to lead.
2. Encourage more appraisers by electing the best NP appraiser of the month.

Just some

 

[Jeff]

Hoping to better "tweak" the beloved (particularly for me, an oldie ... truly ) Namepros Appraisals™ Forum as a firm resolution for 2006, friends! :gl: :talk:

Thanks for the heartfelt thread, posts, and continued suggestions here ...
Happy New Year! :music:
-Staff™

 

[smub]

i'd take a job if we are electing a NP officer

 

[maroulis]

same here

 

[johnny6]

WEll, the appraisals forum is fun. But, let's face it, what made it fun was the wildly inaccurate and uninformed appraisals. So, who was the best at giving bad appraisals? Hire them.

 

[Refrozen]

Completely Inaccurate Appraisals?

http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=152952


I've seen appraisals of $xx domains at $xxxx, and even the other way. The appraisals around here seem completely random.

Your opinion?

 

[XDuncan]

I've seen appraisals of $xx domains at $xxxx, and even the other way. The appraisals around here seem completely random.

Your opinion?

--

Welcome to namepros.

 

[wot]

Basically the majority of the appraisers have little knowledge of the business but they are learning and this forum is a great testing ground.

In addition value is in the eye of the beholder and your $xxxx name (unless it obviously has value - good one word .com) may be my $xxx name.

Also the opinions are free - it all comes down to what your "buyer" is prepared to pay

 

[Mark]

Threads merged ...


Thanks

 

[Monsterman]

I've seen appraisals of $xx domains at $xxxx, and even the other way. The appraisals around here seem completely random.

Your opinion?

--

Welcome to namepros.

I could not agree more. There is a huge age demographic on NP, I believe that has to do with some of it. I think another issue is some people just want to have a million posts in their belt.

 

[webfreak]

http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=152952


I've seen appraisals of $xx domains at $xxxx, and even the other way. The appraisals around here seem completely random.

Your opinion?

It's not a science. If it were, then the NetSol appraisal tool would be all that anyone would need.

 

[Ringr]

Wow, I had no idea that I wasn't the only one aware of this. Thank you for your support and ideas guys. I think netPH's ideas of electing NP appraisal officers and electing an NP appraiser of the month are both great ideas. And as Jeff pointed out, I think making the Domain Appraisals forum better for 2006 and beyond would be a great New Years resolution for all of us NamePros members.

I think a lot of the problem involves NP$. Many people have stopped posting in the Domain Appraisals forum because it is harder now to gain NP$ (especially in that forum: you have to fill out an Appraisals Profile, and you obviously can't spam - and if you do, the staff shuts off NP$ for you without notice). So I think this is a problem, most people might not want to even bother posting in the Domain Appraisals forum because 1.) they're too lazy to fill out the Appraisals Profile, 2.) they don't want to risk getting their NP$ rights taken away. I mean, let's face it: it would be rather easy for people to spam in the Domain Appraisals forum. All you do is click a thread, say something like "I'd say mid $xx" or "High $xxx for sure!". So after a person posts a couple times in the Domain Appraisals forums, with short sentences - it might make it look like they're spamming. So I think many people are afraid of posting in that forum because you aren't required to give a really descriptive response about the domain's value, it's just dollar sign and a bunch of X characters.

Offering more NP$ for posts in that Domain Appraisals forum would be a burden for NamePros I think. I mean, yeah, it'd be nice on my end as well as other normal non-staff NP members, but it would degrade the quality of posts in there. I think we have a very delicate problem here guys: if too much NP$ is given per post in the forum - more people will be posting spammy posts (especially *most* new NamePros members), if we do not give enough NP$ normal members (let alone spammers after NP$ that could give a crap about honest appraisals) aren't going to bother going into the forum because they won't be gaining anything.

As for a solution: there are a couple of good ones, but which one is best? One that I thought of would be a new requirement: a certain amount of characters must be typed in the post to gain NP$ for appraisals. This would prevent people from going "reg fee!" and never going back into the topic again. It would require people to be descriptive about the appraisal, which would be a good thing for the thread-posters - they'd most likely get an accurate response as to what others think their domain is honestly worth. But there's the problem: how many users are going to want to type in a few sentences to earn NP$? Do this, and we might lose even more posts in the Domain Appraisals thread.

Perhaps like netPH suggested: electing Domain Appraisals Officers would be the thing to do. But would it give too much power to the 'officers' and people they like? Then again, if the officers aren't doing their jobs - get rid of them. If Domain Appraisals Officers were elected, they would have to be the right people to try and get a corrupting forum back into place.

As for NP Domain Appraiser of the month, like I said, I like the idea. But it's probably going to have to have something important along with the award in order for people to want it. Like right now -RJ- gives $25 (I believe) to NP MOTM winners, well, if even $5 was offered to Domain Appraisers of The Month, it would 1.) probably be a waste of -RJ-'s money, 2.) it would start a Domain Appraisals forum frenzy over people competing for a prize. So if a prize (aside from a title) were to be offered to the Domain Appraiser of the month - it couldn't be a prize too big, or too small. Competition would be bad, and once again, the appraisals would go corrupt over people greedy for prizes.

I honestly don't know what the best solution would be, and clearly I did not list all of the solutions - only the best.
Here is what I think should be done:

• NP$ should be withheld from users that enter in (let's say) 15 characters or less in their posts.
• A small team of NP Domain Appraiser Officers should be elected, they'd kind of be like ledbys of the forum I suppose. They shouldn't be new members (to decrease the risk of spamming since *most* new users lack having much NP$ and want lots of it), I'd say members that have been here six months or more and have a solid trustworthy rep. on the forums should be elected. They should also be users that are already active in the Domain Appraisals forum, have been known to make honest appraisals, and have the integrity to decide what kind of posts should and should not be tolerated in the Domain Appraisals forum.
• The community would vote monthly for the NP Domain Appraiser of The Month. The prize would not be great and would not be small, something that wouldn't cause members to compete in the forum and wouldn't waste funding for NamePros. Perhaps they could get 100 domain credits or something, just an idea.

Well, I borrowed a lot of my ideas from the posts above, but only because they're good ones. We can't ignore the crisis going on in the Domain Appraisals forum, something has to be done about it. I have no idea how it got into the condition it is in right now - but it's rather pathetic. The only people being positively effected right now in the Domain Appraisals forum are the ones that spam to raise their level of NP$, and the people that post their big $xx,xxx-value names that seem to (sadly for people like me) attract all of the attention in the forums. I'm tired of having dishonest appraisals, and having bump my threads two or three times just to get them noticed (and even when they do get noticed I only get one reply or two). Yet all of the other forums seem to be just fine right now.

We need to fix NamePros,
Lets work as a community in doing so - keep brainstorming guys;
Andy

 

[jeter4982]

I like the idea of NP Domain Appraiser Officers, but instead of voting for one per month to be the Appraiser of the Month, how about just pay them a salary of 300 NP $ per month. The amount could be discussed, but if they were being paid to just make sure every appraisal request had at least one good appraisal I think it would be a solid improvement. I think five members with a good reputation, and a history of good appraisals could really make a major impact on the forum. It may not be a permanent solution, but I think it would work for awhile, and at least get it up and running again.

Tom

 

[Ringr]

Well, I know this topic is a month old now - but do the staff here have anything to say regarding the thread? The Domain Appraisals forum has not changed at all since I and the others posted in this thread.

Thanks,
Andy