What should NamePros add?

[NamePros]

Good morning!

NamePros is working on a lot of new and exciting features, and many of them are thanks to member suggestions in our Comments and Feedback section.

We'd love to hear even more! What else would you like us to add for you?

All suggestions are welcome, from small and simple changes to big and complex features!

Please post below, or submit your suggestions privately.

Let us know what you'd like us to build!

 

[bRionZ]

I need a whois on this website.

The Benefits:

• Member will come back to this forum only to use whois feature.

A Negative point:

• Not all member using a manual check to use whois feature so that you will need some re-captcha on every 10x check a domain.
• namePros will require more storage for cache the data.

 

[Ram G.]

Add a delete option/ button to forum posts. Right now its not possible to edit post after 30 mins or delete it.

 

[Domaniak]

Suggest adding a separate section on Domain Transfers between registrars.

 

[alcy]

how about replacing "like/dislike" with a nice little thumbs up and thumbs down icon?

 

[james haw]

I came to suggest an auction form idea I had, similar to what @silentg posted


BASIC IDEA
I'm not suggesting make a new auction platform like Sedo etc, the forums and thread setup would still be used. Just something extra added to it.

When creating an auction you are presented with some choices - auction for "single domain name", "multi domain names" (as the forms would differ). You are then presented with a form to fill in with various things.

Some elements will be read only, not edited later, mandatory, optional, etc.

We should definitely still have the normal (as is now) text area for posting as not every eventuality can be thought of and catered in a form. And people can still write other things eg "10 years old" etc.

After it's all submitted, this new form data/auction info could be displayed inbetween the thread title and the top post in the thread. This would make it official looking, like it's actually auction info and not just a forum post

I suggest this has a marketplace forum of it's own, so that there is no "create new thread" button just "Create Auction" button, so people cannot bypass using the form. Any created in some other forum be quickly identified, reported, and closed.


FORM FOR STARTING AN AUCTION
I think we'd need two options for "single name" "multiple names". There'd be different fields, such as single name auction could provide expiry date, whereas multi auction (ie 60 names) probs not. The normal thread text area would cater for that.

Example form input fields for single name auction:

• Domain Name
• TLD (not sure if useful separate. Could provide nice stats about what TLDs are selling etc)
  
• Expiry
  
• Registrar
  
• Starting bid
• Min Increments
  
• BIN (can leave blank, or enter either numeric value or "TBA")
  
• DROP DOWN: Auction ends after (hours) || Auction ends in (hours) || etc, THEN enter hour value (eg 72 hours)
  
• Etc

(We all know a BIN ends the auction immediately, no need to state this)
Some could be optional.


The form fields for a multi domain name auction would need some thought. For example "Domain Names" field could be a text box area and can enter names separated by comma, new line, etc.
Option to choose if individual domains, or lot sale.
Etc


FORM FOR PLACING "BIDS"
I also suggest a form input for placing bids.

So when user clicks new button "Bid", using the new form data from the auction the bidder could be presented with:

• The input field to enter their bid
• The current highest bid (or "none")
• The increment required
• The next lowest possible valid bid based on last highest bid and increment (or if no bids the start bid)

For people who choose to ignore this new field and just use the form post text area, their bid won't be counted. The auction data will show "Highest bid $10 by USERNAME" and that won't be them.

A new rule can be added to reflect this "Bids placed outside the official bid input are invalid". The next bidder will just be shown the previous valid bid.

Also, if a user has not used the bid form, then their post can be labelled "This is not a bid". So essentially the site will manage and show valid and invalid bids, the highest bid, the next lowest bid possible, and this will reduce staff intervention too!

Bidders can still post with a normal reply text area as currently, eg to ask for clarification, etc (it is still a forum platform).



USER SETTINGS FOR DISPLAY
Not sure if too much overhead, but being able to choose how we see the auctions would be great. Such as order of the fields displayed "domain name first, then registrar, then ....etc".
This would be in main user settings in profile area "Auction thread view".


ADVANTAGES
Mandatory fields will ensure people provide the bare minimum and only change things they can, as per the rules (eg BIN) (they could just post in the normal thread text area, but people abuse that now, so this doesn't introduce a problem).


With this suggestion, auctions could have:

• The same layout for important information
  
• No important information missing
• No confusion or uncertainty about an auction's details
• The domain name being in a field can be passed through validation to determine if it's IDN, what the chars are exactly (and the site could even list the name in lower and upper case)
• The auction details can be listed at the top of every page in that thread (no more going pointlessly back to page 1)
• The current highest bid can be displayed by the site scripts, at the top of the thread, in the title, etc
• More info can be given in alerts, instead of "Username replied to this thread" it could have "Username bid $XX in ThreadName, your highest bid was $xx"

STATS:
The data stored like this (rather than text field) means stats and other functionality can be provided based on each auction form field and bid.

BIDDING:
The info gathered by the auction form can be presented to a bidder, save scrolling up and down etc. Just click "bid" and you see "increments", "highest bid" etc.
When a user tries to enter an invalid bid - too low from required increments or below the previous bid, etc - the form will return an error and not post, so no invalid bids will be placed!


OTHER:
There are likely all kinds of useful things that could come from this. Stats such as "average sold price on Namepros" "highest bid ever" etc etc (these might not be useful or welcomed, but are just examples).

Mandatory fields on auction forms would reduce the amount of reports on auctions, and thus less staff time.


_____________________________________________________


I totally get this would be a huge huge change, it's just an idea, as there are many auctions in Namepros, and handling all aspects with a forum platform is not always ideal

Another advantage to my (humongous post) idea is as the TLD and keyword(s) will be separated out in their own DB columns (of course reformed back at presentation time), we can search in auction threads for specific TLDs and the keyword column can have keyword searches done against it.

Imagine in Namepros "auction" area being able to search for "net only" or "net and com only" or "xyz". And things like "[keyword] in com and net only"

 

[Domainatic]

How about a Namepros Escrow service with minimal fees?

 

[james haw]

How about a Namepros Escrow service with minimal fees?

I'd love that too, I think many many members would, but it's so much work and legality. And NP would then (likely) be obligated to financial institutions and bodies, etc etc.
Would certainly be a fantastic business advance though (hint :D)

 

[Domainatic]

Its a marketplace..I think it should work towards an escrow service...Just look at the number of members here..It'd be surely a hit..

 

[james haw]

2 suggestions for WTB forum only:

• All names should have to be PMd, not posted in the thread
  • Most names posted in the thread are not within the OPs requirements or just spam.
    
  • Most "sorry I can't PM, here are my names" are spammy. If they cannot PM then they shouldn't be able to get around that as otherwise what's the point of PM limits?
  • Posting (usually poor, not within criteria) names in the thread just wastes buyer's time, and clutters the thread.
  • A clearer thread would lead to more visible posts with valid questions about criteria etc, and OP saying "still looking" (which would make the bump more of a bump)
  
  

• A "PM the OP" button inside WTB threads
  • upon clicking sets up a PM/conversation to the thread's OP and the subject is the thread title (editable).
  • Once PM has been sent (only PMs sent via "WTB PM OP button") it marks you in the DB as "sent PM to OP" for that thread, and in the WTB forum listing your avatar shows on the thread listing (like it does when you've posted in a thread)
  • Once a PM is sent, the PM button is changed to "already sent a PM" and not click-able, so we know inside the thread we've PMd too.

The two above suggestions coupled would drastically reduce clutter in the WTB threads, and would make the spam/poor posts stand out more and could be reported and better handled.

• If both above suggestions were implemented
  • If a new rule was made whereby you can only PM about WTB threads by using the (suggested) PM button, then users banned from WTB threads would incur a new infraction if they PM someone about a WTB thread without using the button.

This would "assist" with this issue:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/limit-viewing-requests-wtb-forum-for-repeat-violators.971562/

 

[james haw]

Suggestion for "new post alert"

https://www.namepros.com/threads/alerts-and-email-notifications.836889/

• You'll only receive one alert from a watched thread until you view all new posts in that thread. If you haven't viewed all of the new posts in a thread since you received an alert, you won't receive any further alerts about the thread until you do.

I see the sense otherwise we'd have too many alerts, however is it possible to tweak/improve it slightly?
It would be nice to get a few additional reminders, as it's easy to forget to visit the thread after only one reminder, because things/days/life happens.


Would need to cater for a balance between high post count threads so we're not spammed with alerts, and also slower threads so we're not "too late to reply".

e.g. If we have not been in the thread following the initial alert (per individual thread):

• Alert again after 20 subsequent unread replies and after 24 hours, OR after 5 replies and 3 days (whichever is sooner)
  
• If we have not been in the thread following the 2nd alert above, then alert again after another 20 replies and after 3 days, OR 5 replies and 1 week (whichever is sooner)
• After both above have occurred, don't alert again until have been in the thread

Note, it won't do any of the above if you have been in the thread after your first alert
After a total of 3 alerts without checking in to the thread, we've either unwatched it or don't care.
Honestly the criteria is off the top of my head and could easily have a flaw and be tweaked (etc).


Ideally it would be a user based option to choose to receive "one single alert ever" (as is now) or "multi alert" (proposed above). More ideally, choose a default in our profile settings and then can also change it per thread in the "watch" popup, but I fear NP devs are looking up my address for a stabby stabby visit..

 

[wakguano]

how bout shortcodes /or just a checkbox for " no index " so the thread wont get indexed by SE . it could be useful, sometimes

 

[fatter]

How about, before accepting new members they have to read a brief summary of the appraisal scam, I have read of many new domainers falling for this, if it saves a few people it might be worth it.

 

[Paul]

I see the sense otherwise we'd have too many alerts, however is it possible to tweak/improve it slightly?
It would be nice to get a few additional reminders, as it's easy to forget to visit the thread after only one reminder, because things/days/life happens.

In theory, the actual alerts shouldn't disappear until the relevant threads have been read, although the red badge will disappear once the Alerts menu has been shown.

In practice, old alerts seem to disappear under certain circumstances. I did look into the possibility of preventing these occurrences a while back; if I recall correctly, the issue was a result of fundamentally poor cache design in XenForo and couldn't easily be fixed on a large forum. I'll double-check in case anything has changed, but it's unlikely.

Edit: Looks like there are actually multiple issues at play here. I reported this to the XenForo team some time ago. Their response was basically that the current behavior is intentional, and the documentation that described it working differently was wrong. Taking that into account, there are settings that we can change to lessen the impact, but it won't be ideal without some redesign.

 

[Joshh71390]

A drop down or page with all your live sales. / ordered by last bump Would save a lot of time / backend work if u think of thousands of ppl that click countless times through content scroll down / bump. Many added up pages / hours saved in the long run

 

[N-A]

It'd be somewhat useful if there could be a little sound played when receiving a message or an alert - much like Facebook has - that can be disabled in the event that someone doesn't want it to play.

I'd still like this feature... but, desktop/push notifications would be even better.

 

[Joshh71390]

if you use a gmail account - you can set up desktop notifications on your computer filtering messages. through them.

 

[Michael Ehrhardt]

a link where you can go directly to all marketplaces ( all in one ) Afternic Sedo aso
a link where you can go directly to all registrars ( all in one ) Namecheap Uniregistry aso

 

[Joshh71390]

right above - "buy domains" second top level menu item 3

 

[BrandChimp]

A real auction platform***********

 

[Michael Ehrhardt]

A real auction platform***********

yes

 

[N-A]

NamePros should add the ability to remove the "Conversations" (to NamePros staff) bubble that floats on the page. It's quite big and annoying while mobile.

Frankly, I'd even go as far as saying that it's not a useful feature in my opinion. There's already the ability for a member to 1) send a conversation or 2) create a new thread in regards to what would be discussed there. In the event that a non-member needs to contact staff (if that bubble is still there), there is always the "Contact Us" page.

At the very least, it should be the in the member's preferences to get rid of it.

Edit: I just noticed the "Contact Us" link brings up the conversation window.

 

[BrandChimp]

NamePros should add the ability to remove the "Conversations" (to NamePros staff) bubble that floats on the page. It's quite big and annoying while mobile.

Frankly, I'd even go as far as saying that it's not a useful feature in my opinion. There's already the ability for a member to 1) send a conversation or 2) create a new thread in regards to what would be discussed there. In the event that a non-member needs to contact staff (if that bubble is still there), there is always the "Contact Us" page.

At the very least, it should be the in the member's preferences to get rid of it.

Wow, I haven't noticed it before

 

[Michael Ehrhardt]

 

[wormfood]

On the search page, we are only able to use "Newer than" to search by date.
Could this be changed to "Date range"?
Thanks for considering

 

[LucidDomains]

How about someone creating a sticky in the domain appraisal section that says something like

"I bought google.something, can I sell it to google?"

Then educate newbies before they post that this is a nono and will only bring them legal trouble and fines.