Merging

[Brandon]

Hey,

What do you guys feel would be a few detrimental effects to your forum after merging?

I'm considering buying out a few forums, but I want to really plan on what would truly happen. I"m after their content and users mainly. I'm just a bit unsure of what could really happen - it'd be hard to test the waters before hand.

I'm also looking to purchase a multitude of small forums, would this be a good idea or do you guys think i should just get a medium sized to buyout?

My main thought is that if I were to buy a few small ones, they're usually just friend based and would branch off onto their own site, or just leave the site in general. If I were to buy a medium, it would be people actually there for the content.

It's just something i've been contemplating - I'm hoping to get advice from a few other webmasters beforehand though

Brandon

[Dragon45]

I have no experience in buying them out but have seen the results of some merges, I think it all depends on the community not so much the size.

As you speculated, some won't like the new merger and will leave while others might not have a problem with it or even like the merge more. I'd probably browse the forums a lot to get a better idea of how the community works and what they expect as if they had a fairly laid back admin and then the new merge has stricter rules, that will be quite the change for instance.

[DAMINK™]

IMHO its a small percentage game.
Its more about stats. The member base will most likely move on.
Small amounts will stay. But most will move on.
Again IMHO.
Do it for stats. Not for active members.