I joined under the username detportal (yes, i am still there, you can do a member's search) and started using the service.
First of all, their forum is powered by vBulletin, despite the fact that many members have asked for IPB. They use a very flashy skin.
Now, most people who join these forums will do so for free domains. So I thought I should investigate this.
They have a system known as ddPoints - which you can use for various things, such as trading for domain names and playing arcade games on their site.
Here's how this system works:
QUOTE
ddPoints Per Thread View: 0.1 ddPoints Per Thread: 15.0 ddPoints Per Reply: 5.0
In other words, a 500 word essay and a post consisting merely of "fdsddasf" will earn you the same number of ddPoints.
Speaking of spamming, there is not much in the forum regulations against it. There are no penalties for copying and pasting articles (DUH! considering they don't really care about integrity, as long as there are posts!).
For spamming, you are given 5 warning points, which are completely different from ddPoints, and you will be banned automatically once you accumulate 20. Also, each warning points have a minimum of 2 monts expiration.They also issue warning points for much more trivial things like posting in the wrong forum.
Essentially, you can spam 3 times in 2 months without anything done against you. Conclusion from these findings: if you are there to GENUINELY contribute or receive help, you would be FAR better off on trap17 forums or astahost forums, even though they are not dedicated to domain names.
Which brings me to another topic: even though they say they are an independant forum for domain discussion, they have other stuff on their forums too, including reviews of web hosts.
Oh, and perhpas you should have a look at the pricelist for domain name registration.
QUOTE
Price List for Registrations and Renewals (per year):
* .com: 2,000 ddPoints * .net: 2,000 ddPoints * .org: 2,000 ddPoints * .name: 2,000 ddPoints * .biz: 1,750 ddPoints * .us: 1,750 ddPoints * .info: 1,000 ddPoints (1st Year of New Registration) * .info: 1,750 ddPoints (Additional Registration Years and Renewals) * .tv: 8,000 ddPoints * .cc: 4,000 ddPoints
Price List for .uk Registrations and Renewals (only available with 2-Year Length):
meaning you need to post 400 replies for a .com domain for one year.
Renewals at high speed require you to have a paypal account. You pay first, then the admins will refund that amount back. paypal fees are your own responsibility.
If you want a 100% free renewal, you will need to wait about 60-90 days.
I don't like the sound of their admins either. their main administrator has 208,305.7 ddPoints, equalling 41661 replies. highly unlikely, considering that his stats show he has only made 512 posts altogether. assuming all of them are new threads which earn you 15 ddPoints each, he would have needed to be the sole winner of 83.5940417 weekly lotteries on DDBoard, or beaten 401.2514 high scores on the arcade games in ADDITION to his 512 posts.At the moment, he does not hold ANY records for high scores on ANY of their games. Corruption...don't we just LOVE it?
As mentioned earlier, they also have lotteries, a bank (yes, you can steal ddPoints from other members, legally), and arcade games, for those who wisely realised that they will need to be a real geek to garner enough ddPoints to get a domain.
So in conclusion, if you have a mild temperament, don't mind silver/orange colour schemes, are willing to post 400 replies and/or gamble, trust virtually anything, and want a free domain at any cost other than money, you should really try DDBoard. At the moment, there is still something within me that tells me not to trust them. AAH yes, in registering for a free domain, you must PM the administrator your street address! And I registered with them using a disposable email account, so I'm really not sure whether DDBoard sells your details as well. And something tells me I'll get banned from them for posting this review.
Notice from saint-michael:
Thank you with this review, helped clean the forums up by merging the topics together and the link you have in your post is the current, so you might need to edit your posts just a bit.
This is the admin from DDBoard and I wanted to comment on your review. First of all, thank you for taking the time to review our forum. Overall, I think your review is fair and objective.
Some comments I would like to make:
- No, you will not be banned.
- Yes we use vBulletin. Some members have requested IBP, but it comes down to personal preference. If we went with IBP, some members would request vBulletin. Our team is most experienced with vBulletin and we are satisfied with its feature set. However, if we feel at any point that IBP is clearly offering better features, we may consider switching.
- You are correct that the quality and length of posts does not influence the number of ddPoints a user receives. Since it is an automated system, assessing the quality is not possible, and giving points by length would only encourage copying and pasting. Our moderator team is very active though in ensuring that the posts meet our quality requirements. Regarding quality, I tend to agree that other boards may offer higher quality of posts since we have a lot of members who participate because they want a free domain. These members are usually younger people who may not be able to afford a domain themselves. On the other hand, there is a strong sense of community on the board.
- As far as earning points, please also remember that there are many other methods of receiving points: Lottery, Referrals, Incentives, Thread Viewing, etc. We have many members you have redeemed domains. You can use your own member and once you reach 1,000 ddPoints, you can request a .info domain. You will see that you actually receive it. No scam!
- Domain renewals do not take 60 to 90 days. When using the push back and forth method we just encourage people to do it 60 to 90 days before expiration so we do not get last minute requests and the domains expire while being pushed between the users.
- Myself as the admin focus on running the board from a marketing and technology perspective. My moderator staff participates in posting. I have a lot of ddPoints for testing purposes, but I cannot do anything with the ddPoints. When someone requests a domain with ddPoints we pay for the domain ourselves, so whether I have 1 ddPoint or 4 Million ddPoints, it does not make a difference - they do not have a value for myself. But you have a good point, I may reduce my number of ddPoints to something more reasonable so that users do not get confused. You can also see that the admin does not appear in the list of richest users, because I really do not participate in the program.
- The reason we require a full address when registering a domain is that we will use the information as the registrant details. Per ICANN regulations, the information must be accurate, so we cannot use dummy information. The information remains private and we never give it to anybody. In the end, that would be a privacy violation, unethical, and probably illegal.
Thanks again for your review and good luck with your forum.
I need people to review the website i made for my dad. It was my dad's business's website.
Tell me what you all think about it. Ive only been programming for a year so i think its good for
only a year, but my opinion doesn't matter. So tell me what ya think. LINK ...
Hello. I am new here to trap17.com and would really like some input on my site. Echo Of Thunder
Made using Dream Weaver and note pad. Planning on a better forum and chat page as time goes by.
This is just a little hobby that I have. "weather" and I hope that you all here at trap17 will take
a look see, and tell me what you all think. ...
I have this forum for a while now. I'm not sure if it's a good website or not. Some people
say it's crap and some people say it's pretty awesome: www.z4.invisionfree.com/nintown ...
Hi all! I am an asp.net programmer and I created my website http://www.counter43.com/ to
track my web projects. I am not a web designer and never will be /smile.gif"
style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> Any advice on web design will
be greatly appreciated and any advice on tracking statistics will be helpful too. The site has been
online for more than 1 year but I do not see any traffic on it or new registrations. It seems that
something is wrong and friendly comments will help me a lot. Thank you!...
Name: Marapets URL: marapets.com Rating: 1.4/5 Comments: This site, is very limited with it
capabilities. For example, Marapets must have a form filled out for children under 13 (COPPA) by
law. The owner, Ian, only allows it to be scanned and e-mailed two him. There are 2 problems with
that, one, some people don't have a scanner, some people don't have an e-mail. Ian, also
says that there will be a fax machine number soon. It has been 3 months since he said that. This
site, also doesn't have enough staff to handle the 55,000+ members they have, which makes i...
I have a website in the first place at google and other search engines, and the adress is:
http://www.free-flash-clocks.trap17.com i created another one to substitute this one, and the
adress is: http://www.freeflashclocks.com What i want from you is a good and perhaps
professional review of the new website, what can i do to optimize it to the maximum, so please do
not be afraid to say what you really think of the new website, i am open to your comments, as long
as they are creative. Perhaps you could to tell a word or two about the google adsense ads structu...
So i followed jlhaslip's advice and got rid of the .tk domain, still no more visitors. I've
told everyone on my contact list, posted it to blogs and forums and still not many people visit my
site... What's wrong with it, i just spent 30 minutes (not long but hey) re-vamping the forum so
its now friendly to guests (i think that might of been a mistake but hey). It has 95 ish good
working games, a guest book, its on Google, it has a search engine, contact us form about us form
nearly everything i can think of. So please tell me whats wrong with it and what i c...
The site is located at http://www.IndoxylDesigns.com (don't ask about the name... its just a
random name) This site was built on the Joomla CMS (v1.0.8). It also has a directory within it
(using the Mostes Tree Directory component for Mambo/Joomla) The site design was bulit using ONLY
NOTEPAD and VERY LITTLE ImageReady (nope, i didnt use photoshop for this one /wink.gif"
style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink.gif" />). Some cool things about my
site include, the "Loading..." script and the transparency on the loading screen, The nice menu...
Okay everyone, I have read all the postes on the revies of my site. Echo Of Thunder I really do
thank you all for the last review, It helped alot. Maybe this one will be a little more to everyone
liking. Not as many Maps as I would have liked, but was throwing the template off, and I no very
very little of CSS but learning. ty...
I have just completed my WordPress theme and I hope you can help to give me your feedback and maybe
squeeze some bugs out. Here it is: http://limetouch.com ...
Those of you who subscribe to PC World may have noticed a review for a site called Myfabrik.com
Myfabrik is a file hosting service that gives it's members a fairly large amount of space (2GB
in my case) to store Photos, Music, Videos, and Documents. But, on top of this, it also allows you
to have a small "Public Page" that allows you to share select files with anyone that browses to your
page. I found that MyFabrik's interface was very clear and uncluttered, but some of the icons
were very small, and dragging files and folders to the trash is a hastle with my cra...
CheatScene is almost as bad as Sythe.org. CheatScene happen to even have a Ex-Admin from Sythe, that
was reported, banned, and de-admin-ed from Sythe dude to scamming, yet still has a admin position on
CheatScene. The staff is all junk, they support spamming, flaming, and other misuse of rules. No
names mentioned, but A certain Super mod, and 2 administrators are spammers and flamers themselves,
while saying they need to promote the site. The java macro the REAL admin created is a class A
macro, and gets a 5 star rating from me. The website skin is dull, and somewhat old...
Hey all, I have a few templates for your reviewing pleasure. Please, take the time to look at them
and let me know what you think. The Below images are the two templates I have finished and are ready
to be scripted together; but I always like a review before I bother to script them... click on
images to enlarge Template Variation 1: Template Variation 2: Later, -- J....
I just finished redesigning my site and here it is: http://www.IndoxylDesigns.com Any comments,
suggestions and feedback are much appreciated /wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)"
border="0" alt="wink.gif" />...
Ok, well... again... I would like to request a review from you guys... http://2kart.trap17.com
Last time I posted a review, you helped me to fix all the bugs... but I don't think that the
design in general was reall helped out too much. So this time, could you please post your
suggestions on the design... I don't plan on completely re-doing the design or the color scheme.
However, if you think that I should style headings differently etc. please feel free to share... I
am happy with the general design, but I need to fine tune it... so your input would be grea...
Ok.. so. after almost trowing up on how disgusting my site used to look. i tried something
different.. please visit here . Its a flipsyde & chantelle paige fansite.. doubt you know who
they are.. but still i need opinions & advice on the way the site looks XD...
I believe my website is ready for a review. It is a gaming clan revolving around forums, but I am
using non-forum pages on my site. I currently have 75% of my forums done. My main page done with a
news system in place. My contact page is finished. And I will be adding some more links to various
forums on my site. I just need a review of it at its current stage and tell me if I'm going in
the right direction. ...
Ok here is the deal. I am at college and I jsut developed a new dynamic site posting all of the
recorded radio shows from the college. There are podcasts and some other stuff and some simple news
topics for the djs. Right now I think I have about 47 djs including myself. Tell me what you think
about the site. Be very frank. I still need to update the news on the lleft hand column but that
is minor stuff. Also comment on how the music is organized. See if you can navigate easily and see
if you get lost. Also there is a blog link from the site. Can you please com...
Hello everyone! I'm new here. Need a quick review from you guys. GamePosts.net is a brand
new gaming blog that keeps the user updated with upcoming games, along with their ratings, systems,
and tips. You can post comments or create your own topics. So come check us out at
http://www.GamePosts.net ...
I just launched my site, http://designify.org , please tell me what you think. It is a website
design and management discussion forum. It's brand new, so changes are still to come. Be sure to
tell anybody that needs design help to go there /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle"
emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />...
Hi. I have a new autosurf site and I need some opinions about it... So if you guys can give me some
reviews of it I would apreciate it... Here´s the link to my site Just let me know what you think.
Thanks in advance....
can some one review my web site i cant believe i cold get my web site up and ruining in Liss than 2
dye's i even get my free domain name to work it should take moor than 24 to do now i think my
luck have been changed completely hop so now can you check my web site and tell me if i need any
thing the site still need allot of work but for now what do you think of it dos it looks good do
you have beater templates or some thing any recommendation my web site will be mostly about computer
video tutorials so what do you think a need to do for the current design is it go...
I just started it, with a clan system, message board, good look, and we write reviews on games...
litterly everyone we own. I just started it, could someone review it for what it is at the moment?
We've had 1 review written so far....
http://rocketer.smfforfree3.com i was bored so i made a forum plz join and play in my arcade and
tell me in the forums what boards to add Edit Topic Title and moved to Website Reviews. Topic
Titles are very important and they need to be despritive of the Topic being posted. ...
Hey guys, I've made a new GPT review site that reviews some of the top GPT sites. If you
don't know what a GPT site is, it is a site that will allow you to make money online by
completing simple offers. There's proof of payment here if you would like to see my checks and
Paypal payments. Anyway, I don't want this to be an advertising thread, I would just like for
some of you to go and review my site and tell me what you think of it /smile.gif"
style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> . Go check it out please:
GPT Revie...
HI guys, i came across this site a few days ago www.zoomcities.com , A great free webhosting
website, i browsed through the website, it seemed like a new site cause there are less people there
/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> , but yea great
site /biggrin.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" /> , i
have seen a few sites so far that have forum boards with MyBB, well this was one done very well
indeed /biggrin.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif...
Hey everyone! I just wanted to see how my site looked to others, and I would really appreciate
some reviews. Here is a little background information about my website - The website was created for
art purposes, I wanted to post my own, and hopfully have others post their art on the website. I
may also be starting a web comic on it soon, but I am really focusing on paintings, photography,
sketches, computer done images, and even writing (poems, stories, etc.)! I made the website with
the help of e107 and have touched it up a little to fit my own needs /smile.gif"...
Looking for Independant, Review, Of, Ddboard
Searching Video's for Independant, Review, Of, Ddboard
Express your Opinions, Thoughts or Contribute more info. to help others.
Ask your Doubts & Queries to get answers, So that "Together We can help others!"
Register FREE for AD-FREE
forum, Create your own topics, Ask Questions, track topics, setup
subscriptions & notifications and Get a Free Website w/ Email and FTP.
