news DNForum.com 2022 - Important Announcement

Dear Member,

DNForum is undergoing an overhaul in 2022, starting with a management change from Feb 2022. I, Anita Walker, am taking over as DNForum Director from David Walker @amplify. I would like to firstly thank David for his massive contribution in setting up the bones of the forum in 2021. I will be administrating the forum alongside Furquan Ahamed @Furquan. With this change of guard, I would like to touch upon my vision for DNF going forward.

→ Being the OG of domaining forums we intend to bring DNF roaring back like a tiger (2022 is the year of the tiger), by growing and uplifting the domaining community.
→ DNF is free and will remain free (no premium accounts).
→ The discussions on DNF will become more business focussed - hence all other off-topic discussions except technology & business related will be discouraged. I believe business people have very little free time, so we aim to ensure their time is well-spent on DNF.
→ We plan to engage the domaining community not only on DNF but also on various platforms, including but not limited to Clubhouse, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We hope to bring in new sections and features to make our community more vibrant, helpful, and united on all fronts.

To make DNF great again, we count upon every member's cooperation. We thank you for your support and patience as we together move towards this goal.

warmest regards,
Anita

 

[MapleDots]

And you removed the previous Epik skin why?

This is not good news for DNForum, there has been too much change, too many owners and too many captains.

This change could have been made quietly in the background and keeping the Epik skin as a second.

@robmonster how many times do you think members are going to put up with all the changes?
There is no need to shake things up this much just because David left. Incremental changes are best, make a soft introduction and take your time to make sure the changes are in the best interest of the forum.

To me this looks like someone is trying to wipe out all of Davids hard work. Although I admire Anita for making a change it should be done in such a way as not to alienate members. A start would be to put the Epik skin back, it was a unified look with the red Epik colours. This yellow skin is nice but too much of a radical change. We were just getting used to the logo, it was indexing well and poof now it's gone.

Really, I'm not feeling it, I think it's too much too fast.

 

[jaydub]

I agree ..use tiger as the default if you feel that is the way to go but that the epik grey should be left as an option that can be toggled, much as many sites offer dark mode as an option.

 

[theinvestor]

A new skin will not save this forum. Its past will be forever in the name of the forum.

 

[Anita]

Hi Guys, appreciate your doom and gloom thoughts but I believe we are an extremely resilient community. My intentions are to recreate a strong and vibrant community where we uplift and help each other. I have a no-BS policy and will not tolerate unnecessary drama or insidious remarks. My request to each of you is to bring your best side to the table henceforth - a positive and happy you who wants to uplift instead of discourage, build instead of tearing down - if you are not on board with this concept please spend your time elsewhere.

With regards to the history of the forum, life reinvents itself. Please do not keep bringing up things we have no control over. A forum with over half a million users is being rebuilt and we need the community to back us up in this effort. If in doubt please just watch silently. We have got our job cut out for us and we make no bones of it that it's an uphill task.

With regards to the theme the grey theme was very similar to this and hence has been retired. We will be introducing a dark theme soon. Please be patient with us as we have taken charge of this forum only since yesterday.

 

[MapleDots]

A forum with over half a million users

HeHe... now that's funny

 

[Anita]

Glad you noticed! Am sure it's nowhere close to that number but that's what the stats says.

 

[Domainnature]

But where is David, what happened that he no longer administers the DNforum?

 

[robmonster]

Epik continues to own and fund DNForum, but we recognized that for the benefit of the industry, it was wise to make it clear that while Epik will be active in the forum, this is a level playing field where all views are welcome. It was actually a precondition for Anita agreeing to come on board, and was also the view that David held strongly. David's strength was technical operations. He brought many technical upgrades. Anita's strength is community, and I believe will be a driving force for growing the community while we explore new tech innovations.

 

[amplify]

But where is David, what happened that he no longer administers the DNforum?

I'm still here. I will be a helping hand on the technical side of the house for as long as I am needed -- because Xenforo is much more than just a skin -- and will participate in conversations where I believe that I can add value.

 

[MapleDots]

I have a no-BS policy and will not tolerate unnecessary drama or insidious remarks. My request to each of you is to bring your best side to the table henceforth - a positive and happy you who wants to uplift instead of discourage, build instead of tearing down - if you are not on board with this concept please spend your time elsewhere.

I am owner/admin on several forums and I would strongly advise you to rethink that statement. Each situation in unique and engaging a disgruntled member to work out a solution is the best policy. A forum has nothing if it has no members or content and even remotely threatening the member base can have significant long lasting effects.

As human beings we are emotional creatures by nature and you will never achieve a totally harmonious community. Most conversations start as two opposing point of views and that is what keeps people coming back, they want to see those opposing point of views. If it gets a little heated and you shut it down you will disgruntle the members and your total member count of 532,436 will mean nothing if only a few hundred participate.

Anyways... good luck to you and Rob, DNForum has a storied past but with proper guidance there is no reason it cannot thrive moving forward.

 

[Anita]

Thank you @MapleDots for your sincere wishes. With all due respect I hope I can prove this bias wrong one day that we cannot achieve a harmonious community. My statement was not to convey that this forum will be heavily moderated against voicing opposing views but to deter bullies, trolls and people who do not know how to behave on a business platform like DNF. I am well aware that content like threads with bad words in the title is ok by you but there is no place for that kind of negative energy here. I believe each of us should be a vessel for thoughtful, responsible and uplifting speech that brings people closer instead of dividing them.

I have had the honour of interacting with hundreds of domainers in the past few months and see no negative talk anywhere when the medium is audio or video. The reason for this is apparent - when we as "emotional human beings" actually interact with each other via something as personal as audio/video we know how to speak with respect and self regulate our thoughts-to-speech patterns. This vital element is missing in text and while it's ok by me on a personal level to understand the other party's views I do not want it to become a public nuisance where any number of members could be put off or prejudiced by the behaviour of some other member/s. The sad part is because of the longevity of text content the energy also remains while an outburst on audio/video doesn't even make a ripple. I hope you are getting my point here.

Being aware of what kind of influence we are on known and unknown people is vital if we are to run a mindful forum where not only the opinionated feel safe but the quiet and reticent people feel safe enough to come out and express themselves in a positive well cared for environment.

 

[MapleDots]

With all due respect I hope I can prove this bias wrong one day that we cannot achieve a harmonious community.

As human beings we are emotional creatures by nature and you will never achieve a totally harmonious community.

Yup leaving out an important word like TOTALLY from my quote can make me totally sound biased

I have had the honour of interacting with hundreds of domainers in the past few months

HeHe.... yup, I would say at least 73 times in 20 years

The people commenting in this topic have over 50 years experience collectively among them... just saying...

If in doubt please just watch silently.

About half a million users are doing just that...



You can say everything you did using more inclusive words, I could be wrong about that but I guess time will tell how it all plays out.

Anyways good luck to you Anita, its a big job, I don't envy you.

 

[Azam.net]

Been a member of these forums since the noughties and, yes, it has gone through quite a number of changes, but I'm looking forward to the new, revitalised forum.

With the closure of DomainState and other domaining forums, DNForum has a valuable role to play in 2022 and beyond.

 

[MikeinFlorida]

Good luck with the forum all! Make it the home you want Anita for everyone!

 

[robs01]

I just came back too... I noticed that I had first set up an account in 2010. Looking forward to seeing this forum re-invigorated.

 

[Deleted member 322971123]

I just came back too... I noticed that I had first set up an account in 2010. Looking forward to seeing this forum re-invigorated.

Thank you and welcome to the community again.

 

[Dale Hubbard]

Best of luck to you. Kudos for keeping this together. I must have been here for about two decades, and a mod at least twice. I'll be visiting more often now

 

[Biggie]

Best of luck to you. Kudos for keeping this together. I must have been here for about two decades, and a mod at least twice. I'll be visiting more often now

Hi Zoo!

it's been a while, my brother!
Great to see you post again on the forum


imo...

 

[LarryWentz]

So I logged in today after someone spammed my message box with a couple crappy names. I decided to edit my signature which had 3 links and see I could only have 1 now. The benefits I paid money for a "Exclusive" lifetime membership are gone.

Do I feel ripped off? Yeah. At least when new ownership/management changes came along in the past - those that paid for their memberships still had their extra benefits. I recommend you somehow reward those that had paid money to support the existence of the forum in the past (even during turbulent times).