DNForum is coming back to life – meet the new owners

new-dnforum-owners

If you don’t know the history behind DNForum’s last year, well, I don’t have the energy to go through it all so let’s just say, the forum changed hands, then changed hands again, and then once more, which is where it is now.

I am excited to say that the new owners of DNForum.com are actually long-time members of the forum so are likely the best people to breathe new life into what was once one of the most active forums about domain nam investing.

While some of you might be reading about this change on my blog, I actually found out about this change myself while reading one of my favorite domain blogs – DSAD.com. Here’s the full recap as was originally posted on DSAD.com and later on DomainState:

“My name is Oliver and I am one of the new owners of DNF. I wanted to reach out and let the community know about our short-term plans for DNF and who the team consists off. We are sorry for keeping you in suspense for these last couple of days but we wanted a chance to get the deal finalized before taking the stage.
We are three owners;
Lars – Castion, whom will be handling business management and development.
Johnn – Johnn, whom will be heading up the mod team and assisting with business development.
Myself – Seek99, whom will help with the strategic vision and act as a business advisor.
We know it is a monumental task to bring DNF back from the brink its teetering on (/fell off) but we believe that its possible by focusing on the core values that made DNF great. A lot of people invested their money, time and wisdom here and that deserves respect. We hope to return some of that invested energy back to our community members in the form of actual tangible benefits.
Some of our short-term goals are;
A return to the gold / platinum / exclusive membership classes and forums.
A roll back to some of the old forums categories like short domains.
A new design to help us turn a fresh page.
Bringing back the trader ratings.
Removing Adsense ads.
Killing the crypto forums. (Already done).
We will not be taking the forums offline but will implement our updates piecemeal during the coming months.
Overall, we want to move the focus away from creating short term profits and towards building a sustainable community that is laser focused on domain name investing and discussion. Our end goal is for DNF to rise from the ashes reinvigorated as the go to place for professionals in our industry.
Some of our long-term development goals are;
Implementing a tag-based marketplace system and search.
Bringing value and benefits back into the exclusive membership.
Making user-driven innovation a focal point for further development.
We are not kidding ourselves. It won’t be an easy task, but we are in it for the long run. In the end many small steps goes a long way. We hope that you will join us in this journey and help us achieve our goal.
Finally we would like to the previous owners of DNF for their assistance in making this transaction easy and agreeable. We wish them all the best in their future endeavours.
For Sure stay turned for updates open to ideas what domainers want to see!”
(Source – DSAD)

So now for my two cents.

I like it. Who better to bring DNForum back to life than members who were previously active on the forum? It sounds like they are also very well aware of what most members would like to see happen – i.e. Gold, Platinum, and Exclusive membership classes, and end to annoying AdSense ads, and, well not that I’m a fan but heck it’s called DNForum so I’ll take it – killing the crypto forums.

Let’s be honest. While a lot of Domainers (myself included) are also investing in crypto, the freaking forum’s name is DNForum so having sections dedicated to crypto doesn’t really make very much sense so I’m actually glad to see this wiped away.

I also really like the idea of taking the focus away from short-term profits because that really doesn’t exist in any steady-state in the domain world. Focusing on creating sustainable businesses/income makes a lot more sense and really is the only path to realistically take anyone new to this industry down.

It sounds like Oliver and team have a good plan and I’d like to sit down and chat with them more as things progress…so I’ll have to figure out if they’re in SF anytime soon or if I’ll be wherever they happen to be sooner.

Either way, I think this is a huge step in the right direction and I applaud Oliver and friends in being open and honest in their plan for what’s ahead. Here’s to the next generation of DNForum – I’m looking forward to contributing…even though I suck as staying on top of forums, no really – I suck at it, but I’ll do my best!

What do you think? Is this a step in the right direction for DNForum? I want to hear from you – comment and let your voice be heard!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton