NamePros is under new ownership.
Apparently the rumors we talked about on Sunday were true: NamePros – the popular and populous domain name forum – has been transferred under new ownership.
After noticing the move of the domains away from their registrars, DomainTools shows that NamePros.us has been moved as well.
Unlike other domain registries, the Dot .US registry Neustar does not allow for WHOIS privacy of .us domains – so according to top WHOIS tool DomainTools the new owner is Bodis – the domain monetization company – albeit with an address in China.
This is interesting, as all .us registrants must have physical or business relationship with the US; the WHOIS record shows “C21” which corresponds to the following Nexus category:
C21: A U.S.-based organization or company formed within one of the fifty (50) U.S. states, the District of Columbia, or any of the United States insular areas, or organized or otherwise constituted under the laws of a state of the United States of America, the District of Columbia or any of its insular areas, a U.S. federal, state, or local government entity or a political subdivision thereof.
The address in China matches that of the Bodis.com WHOIS.
The sale is rumored to have been in the $200k-$300k range.
Congratulations to both buyer and seller – the founder, Ron James, will reportedly stick around the domain forum he founded.
I remember reading somewhere that DNForum owner said he turned down 7 figure offer to sell his forum. Is there that much of a size difference between the forums? I thought the 7 figure offer seemed very high.
Jim – DNForum has three tiers of paid membership, as seen at http://www.dnforum.com/plans.php
Without analyzing the core content and traffic of either forum, with several thousand paying/paid members, it’s obvious that the net worth of DNForum is much higher.
Hopefully incoming management gets rid of the current NamePros moderators. That place is worse than the strict Catholic school I grew up in. I remember being severely reprimanded (rapped on the knuckles w/a ruler) for bumping when I was simply editing a spelling error.
Anyone wanting to a free account on Dnforum.com that is unhappy with the change can email me at adam@dcg.com. Please be over 18 and have at least 50 posts to be given the free account.
Anyone that wants a Namepros account that IS happy with the change can email me at matt@bodis.com 😉
There are a lot of improvements coming to Namepros.
Matt – Congratulations on the acquisition, there is room for both large forums to flourish!
@Matt when will the NP members find out?
The two forums are completely different markets. It is also not about revenue for me so I do not care what Namepros or Dnforum is bringing in. This is not about money, it is about creating a great service.
To Gnanes: The announcement to NP members should be in 1-2 weeks time. First we have to move to more stable servers to get rid of all the downtime that NP has been having in the past.
Then we’ll announce it and work on improvements!
Interesting.
It’s amazing how full scale, loquacious bloggers, and domainers shy away from commenting on important developments out of fear and childish politics in our field. 2012 should bring about changes and maturity.
Congrats Matt, looks like a good purchase.
Matt – Thank you for being candid and a true businessman.
There is more than enough room for both NamePros and DNForum; a lot of us are members on both forums.
RJ is currently upset the deal was made public. I’m glad you chose to be honest and upfront. I wish great success both to you and of course RJ.
Great Scoop Gang!
That was kind of a below the belt kick there Adam. Really? Using an acquisition article of another company to promote your own services?… Isn’t that along the same lines as those members in forums that post their services in other peoples sales threads that moderators have to remove daily? They call that Spam + Thread crashing don’t they?
At any rate, what viewers of this article need to keep in mind is that not all acquisitions end badly and that their is HUGE potential for expansion in most cases. Isn’t that what it’s all about? Expanding so a community can better cater to the needs of its user base?
No matter what happens, all I would suggest is that people keep an open mind and don’t fall for the negative rumors injected by others in an attempt to manipulate and acquire rewards from this acquisition
Eric Lyon.
One thing is for sure, Matt will improve Namepros.
He is a smart cookie and will add value immediately.
I just wanted to say good luck and best wishes to all parties involved. My forum reeducation (Wendy’s Reeducation Camp) has now been completed and I would really appreciate an “infraction reset” if you get the chance. Peace and luck always. Micro.
Thanks!
It shouldn’t have been made public until 1-2 weeks from now. I give credit to DomainGang for figuring it out twice in a row. 😉
RJ will be on board, there will be an extra admin and more moderators to help the current team out. There will be changes to the current Namepros, first the servers then a UI/design change. There’s a few bugs that need to be sorted out, and the forums/subforums need to be reorganized.
PS
Also the forum will continue to be open to everyone, even competitors of Bodis to post and advertise.
Breaking news for me too! Congrats on scooping me too before I could even finish the deal, so be a proud blogger. LOL
Yes, I have struck a deal with Matt of Bodis. We are under nondisclosure agreement so I’m not sure what I can or cannot say about the deal we have in place but I will put out there that with better funding and infostructure, NamePros can only go up from here. The technical side has been a real challenge for me the past year. Hopefully this means no more downtime, slow pages or database crashes. I am staying on board as Administrator with my co-Administrator Michelle. More details will be posted as they become available…
Not ot upset, just peeved at the timing. I would liked to have announced this myself once the details are figured out, but at least now I know what site to check for the latest news. 😉 All my love and respect for Theo’s DomainGang and even Adam Dicker too. What a crazy domain business this is we share.
Take care, and see you on the forums!
RJ
Guess what Acro, after this ownership change at Namepros, I have emailed Matt requesting my account back. Hopefully things will change for good, forever with wise men moderating the forum 🙂
Good luck Matt and team with this new venture (even if I dont get my account back lol) !!
RJ – Both you and Matt (and Adam Dicker) are top tier professionals and I’ve known you guys for almost a decade. This is great news for the domain business and everyone involved will benefit. More members for both forums as the industry expands. I’m a fan of NamePros and DNForum, nothing wrong with that, I hope 😀
They had asked that everyone not disclose the deal until they announced it next week. Looks like they forgot to ask one person. I guess I can change from draft to publish now
Shane – I won’t get into this kind of BS with you again 😉 Nobody knew about the deal, it’s a DomainGang scoop.
Great. More USA stuff going to China.
@DomainFuze! — yep. I agree. I was “docked” reputation 3 times because I happened to have a link in my signature to a parked domain. Hey, I dont mind being told to stop that but to dock my reputation 3 times because I had posted 3 posts that day but some Miss “whatever” signature nazi is ABSURD.
Especially when you can easily peruse that forum and see hundreds of others doing such as well. If its a RULE then why not code it into the forum so that you CANT post links? Please. That mod had intelligence rivaling a dry soap dish.
Great scoop, Congrats RJ,
Theo is Bodis a chinese company ? I did not know that, thank you.
We’ve been active members of both DNF & NP (amongst other) forums for many years now, and while I must say there has been more attractive activity over at DNF… that’s not to say that the industry NEEDS multiple venues for healthy business to continue.
Congrats to Bodis & NP… we look forward to the change for the better!
Hi, RJ, I’m Poet from NP! I’ve been a member since the very day I discovered domainingm, but unfortunately I’ve been experiencing a lot of downtime and glitches (the last one is the PM counter stuck on 1), so I hope they will be gone with the new management.
Congrats on the sale, Ron, and greetings to the Queen 🙂
Well, there goes my job…sniff sniff…
Anywho (as we tend to say in our part of the world), congrats to all the direct parties in the sale. Whatever NamePros’ management or so decides, I’ll likely have little to no problem as long as it helps the site and its members grow and prosper.
I am happy that Ron find a partner to help him push NamePros to the next level.
Matt is a smart domainer who marketed his parking service mainly through an incredible long and animated thread at NamePros. So it’s nice to see him share his success by landing him a hand back.
I wish them all the best.
Ron like Adam have been very kind with me these past years and I appreciate them all.
It’s normal that running a competing business sometimes there is some frictions.
But both are pros and both are respectable.
Lucius, mixing parodies and true stories within the same site I am sure you lost many readers who seen your headline but did not click thinking it was again an invented story… You should really put your 100% in the headline 🙂
PS: Don’t hide anything because one day or another Lucius will discover it.
@miike2 and DomainFuze!
Funny how you both admit to breaking the rules [rules you agreed to] yet are pissed because
you got caught, so why not blame the moderators err sorry, Miss “whatever” for doing what we
are supposed to do, …issues with NP Staff should be addressed to Admin.
Anyways, back to the real business of why we are here
Congrats on the sale Matt and RJ and cheers to the rest !
Dear Matt W (bodis)
Please fire all namepros moderators. They all are very strict and easily ban members. Please change them all.
200-300K – that is all! or do I have an inflated view of Namepros worth. I thought it would have been high 6 figures
Yeah if the moderator situation changes I will gladly come back. That is what pushed me to DonainState and DNF … NP has it’s purpose but the mods are a PITA – especially MissChaff or whoever that is.
Business is business but lighten up … or penalize financially to get back in. Lifetime bans given out to more than a dozen people in this business who I have had solid transactions with !
Congratulations to both parties.
Website up-time and load time really needs to be first priority for the new owner.
When I was a non-paying member, I didn’t really have a right to complain. But having now updated to a paid Supporter membership, I think I can demand fewer technical problems. Giving paid members priority server access doesn’t mean a lot if the site is down…
New management should definitely be on the top of the to-do list.
Saying this as an ex-NP mod.
Good luck with the forum Matt. It has a lot of potential and if you guys run it as well as Bodis I’m sure it will turn in to something amazing!
I haven`t been at NP since years
This reminds me to chek in again 😉
Can’t we all get along? 🙂
Francois – Google would never want to see what’s parody and what’s not in a link title; I let the readers discover it by rolling their eyes down to the “100%” image. By the way, if anyone wants to buy its linking domain, 100.org I am open to educated offers 😀
“PS: Don’t hide anything because one day or another Lucius will discover it.”
LOL, best. comment. ever.
Banning people for life is something people do in an effort to compensate for little to no command of their own lives. So their wield whatever little powers they’re granted by an establishment. You see it at captive-employment jobs all the time and on forums all over the place. Those of you who react to this are the ones we’re talking about. 😉
Congrats on the sale. Yes, please do something about the mods (not all of them), they’re holding the forum back with the over Big Brothering.
If the figure was $300,000 it’s overpriced.
I’d put the figure at around 200,000
Been going down from its peak pre-2008 go-go years
All the good posters have left the sinking ship & started their own blogs.
No point for posters to spend their time to make good posts, building up the forum goodwill (good posters attract other good posters) – and then get jack shit in equity when the forum is sold.
DomainState anyone?
It seems the Namepros Mods are now an endangered species !
Funny how everyone complains about the mods at Namepros and loves DNF.
Here a user was banned for one comment making fun of Adam DICKer’s last name (I spell this the same way he does) http://www.dnforum.com/f72/namepros-com-sold-bodis-3-thread-474201.html#post2067024
Seems that this thread also has comments that are deleted. This is ironic I think.
Good scoop though!
First thing the new owner should do is get rid of Miss Chiff and some other mods.
I do have a lot of respect for RJ but the mods have made the place hard to live. I have seen my PAID membership revoked following an incident about which I have been nothing but honest. I had over 100 positive feedbacks and been member for over 2 yrs. I now visit DNFand DBR more often. I wish to revisit NP in the future…and hope Matt does something about it!!
Wow – is that based on turnover?
Hi there 🙂 Alistair I am so sorry you feel this way but as you know your account was closed as you made a second account with all their posts in your sales threads 😉 you even said “Yes it was bad judgment, Michelle. I should have avoided it then. I am not proud of what happened. All I am asking is for the team and yourself in particular to excuse this wrongdoing” on my part and let me remain part of this forum.” In Cases like these it is in the best interest of the entire forum to keep the accounts closed. .. It is very easy when opportunities like this arise for everyone that has been banned to comment negative comments about Namepros and it’s staff and can only hope those that I have had any input in the past see me as fair in my decisions. ( I guess I will find out here first if not 🙂 ). but…I do also think that every account should be looked at on it’s own merit and welcome anyone that has had an account closure in the past that wishes to return to pm me via their Namepros account to look into what why and if we can move forward 🙂 . Happy New Year to you all and heres to a great 2012 at Namepros.. xxx
Michael says:
January 12, 2012 at 10:53 pm
First thing the new owner should do is get rid of Miss Chiff and some other mods.
Why Michael?
LOL be carefun with the “nazi” comments, I got banned at namestate for calling it “namenazi.com”.
Lucius “Gunz” Fabrice, 100.org is nice, could you make the same type of site for Jut.org for me?
Congratulations on the sale RJ. These forums are definitely an accomplishment. I am cautious yet anxious for the new changes to take place. I liked the direction of the forums initially, their ease of use, and the resources available. Under new ownership I would love to see an increase in the available resources and new mechanisms for participation both free and premium.
Matt-
Congrats on the purchase. If I can make 1 recommendation it would be to have a blind poll (results only seen by you) with member “ratings” of the NamePros moderator staff.
I spend little time there, the Moderators have shown continual poor judgement and bad public relations towards members.
RJ gets 5 stars for his accomplishments and great pr with members etc, but he is only one guy and could not moniter things 24-7. I wish him all the best in the future.
It’s definitely going to be one of the most talked-about domain and web site acquisitions of 2012. What a way to start the year, RJ and Matt! 😀
Congrats on a sale RJ!
I Wish Namepros forum will benefit from this deal.
Hope also that you and your Team will stay at NP. And new owners will be as good to community as RJ.
I personally have not had much of an issue with the Namepros forum. I believe that I got a warning for something trivial, but I can live with that. I am looking forward to seeing what they evolve into.
I say good luck and congrats on a nice sale!
– Anthony
Someone didn’t think it was a good idea to renew NamePros.us…
http://www.davidwalker.net/what-domain-name-did-namepros-leave-behind-in-2016/