news An important note on lifetime accounts

Dear DNForum members,

This is an important note to all lifetime membership holders (memberships of any type).

I would like to inform you that after careful consideration, I am considering canceling all lifetime memberships on DNForum.com. While I understand that this may come as disappointing news to some of our members, we believe that this is a necessary step to ensure the long-term sustainability of our forum.

In 2 words: Lifetime offers are Unsustainable

I am sure, you understand that maintaining a forum of this size on the internet is a costly endeavor, and unfortunately, the people and companies who sold lifetime memberships did not consider the long-term costs associated with running a forum. I believe that every business must be able to sustain itself, and I hope that all DNF members can appreciate this decision to ensure the longevity and very existance of our community.

The plan is: Effective May 31, 2023, all lifetime memberships will expire. Moving forward, the primary difference between a free account and a full account will be the ability to have a signature, larger inbox, and access to exclusive forums.

I encourage you, and all of our members to discuss this decision in this thread over the next 30 days, until May 30, 2023.

Look, the winners will be everybody! This will help us to get a new life into the DNF, and I am 100% confident that we will be able to have much more new content and visitors than it has today, and that the winners will be everybody.

Nobody enjoys a niche business forum that is weak!

Best regards,
Helmuts

 

[dragonzpit]

I paid for a Platinum Lifetime membership.

 

[DNF Admin]

I paid close to $1k years back, not paying again. I understand you guys bought this forum from the previous seller, but this wouldn't be right to people who paid $$$ and now after the acquisition, you guys want to charge us again.

I paid for a Platinum Lifetime membership.

I may still be missing something, but according to the information I have at the moment, despite the name, Platinum wasn't the highest tier of membership and its price varied from $89 to $295.

 

[draco]

So we don't even get to keep our signatures until the end of the month?

At the very least, you should give old lifetime members a (big) discount on a new membership. I know I wouldn't pay full price for a new membership, unless traffic / business really pick up around here.

 

[DNF Admin]

So we don't even get to keep our signatures until the end of the month?

Hi @draco, signatures were removed for free users who are not assigned to any membership. Since one of the memberships is assigned to you, it shouldn't affect your account. None of the paid memberships are touched yet. Did you lose your signature?

 

[MapleDots]

My sig seems to be fine at the moment

 

[DomainsGENERAL.com]

My sig seems to be fine at the moment

They weren't indeed appearing anymore when @draco mentioned it or DNF Admin answered.
They seem to have been reinstated for now.

 

[DNF Admin]

My sig seems to be fine at the moment

Yes, that's because you missed that beautiful moment @draco is correct, signatures disappeared. It's because sigs were not enabled for paid memberships and when I removed them for free members, signatures disappeared for paid members too. I temporarily enabled them for paid groups, but when Lifetime memberships are cancelled, signatures will disappear again.

 

[Castion]

Thank you for the correction. It was 14 years ago.

I am sure, you as a business owner understand that lifetime offers are unsustainable. I would even add that today this is irresponsible to offer these (in 2008 they probably didn't think about this). Would you offer lifetime maintenance for development works you offer to your clients? .. our 1st mission is to get the forum back into 'into the green'

Respecting the amount you paid, I could consider switching your membership to the new upcoming one for an unknown time (can't guarantee 'unlimited'), but, will need a receipt. Without it, it is impossible. Please check your emails.

We can clearly see in the system that these memberships were given left-to-right .. there are lifetime gold members who even haven't posted a single post

Best wishes,
Helmuts

Lifetime memberships are unsustainable if you have significant costs associated to maintaining the offer. A single forum member who paid 400$ + (the highest price for exclusive was 500$ AFAIK) has paid for the associated server costs for his lifetime and then some. Platinum has never cost more than 90$ for lifetime.

So what you are really saying is that its unsustainable because you think you can make them pay again. This I highly doubt.

But best of luck Helmuts. Send me an email if you need any help with the Xenforo addons we had developed to run this place. Pretty sure neither Rob nor Ewan touched those.

 

[Theo]

LOL

This is hilarious. I've paid for a lifetime account before your buddy Dicker bought the forum 20 years ago and I won't be paying for another lifetime again.

You bought a sterile cow so good luck with the payment plan milking.

 

[DomainsGENERAL.com]

I won't be paying for another lifetime again

You won't. For sure.
The plan seems to try to make you pay every year, now (despite previous "lifetime" payment).
I understand you mean you probably won't do that.
Interestingly enough, you seem to be the member who posted the most on this forum.

 

[Theo]

You won't. For sure.
The plan seems to try to make you pay every year, now (despite previous "lifetime" payment).
I understand you mean you probably won't do that.
Interestingly enough, you seem to be the member who posted the most on this forum.

It was fun while it lasted. The forum has died a slow death since 2015. Yes, it's a shame, I have like 30k posts and 723 positive transaction feedback.

If Helmuts had done due diligence he'd know most active members are long gone from being active posters. Of course, this controversial thread might change that!

Bottom line: Lifetime means lifetime. If Helmuts wants to be the next Elon Musk with Twitter he'd have to offer way more than blue check marks!

 

[Bill Hartzer]

I was actually made an account here when I was associated with the former owner of the forum. I think at that time I had moderator status.

Happy to help out if you still need moderators here.

 

[MapleDots]

Helmuts owns DNForum and Acorn, both are recent acquisitions.

I think there will be some flux for a period of time as new things are tried. Some will work and some won't but you have to appreciate the fact that he allowed the topic to stay open for discussion. In the end something positive may come of it.

I know another forum that would have deleted the posts, given a 30-40% restriction and quoted rule #198 subsection B paragraph 4.

 

[Helmuts]

Lifetime memberships are unsustainable if you have significant costs associated to maintaining the offer. A single forum member who paid 400$ + (the highest price for exclusive was 500$ AFAIK) has paid for the associated server costs for his lifetime and then some. Platinum has never cost more than 90$ for lifetime.

So what you are really saying is that its unsustainable because you think you can make them pay again. This I highly doubt.

But best of luck Helmuts. Send me an email if you need any help with the Xenforo addons we had developed to run this place. Pretty sure neither Rob nor Ewan touched those.

Thank you for your offer.

Running a successful Forum, growing it, and approaching as a business in modern world can't be done with lifetime payments made to God knows which company in number before us.

This is a business, the same as every domainer's business, and every business needs an incoming money stream or it goes under. Weak DNForum is in nobody's best interests.

How long can $400 take you for a 128Gb ram dedicated server (just the database is close to 40Gb)? .. let us not get started here, please.

Lifetime memberships were given out free of charge like candies on Halloween. This is a mess that needs to be sorted out.

This is a 30-day notice, and if no serious objections come in > this will be implemented.

After that, when you see the badge "ELITE", you know that this person means business.

All the success all to your businesses!!
Helmuts

 

[Helmuts]

I was actually made an account here when I was associated with the former owner of the forum. I think at that time I had moderator status.

Happy to help out if you still need moderators here.

Good evening Bill, thank you very much. @DNF Admin is the man who makes these calls.

Best wishes!
Helmuts

 

[Helmuts]

It was fun while it lasted. The forum has died a slow death since 2015. Yes, it's a shame, I have like 30k posts and 723 positive transaction feedback.

If Helmuts had done due diligence he'd know most active members are long gone from being active posters. Of course, this controversial thread might change that!

Bottom line: Lifetime means lifetime. If Helmuts wants to be the next Elon Musk with Twitter he'd have to offer way more than blue check marks!

Wow!!! 30k posts!!! Awesome!!

Also, was DNF good for the business?

any suggestions on the new Marketplace categories where all members can list their domain names for free?

Best wishes!
Helmuts

 

[theinvestor]

LOL @ exclusive memberships given out for free. You clearly have no clue what you’re talking about Helmuts.

Do us all a favour…don’t wait till the 30th. Implement it now. The sooner the better.

The forum is already dead. It’s time for you to bury it.

 

[Helmuts]

Look guys (and ladies).

I haven't made the final decision yet. It is easy to make mistakes in life when you hurry.

We are listening to the comments and constructive suggestions.

@Theo, is there a chance you still have a receipt? .. I understand this happened a long time ago, and still.. ?

Best success all!
Helmuts

 

[Helmuts]

LOL @ exclusive memberships given out for free. You clearly have no clue what you’re talking about Helmuts.

Do us all a favour…don’t wait till the 30th. Implement it now. The sooner the better.

The forum is already dead. It’s time for you to bury it.

100% yes! I also one of many who received a free Gold membership. In my case, all I had to do after watching a Domain Sherpa video > just sign up at DNF and ask for the membership upgrade. That is it. .. at some time this badge just disappeared (not that I really cared about it).

.. maybe it was a different account of mine..

Best!
H

 

[Theo]

The bottom line is I won't be subsidizing the new owner's acquisition costs. If my account/activities are part of the domain's supposed worth, why should I pay again just to have basic features such as a signature? I mean, you might as well disable all non-paying accounts.

Sorry mate, you're delusional if you expect us to debate what a hosting server costs monthly etc. Either you run a forum and build your base up or you don't. Expecting existing members to pay again the membership tier price annually is a hard no from me.

DNF has been sold so many times it's really impossible to find content indexed on the internet. From the previous vBulletin software to xforo the transition killed all the links! One or two sales of the forum ago - lost count - the incompetent mods removed all sigs and even the membership tier indicators! So now you want me to prove to you I paid for my lifetime membership from 2004? It went to Adam Dicker's pocket and that's it. If you want to monetize the forum you need to find advertisers.