Membership Update

[Admin]

Hello everyone,

I want to inform you about changes to our forum's membership options. Rest assured, if you currently have a paid membership, it will not be cancelled until the end of your subscription period. Additionally, we're not decreasing any options for paid memberships; in fact, we're removing message limits and adding new features. However, please note that free members will no longer have access to signatures in the coming days.

Our membership types now include Free, Elite, and Corporate. We've designed these memberships to cater to the specific needs and preferences of our members while ensuring equal access to essential features like posting and messaging for everyone.

Free membership has all the necessary features for buying, selling, or discussing domain names, without requiring an upgrade.

If you have an established business and want to promote it through a custom signature, an Elite membership is for you. This membership lets you have a custom signature with up to three lines and three links, plus an Elite Member badge.

For companies looking to draw attention to their brand, we offer Corporate membership. This membership provides a custom signature for all your employees, a Corporate Member badge, and a Corporate Member Banner at the top of the forum's sidebar.

To explore upgrade options, please visit: https://www.acorndomains.co.uk/account/upgrades

We appreciate your understanding and support as we make these changes to better serve our community.

Thank you,
Felix

 

[Microsoft]

I thought you said the forum was not going to become like nampros etc.

Acorn supporter was £24pa with sig link and now is £270pa, please explain the new added value.

 

[Admin]

SIGs appear to not show when using a mobile device

Thank you for pointing out this issue! Already fixed.

For all the other questions I'll answer tomorrow, it's been too long of a day

 

[Admin]

I thought you said the forum was not going to become like nampros etc.

Acorn supporter was £24pa with sig link and now is £270pa, please explain the new added value.

Can't recall that I said so, also don't see what our membership has to do with the Namepros.

There's no more Acorn Supporter membership. £270 is Elite membership. All members have equal features, except the signature option. No more messaging limits, own post-editing restrictions removed, create polls and vote on polls enabled for everyone, the option to add a picture/banner in a signature is enabled. In the background, we are working on SEO improvements and new partnerships, so your signature is not seen by yourself only.

 

[Admin]

From a non-bias perspective as someone who already has a subscription, and doesn’t need another, I can say that the ROI at the current price points for either paid membership is practically non-existent. £270 a year to have a signature? 2 and half grand for a badge? Lol.

Am I missing something.

Can't disagree, clearly, you are missing something.

 

[Admin]

@Admin / @Helmuts I think you are being a bit over optimistic with this, especially as SIGs appear to not show when using a mobile device.

I used to be a paid member, but cancelled when it became obvious that the old owner wasn't at all interested in the site. I considered restarting it when you took over as a show of support, but decided I would wait for a bit as some unfriendly old faces appeared and I wanted to see how the dust settled. I'm sorry I would not be willing to pay £270 per year to support the site.

My Amazon Prime membership costs me £95 pear year. For that I get unlimited same/next day delivery, TV, Music, Games, Reading, Deliveroo Plus etc..

Sorry, but there is absolutely no value at that price.

Thank you for your willingness to support the forum. It seems there's a small misunderstanding, we are not asking for support or donations. We provide an option to advertise your business and/or showcase your status to a laser-targeted domain industry audience.

Sorry, but I don't understand what your Amazon Prime have to do with your Acorn account... If I want a movie, I watch Netflix or Amazon Prime. If I want to advertise my stuff, I use Amazon Ads, Etsy Ads, or whatever platform I need. It's quite obvious.

 

[Admin]

Wouldn't it be cheaper to pm all 4 regular users with your advert, rather than pay £270?

I think I've seen everything I need to see on this forum tho.

Pushing your car would be cheaper than driving it. It all depends on your goal. If you want to be blocked by most of the members, you can give a try to your ingenious idea.

 

[Admin]

My point is that the annual price for a Signature simply represents no value. But I guess you will only learn this once nobody takes up the option of paid membership?

To put it into perspective, I have been able to add a Signature for free since I joined, but have never bothered as couldn't see the point, so why would I now pay for it?

If I remember correctly, previous membership options included: hosting, droplist access and a couple of other things. £270 for a signature is going to be a hard sell.

I see your point but I don't understand how you calculate the value. If I going to advertise my stuff, let's say on Amazon Ads, I don't look for additional perks like a free t-shirt, a free bag of food for my pet, etc. I know what I want to achieve, so I pay for it.

If you see no value in advertising or in showing off your status, moreover if you never used a signature, why bother about this now?

 

[Microsoft]

Employee of the month is a good example of how somebody can be both a winner and a loser at the same time.

 

[Admin]

So you'll be refunding all.the paid memberships for the last few weeks?

Rest assured, if you currently have a paid membership, it will not be cancelled until the end of your subscription period.

Since you upgraded after the forum was acquired by Helmuts, if you agree, I can switch your account to Elite Membership (of course, without any additional fees).

I only started using acorn again as I saw a post where you'd let the moderators go

Could you please point to this post?

It's like nothing has changed

I assure you that a lot is already changed, and a lot will be changed in the coming weeks/months.

Thank you,
Felix

 

[Paullas]

I wont take it personally

 

[Paullas]

lol you can always try them out might help you get away quicker

 

[rob]

@Helmuts you come across as very genuine and likeable on your live streams, but I think the reaction to these changes on both sides of the pond could lead to a downturn in engagement on your recent acquisitions.

We've seen the departure of one well known member on Acorn recently, and a well-known member on DNF by all reports.

Perhaps time to revisit your strategy/tiers for memberships and keep a more affordable option for those who want to support the communities alongside advertisers. I've also seen several instances of @Admin being either misunderstood or a possible language barrier, and a bit of a good cop, bad cop dynamic.

Having previously built and sold forums (albeit a long time ago) alienating active/longstanding members of somewhat niche communities is not usually a good way to go.

Cheers,
Greg

Wow, Theo banned from there (joined 2004, with 30,000 posts...) that thread is something else. Dale Hubbard requesting his removal from there and here on Acorn is sad to see. The other threads where I posted how Aaron Clifford would be a big miss on here was deleted, but I would extend that thought to Dale as well.

Text can be read in many ways online, but I would see the DNForum posts as constructive criticism from people with open minds of a new owner - and crucially through the lens of sometimes decades of experience online.

They are not out to get you, and all probably have a soft spot for a community they themselves have contributed many hours/days/weeks of effort and reams and reams of content - and helped create the value and reputation.

 

[Systreg]

I happened to look on DN Forum today before the link was posted above by Greg.

That was the same 6 page thread I viewed earlier, I don't know who Theo is, as I don't view that site, just looked out of interest today, but from reading the posts by Helmuts, it appears Theo was being abusive to Helmut's on Twitter, which appears to be the reason he was banned.

Not sure about others, but if someone is giving me shit, or being aggressive, they'd be gone.

 

[KarlM]

Sad to see Dale go from here, I hope he reconsiders.

 

[rob]

I happened to look on DN Forum today before the link was posted above by Greg.

That was the same 6 page thread I viewed earlier, I don't know who Theo is, as I don't view that site, just looked out of interest today, but from reading the posts by Helmuts, it appears Theo was being abusive to Helmut's on Twitter, which appears to be the reason he was banned.

Not sure about others, but if someone is giving me shit, or being aggressive, they'd be gone.

Just nosing on twitter the threads are similar to the forum posts IMHO

Speaking of random twitter nonsense... looking on twitter for the above, it was nice to see a *13 year old* tweet of mine discovered and quote retweeted by Acorn

https://twitter.com/acorndomains/status/1652636197598928896

Going off the date was that around the same time the two threads on here disappeared where I was posting about the appropriateness of models in 2023 at the UK planned conference? Surely a great coincidence and no one tried to find some dirt and think they did a thing

I look forward to Acorn member tweets from the past being highlighted as a regular series !

 

[Helmuts]

yes, your 24-hour sale 13 years ago was a great post and interesting look-back in the history

--

About some disappeared posts: There were 2 or members who asked their details and posts fully removed from Acorn, and sadly this caused a chain reaction. Felix will correct me if I'm not correct - I think this was the case.

The concern about using the models was correct.. Don't plan anything like that this year. .. only naked men

 

[dee]

https://twitter.com/acorndomains/status/1652636197598928896

Going off the date was that around the same time the two threads on here disappeared where I was posting about the appropriateness of models in 2023 at the UK planned conference? Surely a great coincidence and no one tried to find some dirt and think they did a thing

Interesting that most of the people on that thread are still here. Hopefully, long may it continue.

 

[Helmuts]

Might be worth considering switching closed accounts to ‘Retired Member’, so old threads can remain. I think most people would be fine with that, even if/when leaving.

If people wish to be forgotten and all their comments and threads to be deleted > we will comply without much arguing. It is good to have human rights.

.. yes, it can destroy some old conversations, this is on the person who calls for this action.

.. ahh, let us stay positive Life's good

 

[aZooZa]

Wow, Theo banned from there (joined 2004, with 30,000 posts...) that thread is something else. Dale Hubbard requesting his removal from there and here on Acorn is sad to see. The other threads where I posted how Aaron Clifford would be a big miss on here was deleted, but I would extend that thought to Dale as well.

Text can be read in many ways online, but I would see the DNForum posts as constructive criticism from people with open minds of a new owner - and crucially through the lens of sometimes decades of experience online.

They are not out to get you, and all probably have a soft spot for a community they themselves have contributed many hours/days/weeks of effort and reams and reams of content - and helped create the value and reputation.

Quite so, Rob.

I happened to look on DN Forum today before the link was posted above by Greg.

That was the same 6 page thread I viewed earlier, I don't know who Theo is, as I don't view that site, just looked out of interest today, but from reading the posts by Helmuts, it appears Theo was being abusive to Helmut's on Twitter, which appears to be the reason he was banned.

Not sure about others, but if someone is giving me shit, or being aggressive, they'd be gone.

Kevin, some of the most adversarial exchanges on DNF were between me and Theo. That was 'back in the day'. Days which will never be experienced again.

Sad to see Dale go from here, I hope he reconsiders.

Thanks Karl. I'll hang around