Back in 2016 we started a series here that looked at the best and worst about companies in the domain industry. Over the last 30 months a lot has changed at many companies so we are revisiting the good, the bad and the ugly.
Each post will deal with just one company, readers are encouraged to share their positive and negative experiences. Suggestions for improvement are also encouraged.
One of the goals of the column is that company representatives will see how their customers think of them. This can lead to a conversation on fixing problems.
What is not allowed:
- Personal attacks on individuals at the chosen company
- Promoting a competitor
- Posting domains for sale
The company in the spotlight today is Namepros
Founded: 2003
The good I like the colors of their logo
The bad some of the dumbest human beings to ever be created.
The ugly the chat room
Over the last year
The good = there is no good
The bad = members
The ugly = management
Bad:
Not allowed to create a second account. And no, I’m not just going to do it anyway like most doubtless would.
More B.S. Did you even look into this or just guess and then make a comment about it? News flash… you’re wrong. Look up how it works
Good: ?? Used to be decent opinions
Bad: Relentless people that say they have a premium domain when 90% of those are crap
Ugly: Anyplace that still allows Adam Dicker to be part of their forum is useless IMO plus the management is suspect
Good: I’ve found good buys here. Most users realize it is a wholesale site.
Bad: 99% of domains posted are garbage. Time waster. There should be some limit to the amount of times you can bump a thread for “coming-motorcycles.com, $100.000 bargain”. Better yet some way to avoid it in first place.
I get a lot of chuckles out of Namepros, although I swear that some of the folks there are just pretending to be clueless for the lulz.
Good James Iles articles
Bad Too many rules
Ugly Trolls
You contact them for questions and support and never hear back. pretty sad.
Hello,
There are a few different support options on NamePros.
1. Click the question mark at the bottom right of the page while on the website. You can choose to view support/FAQs or to contact us directly. By clicking that, it will take you to a screen to open a support ticket for the next available moderator to assist you: https://www.namepros.com/misc/contact
2. You can email support directly. Email address found on these pages: https://www.namepros.com/support/
3. If it’s a post/thread in question, you click the “Report” link for the next available moderator to review.
4. You can start a new support ticket in one of the following targeted support forums:
General support: https://www.namepros.com/forums/namepros-general-support.184/
Billing Support: https://www.namepros.com/forums/namepros-billing-support.262/
Technical Support: https://www.namepros.com/forums/namepros-technical-support.205/
NamePros Management: https://www.namepros.com/forums/namepros-management.32/
Advertising on NamePros: https://www.namepros.com/forums/advertising-on-namepros.186/
5. You can also start a new conversation (Direct message) with a moderator directly by visiting their profile or clicking their avatar in the postbit of a thread comment.
Which of the above support methods did you use?
I can look for it to help expedite the process (If it hasn’t already been resolved prior to my posting this).
Keep in mind, NamePros receives a large amount of reports every day through all those channels I mentioned above. Each channel has a queue and the majority are addressed in the order they are received (Unless it’s an urgent matter, in which it bumps to the top). Unfortunately, this means that since some reports may take much more time in an investigation than another, the wait time can sometimes feel a bit extended, which I apologize for.
You can contact me directly for further assistance if you would like.
Thanks for understanding and look forward to hearing from you.
Eric Lyon
Your support is non existent – see my email below from today:
No one ever answers your chat either
support@namepros.com
Message not delivered
There was a problem delivering your message to support@namepros.com. See the technical details below.
LEARN MORE
Our email is definitely working. We use G Suite, which has the same infrastructure as Gmail. Ideally, you should contact your email provider to troubleshoot, but if you’d like some assistance, feel free to contact me via techsupport@namepros.com. If you’re unable to message me there, you can also try contacting me on NamePros (@Paul Buonopane) or Twitter (@BuonopanePaul).
I don’t see any pending inquiries in the support queue at the moment. If you’ve contacted us, either we answered or we never got your message. How did you attempt to contact us?
Good: Too many to mention! Welcoming community, expertise on everything in world of domains, place to buy domains at value prices, active and up to date with latest happenings, about the right level of mod, nice summaries by James Iles, expertise from various niches some with many years experience, way to meet people from around the world, socially fun, most of the time.
Bad: You have to weigh the quality of responses, some fantastic some just repeating something not true, some problems with lack of objective and balanced views as many either hate or love something.
Ugly: Very little. A tiny minority use demeaning language that I object to and like to their is some degree of ‘old boys club’ thinking. The most ugly thing though I think is the ease someone with an agenda can post a totally inaccurate attention grabbing headline to try to trash a company.
But overall, NPs is an amazing place that runs much better than you would think possible for the size and diversity of views and strongly help opinions.
Domainers selling to domainers.
A complete waste of time.
domainers often don’t step back and look at the big picture; they buy names the general public would not consider having.
NamePros as an industry treasure. From time to time we have also sponsored them in various ways. I come to NamePros for a few reasons:
– As the founder of Epik.com, I am interested in following the industry. There are are a lot of smart folks there , many of whom are generous with their ideas and feedback for making the industry better.
– NamePros is a great place to source ideas for new online brands. I have bought many domains there as a result both for Epik but also for clients.
-Recently, I became deeply concerned about the future of lawful free speech and civil liberties online. It has become a popular NamePros topic.
Sometimes Namepros threads can get a little inflammatory. However, in general I find the community to be civil, professional, and full of interesting people. Eric Lyons and team have the thankless job of moderating a lot of threads. I think they have become very good at it.
The best thing about namePros at the moment, is that it is the platform for the individual domainer.
Having namePros, makes it harder for registrars ,marketplaces & other domain service businesses to screw up, eventually hurting the individual domainer. That is why I am sticking around.
It is a domainer friendly platform.
Everything else is up for debate, it is what we make it to be, sometimes its boring, sometimes its ridiculous but we play a part in that.
I hope its survives.
The good
exposure to the domaining world and people in the know
the bad:
tons of tasteless no clue mutants with no clue what they are talking about
little traffic compared to years ago. looks like either domainers in the know jumped ship and spend time elsewhere or the industry is purged of domainiacs wanting to share info
very little input from high level domainers looking for the next big domain trend. i see zero input from fs, rs, etc who run the biz, they dont give a damn about np or anyone else with influence in the domain world
see the bad
The good
An open space where everyone can connect since worthwhile conferences are only once or twice a year. Face to face is best but Namepros is right after that in best ways to network and keep a pulse on things
The bad
People posting their thoughts as if they’re facts when they’re actually opinions, just like Don did here (it happens on blogs too). Clueless people saying things like Namepros has less going on when it has HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of visitors and a 20% uptrend in traffic: https://www.similarweb.com/website/namepros.com
The ugly
People with agendas saying things like the big guys don’t participate on Namepros when actually all of them have accounts there and have posted but obviously most of the biggest guys are busy running their businesses and don’t post much anywhere. I’ve still seen posts from Rick S, Frank S, Hugedomains’ brothers, Rob, Andrew, Drew, Cyger, Elliot, etc on Namepros so this is a good example of the ugly that happens on forums and blogs