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

 

[Helmuts]

I am also interested to know where is the delete your account button located.

Whatever you are dreaming about is not possible. You can write off your DNF investment as lost maybe it will help you to get some tax relief.

It's a dead forum no one is even interested in using it for free.

@Furquan just few days ago you still were a moderator with the mission to nurture and guard DNF.

that is one statement

especially now, when the traffic and domain business has actually returning to DNF.

 

[Castion]

To moderate or administrate a public forum you need thick skin. You are in a position of power and need to use that judicially. People from all walks of life will confront you and challenge your thoughts.

My advice to you @Helmuts is to step back and let Felix manage your investment. Like another mini Musk, it seems like you are trying to torch your own investment as fast as possible. You banned the most prolific poster with more than two decades experience for a trivial matter that you should have deflected like water of a gooses back. What do you think you paid for and why do you not want to protect that?

I thought that Overlord title was a joke, but now it seems like a bad one at best...

 

[DNF Admin]

@Dale Hubbard @Rhys Davies @Furquan @Helmuts the self delete account option is implemented. The option delete own threads and posts is enabled. I would love you to wait until the dust settles, but the choice is yours. Thank you, best wishes and good luck to everyone!

 

[Castion]

Haha do you expect Helmuts to delete his account or his posts Felix?

 

[DNF Admin]

Haha do you expect Helmuts to delete his account or his posts Felix?

Haha, I tagged everyone who were involved in discussion about account deletion

 

[Biggie]

To moderate or administrate a public forum you need thick skin. You are in a position of power and need to use that judicially. People from all walks of life will confront you and challenge your thoughts.

My advice to you @Helmuts is to step back and let Felix manage your investment.

Hi

i totally agree with above statement.

as said before, i've been mod here for years and as Castion said, you need thick skin for sure.
and i can't even count the number of challenges and decisions one has to make.... or not make in the spur of the moment or over a given period of time.

i'm only still here, cuz i know what it could be
but it ain't gonna be... if the mentality is "my way or the highway"

The option delete own threads and posts is enabled.

Hi

if everyone decides to delete their own threads and posts, then that reduces the forums' thread and post count.

you really have to sit back and re-look at the way it's going.

you're supposed to be extending the olive branch.....not showing folks the boot and kicking them to the curb.

imo....

 

[MapleDots]

if everyone decides to delete their own threads and posts, then that reduces the forums' thread and post count.

That piece of code generally does not delete the posts, it just randomizes to a generic user name and the topics stay intact but all mention of the username, profile, direct messages etc goes away.

There is a way to actually delete all topics and posts but that is up to each mod to decide and that would have huge implications for topics and posts. Ultimately nothing would make sense anymore and it would cause a fumbled mess.

That said if all the deleted topics and posts are old then it would probably not be noticed by current members unless they look at the posting stats. Unfortunately it could also mean some valuable content would be wiped out and that could negatively affect SEO.

 

[DNF Admin]

you really have to sit back and re-look at the way it's going.

you're supposed to be extending the olive branch.....not showing folks the boot and kicking them to the curb.

Hi! I understand that.

That piece of code generally does not delete the posts, it just randomizes to a generic user name and the topics stay intact but all mention of the username, profile, direct messages etc goes away.

No, it's not related to self delete account option. The real delete own posts and threads is enabled.

if everyone decides to delete their own threads and posts, then that reduces the forums' thread and post count.

Ultimately nothing would make sense anymore and it would cause a fumbled mess.

Unfortunately it could also mean some valuable content would be wiped out and that could negatively affect SEO.

I know it and I understand the consequences.

Thank you!

 

[Dale Hubbard]

One of the biggest cock-ups here ever was the administration not backing up the freaking MySQL database. Some incompetent nitwit must have forgotten or perhaps there IS a copy somewhere. It SHOULD be HUGE. I'm guessing that happened at a transfer of ownership event.

 

[LarryWentz]

When you acquire a business, you're acquiring both the assets and the liabilities. To the extent that "lifetime accounts" represent a "liability" to the owners, the move to simply try to eliminate that liability is not prudent, in my opinion.

Indeed, some of the lifetime accounts represent knowledgeable members who answer questions and bring value to the other members. Without them (if they decide not to pay again for something they've already paid for) the forum might become a ghost town.

Bingo George!

I spent money on the Lifetime Exclusive many years ago & expect all owners to honor that investment I made. I haven't been active here in quite awhile because well the forum wasn't active (NamePros took a lot at that time). I just happened to notice the new ownership change (via DNJournal) and thought well let's see if this is a positive change to become active again only to discover that I will be ripped off from the investment I made.

Does that sound extreme? You know the "ripped off" comment I just made. Well that's exactly what is happenning... that's a no brainer. In fact, I'm rather positive that a court of law would agree if I and others fight the move. That may seem like a threat and it is if people get ripped off for what they paid for. Don't rip me & others off by not honoring what we paid for. It's more of a liability not honoring the lifetime memberships if you are smart business-wise. Serious Helmuts... think about it. Yes there is honestly potential class action besides the constant negative publicity. I'm being honest with you because the lifetime members are assets & not liabilities (even though many like myself have been dormant).

Seriously I suggest you "sincerely apologize" for considering this terrible move, make sure I and others who are lifetime members maintain the full top level memberships that we paid for & we can see if the forum will become worthy our time. After that then "maybe" you can give DNForum a rebirth to what it is was again in the old days.... actual activity, sales & knowledge shared.

I sincerely hope you make the right move.

(PS - Don't ask for my receipt eons ago without looking through the archive seeing that I have an exclusive lifetime membership. Oh yeah... reinstate Theo along with his lifetime exclusive membership along with an apology to him.)

 

[Biggie]

Hi

i had a thought:

sent out emails and perhaps a public notice, to all lifetime members inviting them to come back to the forum.

if they wish to have previous benefits, then they must post an Introductory thread, with some insight as to who/whom they were then/ or are now.

set a time limit to respond, maybe 30 days, then after that, you're good to go with whoever shows up.

by doing something like that, it shows you gave opportunity to reclaim member status and fair notice to respond.

imo....



.

 

[DomainsGENERAL.com]

you gave opportunity to reclaim member status

This would be quite different than what has been announced. The above announcement was:

"I am considering..."
"I am sure, you understand..."
So, here is what I've already decided: "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"

What you are proposing here, Biggien is to be able to NOT have your lifetime membership cancelled, given a few conditions. Sure, it would be a better way of doing things. It would have been better since the start.

 

[Commerce]

Truly disappointing. Have been a DNForum premium member for nearly two decades. Have been recently trying to find help in selling a domain here recently with little the way of valuable response. Perhaps if you can demonstrate value on the platform before attempting to take away what little we still have here, there would be a justification in making this move to pay for performance. Even adding some additional services such as escrow or other value added to justify the process might help to provide perceived value in this platform. There are some truly outstanding members who have participated and continue to participate in this platform, but with all rates of service rising for everything these days and few buyers actually purchasing coupled with growing commission costs, this is a difficult pill to swallow.

How about doing something like taking commissions on actual sales that occur on the platform. If the platform works, it should be able to do very well like a SEDO. That is a sustainable model. The purchase of a lifetime membership was done in good faith, knowing that it offered a way to connect with like minded professional people interested in selling domains. Hope you will reconsider the action with other options perhaps like the two suggested in this post.

For now, we all have some data to consider, costs to justify and decisions to make.

Best wishes for the site's success going forward.

 

[Helmuts]

[quick update]

Please do not believe everything you read online that some decisions are already made on memberships. These are lies .. there are few people who seem to enjoy the power of the internet allowing them to insult others.

The message is: we are considering canceling all lifetime memberships on DNForum.com.

No decision has been taken on memberships. Please note that these were already stripped of the features promised by the previous owners: https://www.dnforum.com/threads/an-important-note-on-lifetime-accounts.606305/page-4#post-2368591

I am reading all the comments.

--

About abusive and rude people. Everybody understands that building strong community forums always requires setting clear boundaries. We will not be intimidated to enforce these boundaries by removing ANY individuals who exhibit abusive or toxic behavior.

Also, please report posts where you have been attacked by other DNF member. No account is above this simple rule.

--

Wishing everybody positivity, good business and a happy Wednesday!
Helmuts

 

[Biggie]

What you are proposing here, Biggien is to be able to NOT have your lifetime membership cancelled, given a few conditions. Sure, it would be a better way of doing things. It would have been better since the start.

Hi

yes, that was the thought.

if you do the percentages, how many would actually take advantage of it?
100 or more, or 100 or less.

but any who do, could give positive review

then seeing "their status", that in turn, could encourage free members to upgrade.

you're giving something now,
in return for the potential investment of time, that they will participate on the forum in the future.


imo...

 

[DomainsGENERAL.com]

there are few people who seem to enjoy the power of the internet allowing them to insult others

Are you referring to me? If you do, I would appreciate you mention me clearly and directly (and/or others if there are). Not that kind of allusions and vague ban threats while you see "insults" everywhere, especially where there are none.

You said you encourage to discuss the "decision". It's at the top of this page for everybody to see.

If you want to argue it was just not the best of wordings and maybe even that I'm grasping at straws, then, by all means, say that. To me, the above message is an all-too-classic one starting from "considering" and evolving towards "it has been decided" the further you read. That's only my interpretation. You also use a lot "will" and not "would" at the end of the message, btw.

 

[Helmuts]

Are you referring to me?

no!! 10000% no

huhhh

 

[Helmuts]

Hopefully, this helps for Transparency.

Here you can see what was offered to the DNF members by the previous owners (I am not informed who exactly sold these memberships to many of you):




--

The state of memberships BEFORE the DNF was passed over to us:

Screencast video for transparency to show that ALL the permissions for all 3 Lifetime memberships were already disabled in the settings:

The membership situation is an absolute mess! And nobody really cared to sort these out! Absolutely ridiculous!

Maybe @Furquan as the previous Super-Administrator, and also paid Epic employee for managing DNForum, can share more information?

--

The only thing we did in these "Group Permission": we disabled the signature feature for Free members, and around 1 week ago enabled signature features for all the Lifetime Members.

Before us, the signature options were also disabled for all the Lifetime user group options by previous owners. You were able to have signatures only because these were enabled for all the free general users.

As of today: around 75% of all the users still have the signature feature.

===========

Let me assure everybody: we will bring in the order. And the DNForum will get back on its tracks.

Best wishes all!
Helmuts

 

[Helmuts]

[Update on the Decision]

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts and listening to ours.

We will keep all the existing Lifetime memberships. The main part = all Lifetime members will keep their signatures.

Previously, Lifetime members did agree that 35% from the Sales of their products to the DNForum users will go towards the DNForum = this is removed as ridiculous.

This should close this topic. Thank you all, who participated by sharing constructive comments > as you can see, these were much needed.

--

Currently, there are only 2 premium memberships available for anybody who wishes to stand out: "Elite" membership for individuals (subject to approval) and "Corporate" membership for companies (subject to approval).

Also, these will be the only memberships with badges.

--

Wishing all the best of the business here at DNForum and at any other platforms and websites!
Helmuts

 

[base]

Congratulations on making the proper decision here Helmuts, and I think it's a good first positive move for you as the new owner.

When a company changes ownership, it should always honor past promises (via grandfathering) and lifetime membership means lifetime for the duration of the company, not the owner.

Your new model definitely makes more sense moving forward, for new subscriptions.

You did point out several times that the decision wasn't final and I applaud the consideration taken from all the input here. Perhaps you could reconsider the elimination of Theo from the forum, that may have been done in haste and quick retribution. Forums can thrive from constructive, even harsh, criticism and it's always wise to attempt to view such from more than one lens.

Anyhow, looking forward to more of these kind of discussions involving decision-making between owners and users, it is really a winning model for transparency on both fronts in terms of gaining trust. As long as everyone keeps it honest.