*cornDomains Forum Attracts New Talent

[diablo]

If the reference to several hundred thousand emails being sent to forum members includes Acorn / DNForum, there was some data out there that showed about 40% of Acorn was spam and over 420,000 'people' on DnForum (out of 460k) were binned for being junk as well.

Active real people was about 900 on Acorn.

Until very recently, premium memberships were being sold on the basis Acorn had over 15,500 members.

Now it says "AcornDomains.co.uk is the main online community for the UK domain investors, with over 9k members and established in 2004."

No way does Acorn have over 9k genuine members. I would be surprised if it has 900 tbh, particularly post-exodus.

As the man himself said, "Number look nice, of course, though, telling lies to oneself doesn't help anybody."

 

[seemly]

No way does Acorn have over 9k genuine members. I would be surprised if it has 900 tbh, particularly post-exodus.

Even then, a healthy forum requires active users to be successful.

It feels generous to say that only maybe 10% of that 900 were regularly active over the last 4-5 years.

 

[astutiumRob]

Still not received my data request. I logged in shortly after making my post to find my account disabled, I can still login now, but it says, "Your account has been disabled". I just want it to be deleted, and my information to be in a zip file in my emails.

For almost a year a failure to comply with GDPR afaiac since they changed my username to 'deleted' but continue to monetise the content.

Multiple followups including a PM through the forum and asking face2face still no actual deletion of my account.

When I get a spare 15mins it will get reported to the ICO.

 

[ben]

For almost a year a failure to comply with GDPR afaiac since they changed my username to 'deleted' but continue to monetise the content.

Multiple followups including a PM through the forum and asking face2face still no actual deletion of my account.

When I get a spare 15mins it will get reported to the ICO.

Hopefully my formal request will light a fire up his arse with this. That being said, I had to follow it up the other day, and received this reply a day or so later:

Good afternoon Ben,

In response to your request, we have prepared the relevant information from the AcornDomains.co.uk forum.

Please find attached a zip file containing your personal data.

There are no email logs left on our SMTP servers - we are on a fresh setup that doesn't have historical data.

Is there anything else you require before we fully remove your account and messages from the forum?

Kind regards,
Helmuts

ZIP attached contained forum posts in a CSV file, and profile information in CSV file. None of the other information has been provided, my reply was as follows:

Hello Helmuts,

Thanks for your copy of my forum posts, and presumably, all the information you hold on me in the user.csv?

Could you ensure I also have the following before my account is removed:

1. Confirmation that you are processing my personal data.
2. A copy of all personal data you hold about me, including
   • messages
   • Account activity details (e.g., login times, IP addresses, moderator actions)
   • Communications between myself and the forum administrators or moderators
3. Details of the purposes for which my personal data is being processed.
4. Information about the recipients or categories of recipients to whom my personal data has been or will be disclosed, especially if the data has been shared with third parties.
5. The period for which my personal data will be stored, or, if that is not possible, the criteria used to determine that period.
6. Information about the source of the data, if not collected directly from me.
7. Details of any automated decision-making processes, including profiling, that are used and their consequences.

I am happy to give you an additional 14 days (2 weeks) to process this missing data and format it in a readable format via email (or attachment ie. csv, zip etc).

Thank you.

Best Wishes,

 

[Jeff]

I see the Deep Joshi thread is currently the "Weekly Top Thread" in the park, but Deep himself vanished as soon as he was called out. Sunk without trace and now planning to rebrand as Very Deep.

Helmuts has presumably kicked him off the "training course" by not paying for a second batch of junk posts, so perhaps he does listen to us after all...

 

[astutiumRob]

perhaps he does listen to us after all...

He's certainly following ( or being given the content ) of this thread.

 

[Jeff]

He's certainly following ( or being given the content ) of this thread.

Since most of it is available without registration, I imagine he follows the whole forum, but do you have a specific reason for saying that?

 

[media]

For almost a year a failure to comply with GDPR afaiac since they changed my username to 'deleted' but continue to monetise the content.

Multiple followups including a PM through the forum and asking face2face still no actual deletion of my account.

When I get a spare 15mins it will get reported to the ICO.

Yes but there must be a reason regarding your account and you seem to still attending events with them so all seems very odd just leave him to it know one cares.

 

[astutiumRob]

do you have a specific reason for saying that?

Yes, he contacted me regarding my above post.

must be a reason regarding your account

There are endless possible reasons.
The one proffered ( 3rd party admin failed/forgot ) is plausible enough and the process should now be in hand, hopefully ending the matter.

 

[Jeff]

Yes, he contacted me regarding my above post.

@astutiumRob, thanks for that valuable confirmation.

So @Helmuts, now we know that you're definitely reading this, will you have the courage to join an adult forum where we're allowed to disagree with each other, talk about brands, and you won't be able to delete posts, threads and accounts that you don't like? I suspect not, but very happy to be proved wrong.

@adm, provided you can verify that it's really him, I assume there's no objection to Helmuts joining? He's on training with me. He needs to learn domain industry...and how to run a forum.

 

[Jeff]

Four days on there's no sign of the fellow, but he's been busy with the summit so I live in hope.

Latest rule-breaking in the park: Ryan is using his banner ad to promote NamePros:



This is in direct contravention of Rule 43:

Promoting other domain name or webmaster related forums (or any forum that resembles the structure and/or content of Acorn Domains) in your posts, signatures, or in any way on the forum is not permitted, THIS INCLUDES ANY FORUMS THAT HAVE ANY OF THE SAME CATEGORIES WE HAVE (meaning they don't have to have the word "domain" to be a competitor).

No more romantic weekends in Paris methinks...

 

[username]

So he sold the forum to HM with the agreement that he would maintain the right to advertise at the top of it. If I'm understanding it correctly?

 

[Jeff]

So he sold the forum to HM with the agreement that he would maintain the right to advertise at the top of it. If I'm understanding it correctly?

No, he bought DNForum from Ryan, but he bought Acorn from a guy called Steve Napier.

And as @astutiumRob says above, he's clearly following this thread because when I posted the screenshot the DNWE/Namepros ad was alternating with a Sedo ad, but now it's just the Sedo ad.

 

[Cav]

That’s good. It shows he is listening to experienced UK domainers, the life blood of any UK domain name forum.

 

[ben]

Steve is a good guy, and the forum was ran much better when he owned it. But Steve is very experienced in running forums.

 

[GreyWing]

Steve is a good guy, and the forum was ran much better when he owned it. But Steve is very experienced in running forums.

Steve and Alan before him weren't great admins in my opinion, way too much control nonsense.

The biggest problem they both faced is that they weren't really domainers either. I always sensed that the forum was more of a business than an interest for them. I think in the same way, the current owner isn't really a domainer either, certainly not a .uk domainer. I get the sense that his and their ownership before was to generate cash from the .uk domain community to achieve non .uk benefits.

It's was never that that natural win win like there is here with the current owner and the previous owner of the other forum Aaron.

 

[ben]

I agree with you mate about that, it did feel like a business, but it always felt like he lurked in the shadows and didn't really get too involved in the workings of it. But then, I only joined in 2018, and so might have missed a good number of years.

 

[Kaleido]

I think in the same way, the current owner isn't really a domainer either, certainly not a .uk domainer. I get the sense that his and their ownership before was to generate cash from the .uk domain community to achieve non .uk benefits.

This. It's evident that Ac*rn and Summit are corporately geared to monetise domainers. The top brass are shmoozing in an expensive hotel while we're here hanging out in the pub.

 

[Jason]

Not sure I would agree that they are "top brass" compared to us or anyone else who didn't go. They are simply people who thought it would be worth going to the event, and the many domain industry people who could not find a good reason to justify going naturally chose not to. Given that there were free tickets available even a tramp could have traipsed in there, though he may have required some assistance registering a .it domain to be eligible for the free bar!

 

[username]

This. It's evident that Ac*rn and Summit are corporately geared to monetise domainers. The top brass are shmoozing in an expensive hotel while we're here hanging out in the pub.

Yup. Is called enshittification. That's what happened to old corn...