Domain forum finds its fourth owner in five years.
Domain name company Epik has acquired DNForum, the company announced before the holiday weekend.
DNForum was once the domain industry’s most active forum but was supplanted by NamePros. The forum went dark in 2016 and was subsequently acquired by George Verdugo and Kevin Faler. The duo then sold the business to Oliver Hoger, John Nguyen and Lars Lima in 2018.
One of the forum’s biggest assets is the user database, which was promoted as 535,000 users when the forum was offered for sale in 2018.
It will be interesting to see what Epik does with the site. Epik employees are very active at rival forum NamePros.
Epik founder Rob Monster gave a hint of what is to come in a post at DNForum this weekend.
Monster said the company is evaluating a way to make the forum community-owned using a cryptocurrency.
Another interesting thing to watch will be how the company moderates the forum. Epik is known for taking a libertarian approach to content, including by providing services to user-generated content platforms kicked off other platforms. In the forum post, Monster notes that it will generally use a light hand for people to link to or upload anything “that is useful in the spirit of reasonable self-governance.” While that statement is in conjunction with a comment about conducting domain business, this will be an area to watch.
Lets all of us with luck to innovative Epik with a legendary DNForum!
No innovation IMHO DNForum has devolved into a buncha adults crying about what they can’t spam on Namepros It’s sad Someone needs to let DNForum rest in pieces
Thanks for the coverage here.
The decision to explore acquiring DNForum was set in motion in 2020 during an episode of forum partisanship that did not sit well with me at the time.
The process to acquire was an extended one during 2020, ultimately becoming completed in January 2021.
Since then, some substantial technical improvements have been made to the forum software along with some infrastructure upgrades.
As for forum moderation, it will be light. The scope of content might expand beyond just domains, to include internet governance, digital commerce, etc.
As for forum governance, while Epik will fund it, all vendors are warmly welcome. Commerce is essential to the industry and should be encouraged not censored.
As for forum ownership, there are some related moves in the area of blockchain technology that we hope to leverage in 2021 for community ownership.
The spirit of co-creation, for which Epik is known, is being fostered at DNForum. Feedback and suggestions are to be encouraged and also rewarded.
Your approach to opposing censorship, fair dealings and more has earned you a very unfair name. I applaud your determination and we in the bysiss shoukd rise more to support you and your endeavors. Thank you @robmonster
Even the new logo is sexy. Good luck!
Looking forward to what the future holds
Samer
Why bother writing about this development, Andrew? Rob The Monster doesn’t deserve the coverage!
Rob already infected Namepros with his BS and Minions, now he wants his own domain forum to continue spreading his BS.
Yeah, I said it, because no one else will!
I will NOT go anywhere near DNForum and neither should you!
Wow. So much hate
Hate is a more useful emotion than sadness, but this is a personal blanket statement, extreme.
I believe in Rob,
Samer
So far from what I have learned, the situation is precisely the opposite of what you say – kind of like the main stream media where truth is inverted.
I saw a thread at NP recently where Rob Monster responded to a thread, but was then jumped on as “promoting his business” and pummeled by multiple people. The response was directly related to the OP’s post and while obviously it did mention products/services of Epik there was nothing at all wrong with what he posted. 2-3 pages of complaining and argument followed. I’ve also seen through the filth they throw at him via corrupted media.
If he ever “steps out of line” in my eyes rest assured I’ll scream about it, but as it stands now I’ll be watching DNForum closely and will spend much more time there and perhaps even ditch NP.
Your Rob Davis right? you work for Epik.
Actually a different person, although some of their beliefs seem to be the same
The Minion army is out in full force. Lol
Thorpe
Did anyone ask you to join the forum?
If you have nothing good to say, keep your mouth shut!
Have you done anything good for the domainers fraternity?
Use your real name, stop shilling. but I agree, nothing nice to say, say nothing!
What is domainers fraternity?
@Serg Get Well Soon Lol
Mark, asking Andrew why he would bother to report on something like this is troubling. The sale of one of the most known dn forums is news worthy, regardless of personal opinion.
I would certainly hope you don’t wake up each day hoping your news is filtered to your liking.
I
Everyone filters to their liking. Lol
read Epik’s wikpedia, no way will I be associated with Dnforum under Epik.
You still haven’t worked out how the “game” is played eh?
EVERYTHING is manipulated for propaganda purposes and to destroy certain people/businesses who are a threat to the big global mafia.
(While it might be different now) I did a test where I googled some large domain registrars and all came up first place with wikipedia much lower, while Epik had the tainted wikipedia review first place and Epik second. Ask yourself who has the power and desire to manipulate search results in such a way.
Another site called State Of The Nation, try finding it with google search with that exact term – you can’t. (That was my test anyway for several years and a few months ago it was still like that.) It’s at the dot co extension.
I know of a multi-million dollar business locally which was destroyed by corrupted politicians, because a relative to one of them had a similar business and wanted to destroy their competitor – it was caught on video that a council officer (who is now on permanent paid leave as reward for her criminal act) placed a slug on the premises and then shut them down for health violations. He is now suing with top lawyers, pro bono, and top former police detectives for upwards of $60 million. The case is due in court in about a month. Try finding this case on google.
My current hosting account (another big registrar not Epik) has vague terms about covid/vaccine “disinformation”. I asked them to clarify because I am considering putting up a video of prominent doctors, scientists and virologists openly call it a vaccine bioweapon. I asked them who determines what is real and fake news? They came back with fluff, and just said that it depends on what complaints they receive. Absolute BS. They will censor content as they or their big corporate mates in pharma/vax see fit.
This is just 4 of millions of things wikipedia and google don’t tell you.
Do you see how it’s done now?
I actually see through the propaganda and see this tainted media portrayal as a badge of honor towards the targets of such behavior. I consider Rob and Epik of high integrity and will support them with my domains and services.
Bravo
There is a meaty discussion here.
Epik certainly never set out to be a free speech registrar. We simply set out to be a better alternative than the status quo at the time. Mission accomplished.
In 2018, the line of what comprised acceptable use moved quite dramatically. In 2019 and 2020 it moved again. Epik simply held the old 2018 line.
The world sometimes will conspire around you to tell you what to think, and where your line should be. That is a dangerous world to live in if you don’t have one.
As for DNForum, it is good to see it growing again. Like DomainGraduate.com before it, we are happy to add new energy and vision into old ideas.
My profile is here:
https://www.dnforum.com/members/robmonster.143534/
Happy to follow back and add lift to threads — I did that on NP during 2020. I am pretty sure that made a difference. Great content deserves to be amplified.
Still watching from my Ivory Tower. Still same old BS. Yawn, nap time. Lol
Rob from the bottom of my heart please purge your staff of loonies It will be the demise of Epik if you let it Cheap labor does irrevocable damage
This looks like Rob’s revenge to NamePros for the infractions they gave him for self promotion. Bold move. But very transparent.
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