DNForum barely tops NamePros in survey.
A survey of 401 domainers says that DNForum is the best domain name forum — but just barely. Of the survey participants who selected a choice, 47% voted for DNForum and 42% voted for NamePros. DomainState came in third with 11%, and AcornDomains received 2%.
But other than deciding which forum is “best”, there are some other relevant questions that I’d like your feedback on.
Are domain forums as relevant for discussion as they once were?
I didn’t include any of the exclusive domain name forums in the survey, but many people wrote in Domain Boardroom. Why do many people prefer Domain Boardroom to mass market domain forums? I think a lot of it has to do with the degradation of meaningful discussions at forums. Apparently a lot of people have nothing else to do other than pick fights on forums all day.
That’s not to say these forums aren’t helpful. I stopped by NamePros today and saw several threads whereby I was able to guide people making decisions.
Are domain forums still a good place to sell domains?
Domain forum0s are certainly struggling in this category. Blame the massive amount of crappy domain names listed for sale. Three or four years ago the inventory was mostly good, now it is 99% bad. Forums are starting to segment the junk with “high priced” sections. For example, NamePros has a moderated section exclusively for domains over $1,000.
What do you think? Are forums still as useful as they were in the past? Are you spending more or less time on forums?
There’s much less noise on private boards, and a lot of members are old friends, been around for a while. I happen to like the new perspective better though, when reading, boards such as namePros, DNForum, and sometimes DomainState.
I think the beginners, the new and upcoming stars of the industry, are what truly pushes us forward. There’s a great discussion thread on NamePros about how to find end users. You won’t find that sort of insight on any of the private boards. And that’s just one I mention on top of my head.. there are many other gems there.
Cheers
Sahar
Both forums are now terrible. Actually, Namepros never was that good. I call it NotPros because there are too many noobs who don’t have a clue. I visit both only occasionally now and only a couple of specific subforums. DNForum used to be great when Greg was running it – lots of quality domains for sale, at decent prices and lots of business volume and useful info. Now it is full of noobs, know-it-alls and scammers. Forget trying to sell anything, unless you’re dumping names. Anything of value will only be lowballed to death until it aggravates you so much that you give up. Adam doesn’t care about the forum obviously. It’s just another vehicle for him to squeeze more money out of the system one nickel at a time. It’s time for a new forum to step up and run a tight ship without all the noise.
My preference is private forums. Much less noise to info. The info is usually solid and comes from people you know and trust. That said the large public forums contain the newbies of today who will become the seasoned pros who buy us out when we retire. Help teach them so they can achieve their dreams too. None of us were born into the old guard, we earned our way as newbies when the old timers helped us out.
DNForum and Namepros are both good, I noticed recently that Namepros has a higher Alexa, but I use DNF more. Seems like there are a lot of more new members joining these days. Sure there is a lot of noise but you can always find something of value in the forums, or at least some entertainment!
I like Sahar’s assessment on the forums and purpose served.
As far a beginners, it seems like those “noobs” jump in head first without checking the water.
I am continually amazed at the number of people involved in domaining that basically live by the code,
If it is available, reg it.
Seriously, it makes you want to say, “Shut up and do your homework.”
For instance, a member who joined in 2005, has quite a post history, and asked the other day “what is the difference between gTLD and ccTLD?”
What!
This was followed up b
DNForum has very few posts these days, and NamePros is full of new domainers……tons jumped on the last six months.
Also, I have noticed at NamePros a lot of developers are participating, but they only slam domainers for parking domains and don’t add any comments of value. All I hear is, “Domain parking should die”, “domainers are lazy”, etc…… yet they have NO idea how hard most of us work.
It is not as fun as it used to be. 🙂
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Don’t bother with the “exclusive” forums, they are run by control freaks that allow very little in interaction. You disagree with them, you’re out the door. They take themselves very seriously while in fact offer the least in this industry. Rank: 2/10
Dnforum is solid and has the best core of entrepreneur members. Whoever said it attracts scammers, need to upgrade their gold membership and participate in the conversations. There are good deals and the Exclusive members get a lot of perks. Rank: 8/10
Namepros is good for the younger crowd. A lot of subforums make conversations harder to follow. Arguments are resolved by quick bans. Just sign up with another email and troll away. A lot of crap domains and teenagers who compete about who has the best .mobi or .tel Rank: 6/10
Domainstate is the epitome of cleancut boredom. Not much happening, its three owners are old school domainers that prefer it to be a gentlemen’s club. Still, a good forum to read about fraud and scam warnings. Rank: 5/10
I think namepros.com is the best for beginners, and dnf for those who have been around a long time,and know each other well, they dont seem to treat newbies with much respect.
i personally dont like dnf and rarely visit, if i do it’s for 1 sub forum only, and even then if a names for sale i’ll go through whois.
neither is a good place to sell names, as like myself and the rest of you, we all want the best price possible.
but above posted is right, namepros.com has some great developers there, who are willing to lend a hand.
I find DomainState.com to be a good compromise between a public and a private forum. Not a whole lot of noise and mods who keep things under control. Seem to be more serious minded newbies there. However, many time I have asked a question on a private board and one of the namepros.com mods who is also a member has pointed me to an answer at NamePros.com DNF is just too commercial and loud for me these days. I am not a big fan of big avatars, lots of smiley badge thingys and giant colorful advertising sigs.
@Donna – I have never been a member there but will check into it.
However, I am beginning to wonder if the forums are losing large numbers of members to the Twittervilles out there.
Much more timely news, good information being shared, productive, real time results, and livelier discussions.
edit: “there” as in DomainState
Who decides if a name is crappy? Though, your sentiment may hold true for some.
None of the names I sold for XX,XXX would have sold for XXX or sold at all in the forums. The crowd at the forums are conditioned to patronize only the tried and tested. Nothing wrong with that. That’s just the way it is.
I have to say that I am a big fan of AcornDomains.org.uk. This forum is popular with UK domainers and I think that in many respects it meets their need very well. Perhaps the days of the one size fits all domain name forum is over. Things have moved on a lot since NP and DNF started up – perhaps it is now time for the development of niche and hyper niche domain name forums.
Sorry, that should be AcornDomains.co.uk 🙁