As I read your response, I was chuckling inside. It is obvious you are a creative thinker, and more than likely experienced the mob mentality, that can be present in the forum format. Creative people down through history have been criticized and even murdered.

I find that I learn far more from an open formatted Blog, than a forum. In the forum format many people are afraid to say what they believe is the truth. In my opinion Blogs are better, if you want to learn the truth. Thanks for your candid and honest reply.

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I feel your pain, and glad to have given some hope to you to continue discussing your ideas and opinions, no matter how far off the sheep path they travel.

Timing is everything. I am usually a very supportive and positive person, that is till I got on a domain forum. I found myself with opinions that were not being respected by other forum members who would gang up on you if they did not agree.

I found the energy of the forum was catchy, and I became antagonistic out of defense of my right to my opinions. The more I was attacked the more I attacked. It finally ended in a huge blow out, to my relief. Now I can get on the bright side of things again. I am now very leery of any forums.

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Wow Jeff, welcome to the club. And that club is a lot bigger than the amount of regular forum users.

There are a certain crowd of domainers and pseudo-domainers whose claim to fame is that they make thousands of posts, and feel pretty ingrained into the forum systems, accomplished by kissing moderators and admin asses, just to stay “comfortable”. Mostly because they have given nothing in the way of domain sales or domain innovation to offer, they have thousands of posts under their name because they either 1) make fun of some newbie or other member trying to sell a domain or make a point, and 2) try to sell their own crappy domains.

If you take the name of any top domainer in this industry, and check how many posts they’ve made in the last three years on ANY domain forum, it probably won’t be more than 500, most likely even less. Now that’s not to brand all domain forum members with over 3000 posts as losers just passing the time away feeling important because they suck the doorknobs of the forum admins and moderators… That’s not true at all in the global sense. However, trust me, there are LOTS of members who feel they’ve achieved greatness because they’ve established themselves on a forum and it gives them a sense of nerdish power they never had before. This clouds their thinking.

The game of a forum is to STIR THINGS UP. Create issues, make people think, get them angry or interested, make them defend their opinions and to do it with logic, facts, and hopefully wit. Most can’t reach that level of response, and start labeling you as a loser who is going into “Jude 2″ mode, or attack you personally, blah blah. Not coincidentally, these negative posts are allowed to simmer in your threads. Then all the noobie forum members join in attacking you because they base their opinions on POST AMOUNTS of the members (and thinking this recognition power makes the forum member look established and strong) making their comments towards you. Hence, you get a lot of posts belittling your ideas in your posts, and hoisting you up to kick around so they all get boners about how powerful they are (based on the sheep member responses). Meanwhile, 98% of them have made less than $5,000 in domain aftermarket sales and have NO INPUT whatsoever in making contributions to the furthering of domain marketing. A higher percentage of them are not a member of any domain industry organization such as DNOA or ICA.

So, I take my flame posts in stride. I like a lot of the people I argue with, i just separate their statements from the person so I don’t make it personal. Unfortunately, some of them can’t do this and hate my guts. They don’t even know me but they attack me personally. I’m a nice guy and I have the network of REAL domainers to prove it! I respect people who are accomplished and good people, even if they have wrong ideas about domaining. We keep the arguments professional, creating a good thread of “point and counterpoint.” Those who are personally attacking me (or anyone), have nothing else to offer domainers but their anonyminity.

The best forums to get professional advice and are hosted by great admins are DNforum.com and Namepros.com.

Jeff, remember this… if you have an idea that someone hates, and a group of people attack you personally for your statements (as long as you aren’t being abrasive) consider the source. And you can always mark their posts for complaint and review by a moderator. I rarely do that, unless I see a blatant personal attack beyond proper decor.

Thanks for your post… and never be “cowed” or afraid to state your opinions, even when they are controversial. That’s what forums are for, if it’s a real forum.

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Thanks Dan. Nice to hear from Warsaw, and that it’s sunny there!

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Thanks Kelly… I understand exactly what you mean, and the longer you’re in this business, the more you will experience success in blazing new trails you believe in, and have honestly taken the time to explore, test, and implement. Always be ready to “adapt”, as you put it so well, within your own ideas as necessity warrants it. Good luck!

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Hope is a good word to help others reach for. Thank you!

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Thank you. In a new business technology (I like to look at domains as being a new “marketing technology”), those invested in the business must understand that as long as domains have not been accepted as the ultimate power in online marketing, we all need to work to establish that goal, and “friendly” competition drives this force.