NerdZone is rebranding to xenForums

[Retro]

This is just a quick heads up to all our members that I'll be rebranding NerdZone to xenForums soonish. This is to more accurately reflect the kinds of discussions that we have on the forum today. Things like a change of logo along with visual style will happen and perhaps over time, some restructuring too. There will be a small amount of downtime when this happens to switch the domain and a few other things, but you'll be informed in advance.

The domain will change from nerdzone.uk to xenforums.com. Try clicking it, you'll see it redirects to the NerdZone homepage for now. After the switch, nerdzone.uk will redirect to the new domain. Note, if you see a browser security warning when clicking the new domain right now, don't worry, it's safe, so allow the exception. That error will disappear once the switch is made.

More details when this rebranding actually happens, but in the meantime, please let me know what you think about this in the poll and the comments below. If there's a strong sentiment to keep the current branding I'll reconsider it, otherwise it will go ahead.

Finally, to the small number of regular members on here, thankyou so much for your contributions so far, I really appreciate it. You guys are awesome and help to keep the fire alive.

 

[Ian]

I voted against, but feel mildly not strongly. I like NerdZone, it screams Geek whereas XenForums screams .... well nothing, really.
I also have loads of tabs open, a few of which are NZ threads I have been interested in but not looked at yet. I guess if all the URLs change I'll lose these. Perhaps I better read and close all my open NZ tabs!

 

[zoldos]

It's your forum. But something more original than just "xenForums", would be more cool. But, that's just my thoughts!

 

[FF]

Imo, xenforums seems bland and uninspired, while nerdzone felt quirky and had character. Also youve already rebranded quite a bit

Up to you in the end tho!

 

[FF]

The domain xenforums.com is def worth holding on to tho lol

 

[Retro]

I also have loads of tabs open, a few of which are NZ threads I have been interested in but not looked at yet. I guess if all the URLs change I'll lose these. Perhaps I better read and close all my open NZ tabs!

No, don't worry about that, as the redirect will take care of it, so the links won't break.

@Ian @zoldos @FF You're all making the same point about the new name sounding somewhat generic - and you're right, it does and quite deliberately so. It reflects the more general nature of discussions on here and is also a .com which is important as it's a sort of defacto default TLD due to its vast popularity. xenforums.com is kinda catchy in my opinion, too. NerdZone with its .uk TLD is pretty catchy too to be honest, perhaps more so.

The driving reason for change though, is that after 3 years as NerdZone, the forum hasn't taken off like I was hoping it would, so I think a rebrand is needed to help it gain some traction. I'm only looking for 20-40 posts a day and for me not to be the one making most of the posts here all the time, a modest level of activity for this hobby forum I think you'll agree, which it started to achieve a couple of years ago, but then fell back. I wanted nerdzone.com, but some cybersquatter has it that's flogging it for around $17k which is insane, so that's not an option. Don't get me started on cybersquatters... so many domains that I checked belong to them rather than being free or being genuinely used to host a website is just unreal.

Also, forums in general aren't doing well due to the rise of social media behemoths like Facebook, TikTok, X etc together with smartphones, so we're swimming against the tide here as most people aren't messaging on laptops or desktops and gravitate to those sites, too. Impossible to compete with them and their billionaire backers. The days of creating a forum and it flies with very little effort are long gone, unfortunately. I knew that before I started my forum project and intended to seed it with a small group of active users to get out of the natural catch-22 that all new forums face, but alas the initial group of people that I knew in Real Life who promised to post here and help it take off all let me down after a short while, leaving me in this situation.

It was on a different domain then with a different direction for discussions, although the General Discussion category existed from day one. In fact, most of the original forum is still there under the "Computers and Consoles" and "Retro Computers and Consoles" categories and has been restructured somewhat. It's why my username is Retro and my avatar is that of the logo for the Acorn Archimedes launched in 1987: yes, I was at the launch event! (Feels like a lifetime ago now.) That's still open for business if anyone wants to take part in that sort of discussion.

 

[petermarkley]

I find that significant rebrands are almost always unpopular to people who recognize the current brand, which can sometimes (note: sometimes, not always) be sort of a false indicator.

It basically boils down to homeostasis. People don’t like change. If you have good sound strategy behind your decision to rebrand, and the new brand is good, then after the initial discomfort people will gradually grow to like it just as well as before.

That said, of course, rebranding frivolously or too often will needlessly stress your brand’s ability to take root and grow, just like transplanting a tree too many times can be a shock and prevent it from growing. So you have to balance considerations and decide whether the potential long term benefits are worth the stir and setback it will create in the short term.

Other than these thoughts, I am totally indifferent to the brand choice. Hope this helped, and good luck!

 

[markransome]

xenForums, is that because it uses the XenForo script to run it?

 

[Retro]

@petermarkley ok, that was a masterclass in leaving me all conflicted about it! However, given tha it's been NZ for over three years now and there's serious apathy towards it, I think it's time to try something different and I hope there's not too much opposition to it. That's why I have the poll to help gauge user feeling on this. Note that I've asked quite a few friends offline what they think of the new name and they're generally positive about it.


@markransome That's a good question and the answer is: not exactly. Let me explain.

First of all, the only association I have with xenforo.com is as a customer running their software. In every other way, I have no business relationship with them at all.

I've been trying to settle on an alternative domain for some time now. Most of the ones I came up with were taken by cybersquatters, but there were still a fair few that were free and not just dotcoms either, but none of them really hit the mark for me. I actually made a list of the contenders which I can't share for obvious reasons unfortunately.

It was while I was wracking my brain over this that xenForums popped into my head as the "xen" part of XenForo was intriguing and luckily, that domain was unregistered and has a certain ring to it, a catchiness that I think works. The single capitalized "F" I think looks cool as well. I generally prefer a generic name, too. Think how many successful brands have such generic names, eg Amazon, Facebook, Twitter etc, the list goes on and on, so I think taking a leaf out of their book is a good idea.

btw, before this, I thought of talkzone.uk which is the same short length as nerdzone.uk and a really good name which I registered (talkzone.com was taken, of course). However, on Googling it, the results came up with loads of hits for mental health services of various kinds, so that was knocked out due to this association. It's not a dotcom, either. You can just imagine loads of members joining looking for mental health support and how that would affect the forum. That would be bad enough, but what if some are suicidal, threaten to top themselves and then actually do it? I don't need that kind of headache, I tell you.

 

[Astro What]

The domain xenforums.com is def worth holding on to tho lol

It would be nice if there was the ability to do federation in Xenforo. That way you could set up a site that allows linking to other sites that are willing to participate and only have a singular logon.
It is one of the things I am finding out about NodeBB. That is a feature that they are apparently working on implementing.

 

[Astro What]

I would not rebrand it myself. The TLD is not that important (.COM/.UK/.ORG/.NET) in the current scheme of the internet.
A distinctive name that is relevant to the niche is a higher priority. That is why I went with xenforohelp.com on that nodeBB site (yes, an oxymoron running a help site for a script on a different script but you are aware of why we did what we did). Similar with the astrophotography site. I liked the names, they describe what the site is about and is fairly distinctive and easy to remember. And that ultimately is what is important.
The names you mentioned were tied to a product. And that is what you really want to try to do, but instead of tying to a product you tie to the niche.
Don't make the mistake of thinking just grabbing a .COM is going to change anything in a major way and make the site gain more users. Most users never even look at the domain name in the browser address bar. They click on a link, either in a search engine or on another site) that takes them there. They don't do a search in Google for the domain name. But based upon the theory that the domain name is important, you are going to get more traffic probably for someone hunting for something associated with Xen.
I've been playing with websites since 2010 (and involved in telecommunication sites since the mid 80's) and have watched the behavior change. The main TLD's used to be important, but they no longer play as much importance in a site as the primary name in the domain.
Even back in the day of BBS's, the name was what was the draw, not the software it was based upon. Your primary name was always the draw. That's like I ran Code 3 BBS in the bad old days. Anyone seeing that name (and in the niche) would know what it was related to. It was targeted at emergency responders.

Also, any reason the site is showing your times in 24 hour time instead of the standard 12 hour?

 

[Retro]

I would not rebrand it myself...

Well, yeah, I want to change the name and the TLD, so it's a double whammy in one in a way. The forum logo will be changed to xenForums, looking something like my example here in the first instance, with a fancier logo possibly coming later as I'm really not the artistic type, so may get someone else to create it for me, or heck, AI nowadays.

Yes, the names of your two sites are perfect for their intended audience and those two sites cater to specific niches. Mine is a more general discussion as this has clearly taken off much more than the sciencey / nerdy stuff that I initially aimed it at, hence my generic name is more appropriate. Branding is basically marketing, isn't it?

Agreed changing the TLD on its own is unlikely to do much, so if I switched to nerdzone.com, activity would likely stay the same, but having a different brand might make a difference, especially if I put some effort into advertising the site, which is a whole other can of worms I'll worry about later. So far, I've not done anything other than word of mouth and putting a link in my siggy on other sites. Where someone arrives here via a link from another site, then the name and TLD is unlikely to matter, as you say.

Also, any reason the site is showing your times in 24 hour time instead of the standard 12 hour?

Oh yes, I prefer it that way. I set everything to 24HR format where possible, eg my iPhone, PC, shelf clock (radio controlled of course) etc. My Sky Q video recorder* displays it in 12HR format that can't be changed which continues to bug me years later, lol.

Finally, looking at the overall responses so far, they're leaning more towards keeping things as they are, but I'd really like more. There are about 95 live accounts on here, but most are dormant, so unfortunately I probably won't get a response from them

*Video recorder sounds so outdated, doesn't it? But that's exactly what it is, a nice digital one nowadays.

 

[Astro What]

but having a different brand might make a difference, especially if I put some effort into advertising the site

Honestly, it will probably have less of an impact, especially if you are thinking about advertising. The forum name you are looking at is as generic as can get. It tells the potential user nothing.
In fact, if you look at it as what Xen means, I don't think I'd be wanting my site to be associated with strange, different or foreign. If they are technical people in nature, they are going to think it's for the discussion of a hypervisor.
Your site, your choice, but it is not one that I would choose personally if I was going to be more of a general topic related site.

Oh yes, I prefer it that way. I set everything to 24HR format where possible, eg my iPhone, PC, shelf clock (radio controlled of course) etc.

Remember one of the top rules of web administration - you don't set up your site for what you like, but for what your users are used to.
I have no issues with it since I was an LEO for so long, but most people have no idea what 2143 is when you tell them the time.

Finally, looking at the overall responses so far, they're leaning more towards keeping things as they are, but I'd really like more. There are about 95 live accounts on here, but most are dormant, so unfortunately I probably won't get a response from them

Then start thinking of phrases that are related to what you want the niche to be about.
That's like if you want to use the Nerd in the domain name there are several that are similar that have the .COM extension available.
nerdyhaven.com
nerdycentral.com
nerdzonetech.com
nerdzonehq.com
yournerdzone.com
ournerdzone.com
are just a few examples.

Then you have others that might work
geekgabfest.com
nerdychatter.com
braniacbytes.com
logicloophole.com
lifeisariver.com
friendlyforums.com
chattycircles.com
globalgabs.com
quizzicalquestions.com
modernlifetalk.com
simplelifetalk.com
earthlydialogues.com
engagingexchange.com
conversecorner.com
brilliantblabber.com
brilliantblab.com
interconnectedmind.com
commongroundtalk.com
talkitivetom.com
fluentfreddy.com
mentalmeanderings.com

Remember.. folks are not going to generally be typing your domain name in the address bar, so that's not the biggie that most think it is. It's associating that domain name to the "feel" of the site that is the real ticket.

BTW, all those showed available when I checked.

 

[Astro What]

Personally... I kind of like globalgabs.com, quizzicalquestions.com and brilliantblabber.com.
Mentalmeanderings.com is also in the top, but would probably be harder to design a logo for unless you used something like a brain with a meandering road tied into it some way.
I kind of like logicloophole.com also, but it lends more towards a debate/discussion type site I would think.
But I generally like to include some type of graphics into my site logos.

 

[Retro]

I'm gonna give you a proper reply later AW as I'm playing a computer game, but I'll bet those free domains are gonna disappear now lol. None really grab me tbh, but brilliantblabber.com has a certain comedy value to it that I like. globalgabs.com is another suitably silly sounding one.

 

[Astro What]

That comedic/attention getting part is what you want to concentrate on. Something that stands out in somebodies mind and that if someone sees it on a t-shirt as a logo, cup, hat, poster or similar draws their attention to it.
That's one reason what you have is not bad. It is grabs attention a lot more then xenforum does.
The thing is, general discussion sites are one of the hardest to get to gain traction. They are like gaming forums.

 

[Astro What]

All this talk about rebranding has me thinking about another domain for political discussions. Could be a nice niche to be in, especially with all that is going on in the world.
Just grabbed ideologycentral.com.
Going to work on setting it up with NodeBB.

 

[data66]

I always prefer niche over generic as I find that people look for what they like. xenforums sounds like a forum to discuss xenforo and for tips for it. Nerdzone sounds like a place for tech/nerd/geeky stuff that I tend to like. If you aren't gaining traction, what are you doing to market your site? Free marketing such as sharing some interesting posts to various social sites with relevant tags for nerds/geeks/techy sort of stuff. When you post at other sites, do you have permission to link back here? If so, do that. Post a link to something interesting here on a site that has a similar niche. When you do it though, make sure it's an interesting post on that other site so that it doesn't just look like a promotion for this site.

Try googling for your site. See where it comes up. For example, search for nerd forum, or tech forum, or something similar. If you aren't ranking well, check this site setup for seo. Google has changed a lot in regards to SEO. Ensure that your posts here are not just links to content on other sites. You need unique content now. It is more important than ever to have unique content as the search algorithms and rankings now tend to favor sites that post content that other people will want to read. Those will start ranking better than sites that post a lot of links to other content.
Hope that helps.

 

[Tiffany]

Such excellent points above that I that I don't have anything much to contribute as I've nodded my head reading each thoughtful post here too. I truly believe a website name works best when it names what the niche is. Personally, I also like the niche name to be the first name in a domain name for a better relevant search, such as "nerdzone". Nerd is the first part of the domain name. If I was going to have a website for dogs and cats, for example, I might choose dogwhimsy or catwhimsy.

One other point to consider that I don't think was mentioned here, and my apologies if I missed it, but take a look at the meaning of "xen" and perhaps that might help. I fell in to the "xen" trap for a little while in domain naming because I thought it was an alternative to "zen" but learned it wasn't, plus an amazing friend of mine kept shaking their head "no" when I would mention it.

 

[Astro What]

And the site is up.
Now just need to work on figuring out how to market it.
It is not node heavy as the discussion of ideology breaks down to a few societal areas.
Politics
National
Economic
Religous

That is another thing I am seeing more and more of, even on niche related sites. They, in a burst of trying to get more users, are getting into areas of general chatter. To me that detracts from the nature of the site.

 

[Retro]

Honestly, it will probably have less of an impact, especially if you are thinking about advertising. The forum name you are looking at is as generic as can get. It tells the potential user nothing.
In fact, if you look at it as what Xen means, I don't think I'd be wanting my site to be associated with strange, different or foreign. If they are technical people in nature, they are going to think it's for the discussion of a hypervisor.
Your site, your choice, but it is not one that I would choose personally if I was going to be more of a general topic related site.

Yeah, I Googled it and saw this result:

"Xen" is a prefix that means "strange," "foreign," or "different". It comes from the Greek word xenos, which also means "strange".

Agreed, it seems a bit negative when looked at that way and tbh I wasn't aware of that when I registered xenforums.com. However, xenforo has this in it and that's doing fine, so I dunno if it really holds back the site. Don't worry, I still look up domain names when something pops into my head as I'm not 100% happy with xenforums either, but the dotcoms are invariably taken and I really do want one. Note that I somewhat want to get away from the nerd theme due to the direction of discussions nowadays and also as I suspect that the residual negative connotation from times past might be holding it back. As I said previously, I'm not looking for a runaway success, just moderate daily activity from a variety of members, not just me doing most of the posting and a tiny handful of active members.

Remember one of the top rules of web administration - you don't set up your site for what you like, but for what your users are used to.
I have no issues with it since I was an LEO for so long, but most people have no idea what 2143 is when you tell them the time.

That's generally true and if I was running a business of some kind, the site would be totally geared around that. However, since it's a hobby site that I like to take part in, I do more of a blend of what I like and what the members like. Examples include usernames: yourself, I put the space in yours after you weren't happy about being unable to register with it. My policy is not to have spaces in usernames which is why you saw that restriction, but I caved when you asked, lol. In fact, you're the only member with it (bet I get a flood of requests, sigh). Similarly, another user just the other day asked me to change their username, which I'm not normally keen on, but I did that without hesitation. So, I do listen to what members want, as well. This whole thread is an example of that too, as I could have quite easily made the announcement and locked it for any replies, but instead left it open and actually added a poll to get people's thoughts on it.

I'm curious, how did you come up with all of those domain names? I can't see someone just brainstorming them.

Personally... I kind of like globalgabs.com, quizzicalquestions.com and brilliantblabber.com.
Mentalmeanderings.com is also in the top, but would probably be harder to design a logo for unless you used something like a brain with a meandering road tied into it some way.
I kind of like logicloophole.com also, but it lends more towards a debate/discussion type site I would think.
But I generally like to include some type of graphics into my site logos.

Yeah, they've all got their niches don't they, sound catchy and I might have picked one of them had it fitted mine.

All this talk about rebranding has me thinking about another domain for political discussions. Could be a nice niche to be in, especially with all that is going on in the world.
Just grabbed ideologycentral.com.
Going to work on setting it up with NodeBB.

When you do set that up, count me in! I want to be user id #2 on that!

 

[Astro What]

I'm curious, how did you come up with all of those domain names? I can't see someone just brainstorming them.

NameSilo AI function for checking for domain names.

Website Domain Name | Search and Buy Domain | NameSilo

www.namesilo.com

Yeah, they've all got their niches don't they, sound catchy and I might have picked one of them had it fitted mine.

If it's a general chat site, then you want to target that "feel" in the name.
If it is a more specific niche, then you target that niche.

When you do set that up, count me in! I want to be user id #2 on that!

It's been up and running for 2 days and already has its first "real" member that has been active on posting.

Ideology Central

ideologycentral.com

It is running on NodeBB and I'm really growing to like that software package.
And it was fairly easy to design a logo around it that fits the niche.



I need to work on the colors for the text, but the theory is to give a feeling of opposites.

However, xenforo has this in it and that's doing fine, so I dunno if it really holds back the site.

That is because it is directly associated with a software product that is well known by that name.

My policy is not to have spaces in usernames which is why you saw that restriction, but I caved when you asked, lol.

And it was appreciated.
One word user names area product of the past. Users now want to be able to have more freedom than trying to fit into a one word name. That is why I comment on giving users what they want, not so much as what the admin wants to force on them. But each admin has their own choices they have to make.
Astro What looks better than Astro_What, Astro.What, AstroWhat or Astro-What.
Now there is a place for restrictions. Certain user names should not be allowed of course, but why restrict y our users unnecessarily. I know there have been a few sites that I would have joined up on that would not allow the user name I wanted to use. I chose to not participate on them. And I'm sure I'm not the only one like that.
As for the time aspect, that really should be something that can be set by the users for what they want to see, but I don't think XF has that ability.

 

[Retro]

I always prefer niche over generic as I find that people look for what they like. xenforums sounds like a forum to discuss xenforo and for tips for it. Nerdzone sounds like a place for tech/nerd/geeky stuff that I tend to like. If you aren't gaining traction, what are you doing to market your site? Free marketing such as sharing some interesting posts to various social sites with relevant tags for nerds/geeks/techy sort of stuff. When you post at other sites, do you have permission to link back here? If so, do that. Post a link to something interesting here on a site that has a similar niche. When you do it though, make sure it's an interesting post on that other site so that it doesn't just look like a promotion for this site.

Perhaps it does a bit and tbh that might not be a bad thing to have that association with xenforo. People will soon see that people aren't talking about that though when they take a quick look and I didn't have it in mind when I registered it.

xenForums does work for here, because the discussion has gravitated to a more general nature rather than the techy / sciencey stuff that I initially envisioned, which interests me. However, when I make those kinds of posts, they pretty much get ignored, which is encouraging me to gravitate away from the NerdZone branding as I said above and I suspect that it could be holding the site back as the negative connotation of nerd hasn't completely dissipated. Note that I'll continue to make them occasionally as much to bookmark a particular video or article for myself that I find interesting as sharing it with others, but I would have made more posts like that had I received responses to them.

Try googling for your site. See where it comes up. For example, search for nerd forum, or tech forum, or something similar. If you aren't ranking well, check this site setup for seo. Google has changed a lot in regards to SEO. Ensure that your posts here are not just links to content on other sites. You need unique content now. It is more important than ever to have unique content as the search algorithms and rankings now tend to favor sites that post content that other people will want to read. Those will start ranking better than sites that post a lot of links to other content.
Hope that helps.

Oh yes, I did quite a bit of Googling on the nerdzone name and it quickly rose to the top of the Google search results, despite there being many totally unrelated sites and social media pages with the same name, so I'm quite pleased with that. However, Googling sentences within posts doesn't get much, unfortunately.

As far as that unique content goes, it sort of is, in a general way, since it consists of whatever has come to mind for myself and others when they post here. Sure, if I wanted to talk more strictly about technology, cars, astronomy etc, I'd have chosen a name to reflect that niche. My niche is kinda not having one! The whole forum is basically General Discussion nowadays, but if that was the only category I had in it, it would be chaos, with all the threads in one place and wouldn't be nice to use at all.

 

[Astro What]

Oh yes, I did quite a bit of Googling on the nerdzone name and it quickly rose to the top of the Google search results, despite there being many totally unrelated sites and social media pages with the same name, so I'm quite pleased with that. However, Googling sentences within posts doesn't get much, unfortunately.

I'm going to assume you have a Google Search account associated with the domain?





It helps to see how you are being found.

You also need to have a GA property set up for the site.
This is for IDC just over the last two days since it was set up.



And it's only been posted in a few locations to announce it.

 

[Retro]

Such excellent points above that I that I don't have anything much to contribute as I've nodded my head reading each thoughtful post here too. I truly believe a website name works best when it names what the niche is. Personally, I also like the niche name to be the first name in a domain name for a better relevant search, such as "nerdzone". Nerd is the first part of the domain name. If I was going to have a website for dogs and cats, for example, I might choose dogwhimsy or catwhimsy.

Indeed, it's good if the name reflects what the site is about, but also generic names work like Facebook and Twitter. How catchy that name is, is pretty important. Those are cute domain names, I like them.

One other point to consider that I don't think was mentioned here, and my apologies if I missed it, but take a look at the meaning of "xen" and perhaps that might help. I fell in to the "xen" trap for a little while in domain naming because I thought it was an alternative to "zen" but learned it wasn't, plus an amazing friend of mine kept shaking their head "no" when I would mention it.

I think xenForums more accurately reflects the general nature of this place, as I've explained in the above posts and while you're right that "xen" seems to have a bit of a negative connotation according to its definition, it's not done XenForo any harm, so I tend to think it wouldn't harm my site, either.

btw, I see you haven't voted yet, so I'd be really grateful if you could please do so to help give a result that more accurately reflects the members' preferences.