-=DTG=- Asks and Answers Questions!

[Mr Webname]

1) Turn off the irritating animated adverts and stop them pushing out "Quick Links", (or move "Quick Links" to the top).

2) If there really are over 200 "Guests" every time I use the Forum (???) & 1900 members (???), how can we get them involved, because it sure as heck shows by the posts that they aren't up to now.

3) Allow 2 posts per day in the sales thread. Posts can be added to and ammended so there is plenty of flexibility, any more and it will be abused by some, just as it was in the past.

4) Announce changes that affect the members and ask for opinions where practical, don't just dump on us (eg the software downloads freebie link - suddenly all change and replaced with 4 paid programmes).
Did everyyone hear about the recent VB upgrade and downtime before it happened or were they just left to find out by finding the site down? Use stickies or a specific Announcements thread for this purpose, or an email newsletter.

5) I think we already have the option of a "dealer-only forum" in the Platinum Members Section - just up to us to use it properly. Otherwise the more the merrier to buy the domains Provided you take great care to deal with scammers and the like without delay.

 

[avs162]

Domain security is another REVOLUTIONAL business itself
Originally posted by _Yakov

your right on the money there yakov do you put your money in a bank that charges less for checking but has no safe. price point can be overcome to some point by assured security of your assets. the other looming issue is that domain owners have no cohesive voice to protect them against damaging legislation and potential tariffs on domains. the groups with a lobby or a pac are more likley to influence the enviorment to ensure continued prosperity.

this has been needed for a long time. hope that pain does not end up being the motivator.

good thread

 

[A D]

I will be looking at a security area on Monday and anyone that has info tp contribute please do so by pm.

thanks for all the great suggestions and on Monday we will look at all of them and you will see results fast.

Thanks again, keep the input coming!

-=DCG=-

 

[mole]

Originally posted by DotComGod
you will see results fast.

Ahhh....

 

[Ed30]

Where exactly are these hundreds of guests coming from please?

 

[David G]

Originally posted by Ed30 Where exactly are these hundreds of guests coming from please?

The number online suddenly skyrocketed almost overnite, sometimes reaching 400 plus online at a time, soon after the change of ownership, though member numbers stayed about the same. I seem to remember a time with 800 plus online, an obvious impossibilty as far as the percentage goes.

The sudden surge would appear to be some form of redirection the new owner is using to boost traffic somehow. If I recall correctly that sort of thing was admitted to by Owner or a Mod in an earlier post in another thread.

I am not in favor of doing this as it results in a very misleading statistic which mostly would impress new members and ADVERTISERS who don't realize what is happening. By redirecting traffic it is tough to figure out the true numbers involved, obviously redirected traffic is worth a very small fraction in value vs. real online users.

 

[peter]

Hi

Yes, DCG gets traffic from his other sites to this one

 

[GiantDomains]

Originally posted by Mr Webname


4) Announce changes that affect the members and ask for opinions where practical, don't just dump on us ...
...Did everyyone hear about the recent VB upgrade and downtime before it happened or were they just left to find out by finding the site down? Use stickies or a specific Announcements thread for this purpose, or an email newsletter.
[/i] [/B]

Excuse me, but you had 2 days notice.

http://dnforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=27804

That's what the DNForum Site News forum is for.

 

[Mr Webname]

Originally posted by GiantDomains


Excuse me, but you had 2 days notice.

http://dnforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=27804

That's what the DNForum Site News forum is for.

Fair enough I concede to my error on that one - darn it that's you 1-up again

Maybe if I missed it others did too and so maybe there's a better option for such announcements, if not so be it.

 

[GiantDomains]

:laugh: It only has 90 views, so I assume the upgrade was a surprise to a lot of people, but that is the appropriate forum to announce site news and upgrades, etc., so please check it regularly

 

[Edwin]

1) Remove all advertising (through multiple skins or similar) for Platinum members at least. The faster browser experience leads to improved productivity, satisfaction and therefore an increased probability that Platinum members will renew their memberships when they expire.

2) Make the Domain Names for Sale a non-bumpable forum. Some sites already make use of a modification to vBulletin that allows this, for example WebHostingTalk.com blocks bumping in its sales threads. At the same time, raise the threads per day limit to 2 or 3 from the current 1. In other words, people can start a couple of threads, and 24 hours later they can start a couple more - safe in the knowledge that they won't be "competing" with Joe Blow's thread from last week being bumped for the 77th time.

Change 2) will also force a greater sense of "thread ownership" since the initiator of each thread has to actively go back and find it again after it has sunk out of sight and therefore is more likely to actually read (and respond to) all comments etc.

3) ENFORCE THE RULES. It's as simple as that. If a rule says "No comments in sales threads" then kick out those that break the rules. This isn't a social club - it is (or at least, it should be) a place where serious businesspeople can transact business. As such, it needs rules - and a management willing to enforce them despite the downside of such enforcement (e.g. you might lose a Platinum member). If people want to just chat, there are several millions of sites out there where they can exercise that need...

4) Take a deep breath before anything remotely "grey" and then don't go there... For example, the recent issue of the spammy messenger broadcast software that had been listed on the "software" page. A coolly rational and pragmatic analysis of these Forums as a venue for professionals to transact business would have instantly indicated that this kind of thing is wholly inappropriate.

5) Out with frivolity, in with speed: get rid of glow (substitute colours or larger fonts, perhaps) and above all get rid of Avatars. I don't go to a trade show or conference to find that each participant is wearing a funny hat with their choice of cartoon character on it...

If all the above sounds too dull and dry, over the long term the changes will be ENTIRELY BENEFICIAL to this community as it grows more and more rapidly. The way to keep things on track and on purpose is to get rid of distractions - and to discourage those who feel they need such distractions from participating.

I've already gone on too long, so I'll stop here.

 

[David G]

Originally posted by Edwin ....and above all get rid of Avatars. I don't go to a trade show or conference to find that each participant is wearing a funny hat with their choice of cartoon character on it... [/B]

This is not a popular view but I must say I agree with you about these way overdone Avatars, and some other issues you raised too.

I think many of the Avatars are ridiculous and certainly unprofessional, more appropriate for a cartoon or jokes website than a business site for domain professionals.

P.S. Do not agree on getting rid of Glow. If nothing else it aids one in finding his own post quickly in a large thread. That's how I scroll down to find my posts all the time as my Glow standsout.

 

[GiantDomains]

Originally posted by RealNames


This is not a popular view but I must say I agree with you about these way overdone Avatars, and some other issues you raised too.

I think many of the Avatars are ridiculous and certainly unprofessional, more appropriate for a cartoon or jokes website than a business site for domain professionals.

Oh please, some of you guys will complain about anything. Now you want the avatars gone? Geeez.

:weird:

 

[Edwin]

Basically "fluff" like glow, avatars and so on is needed at the first stage of an online community's development, where the key metric is how many people come back and how quickly traffic can be developed.

These forums are in about the 3rd or 4th stage (loyal membership that visits frequently and PAYS for the priviledge of membership) and so the fluff is no longer necessary to keep people happy.

I should note that I have at least some experience to back up what I'm saying since I run forums which currently have 5,767 registered members and over 100,000 posts - and where there are no Avatars, custom titles, or even signatures (it's not a commercial environment like this one) and people seem to really enjoy the experience.

 

[GiantDomains]

You are welcome to post your suggestions, but with all due respect, I think that is an arguement you will lose.

 

[Duke]

I'm in complete disagreement with Edwin on this one. If you implement those ideas what you are going to have is a DEAD forum. The very thing that made DNF thrive and break away from the pack was the fact that it was NOT solely focused on business. There are plenty of serious business people here who also like to socialize and get to know their business partners better as people. It's called networking. There have been countless posts in this forum about how much people LOVE the atmosphere and that is what sets the place apart.

It is a great place to BOTH transact business AND have a lot of fun. If you eliminate the latter you will have an incredibly boring environment in which few people will stick around to do business. I think this is the one big problem similar forums have run into. Lots of members but hours can go by without a single post. It's all business, but no camaraderie and getting to know each other as people and friends. I am much more comfortable doing business with people I've gotten to know. So, I would think twice about turning this into some dull, gray lifeless message board. Never underestimate the power of entertainment in any medium, including internet forums.

 

[Edwin]

All I want to add is this: please don't gloss over my other points just because you happen to disagree with one of them!

 

[WebCat]

Originally posted by GiantDomains
:laugh: It only has 90 views, so I assume the upgrade was a surprise to a lot of people, but that is the appropriate forum to announce site news and upgrades, etc., so please check it regularly

LOL! How many times does this have to fail before we acknowledge it doesn't work?

2000 members and 90 got the message? That's .045%!! Am I missing something, or is using the "all members" email considered an evil act? % minutes, one letter and EVERYONE has the information. I know I check my emaul 15 or 20 times every day. Rarely do I search DNF for announcements.

I guess a question might clarify this for me. It is more logical to expect 2000 people to log-on, and search the forum for an announcememnt, or for one mod to write an email and hit "send to all members"? Is there an overhead issue? Bandwidth consumption?

Yet... I get emails every day about subscribed threads here. Maybe that's the answer- force every member to be subscribed to the announcement forum so every announcement get an email notification.

You've heard the saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"? Well the opposite is also true- "If it's broke- FIX IT."

Thanks GIANT!
WebCat

 

[Duke]

Originally posted by Edwin
All I want to add is this: please don't gloss over my other points just because you happen to disagree with one of them!

Fair enough. I have no problem with your points 1-4. Just a problem with any attempt to suck the life out of the DNF atmosphere. If I wanted to sit around in a stuffy board meeting around the clock, I could just stay at work rather than come home in the evening and log on to DNF for more of the same.

 

[GiantDomains]

Originally posted by WebCat


LOL! How many times does this have to fail before we acknowledge it doesn't work?

2000 members and 90 got the message? Am I missing something, or is using the all members email considered and evil act? % minutes, one letter and EVERYONE has the information. I know I check my emaul 15 or 20 times every day. Rarely do I search DNF for announcements.

I guess a question might clarify this for me. It is more logical to expect 2000 people to log-on, and search the forum for an announcememnt, or for one mod to write an email and hit "send to all members"? Is there an overhead issue? Bandwidth consumption?

I still get emails every day about subscribed threads here. Maybe that's the answer- force every member to be subscribed to the announcement forum so every announcement get an email notification.

You've heard the saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"? Well the opposite is also true- "If it's broke- FIX IT."

Thanks GIANT!
WebCat

I was thinking the same thing. If the site is going to be down for a long period of time, an email may be better notification. There are people that have auctions running on the forum, with specific end times, and an outage may affect the sale. At least with an email, you can be sure they got the message.

Thanks for the suggestion.