The original Afternic (2000/2001) had owners that cared about the website. The design was good, and things happened. Lots of people hung out in chat, lots of friendships were made, and lots of deals were struck. Those were the days in which drop knowledge was known by a select few. You could get 2 LETTER and CHAR names by hand on a 56k dial-up modem. The owners of the old afternic frequently visited chat and you could talk with them directly about problems. The site was a hit.
Then, Register.com bought the site for cash and stock in a deal beleived to be about $48 Million. Register.com ran the site into the ground. They did not believe in support, and they put no effort forward to solve problems. Within 6-8 months the website became rampant with false bids, complaints, and was just a mess. Register.com must have received numerous complaints, but yet they refused to address the problems. Finally, the decision was made to close the doors of Aftenic in 2002 (?). Shortly after that, DNforum was founded. A lot of the members had stayed in touch and word quickly spread of the "New Domain Name Forum" - DNForum.com.
Register.com sold Afternic (the name only from what I understand, but I am not 100% sure about this) to the current owners, and thus the third generation Afternic (and its current state) was born.
-Bob