Merging Forums

[Jordan]

With a lot of forum competition out there, and with some hopes of increasing member activity, have you ever thought about merging your forum with another?

This could mean coming together with someone else as a partnership, or buying one forum out and having the threads and post moved to your forum.

I have seen so many forums now that have done this. No offense to them, but it would seem a lot of the post and threads that get merged over are spam.

Personally I would not do it to forums. However, Websites that have good quality content in the same niche I just may. Example. In the pasts on my previous hosting companies I have bought other companies out and moved their clients to my servers. Is it really such a bad thing?

What are your experiences with merging websites. Do you condone them?

 

[xpl0iter]

Personally I don't like the idea of merging forums. The thing is each and every forum has its own soul. So merging it with another forum will destroy it.
And yeah merging on blogs is a pretty damn good idea. I mean you get a lot of content(hopefully unique) and thats good for any blog!

 

[Sam1]

I think merging can be successful if conditions are met:
- You have a similar model of business, similar forum, similar website.
- You are prepared to accommodate members/customers from both sites.

With forums, I think it's best if the two forums being merged are of equal sizes and an entirely new domain is chosen. That may hurt SEO but it will ensure members feel that they are equal with members of the other forum rather than newbies.

 

[Shortie]

I once agreed to a forum merge and it was something I did regret doing after about a month. When I went into the merge both I and the admin of the other forum had made agreements that we would discuss things, which we did and that things would be all joint agreement however once I had done the merge and all my members where over at the merged forum and things where running smoothly it all changed. Staff members didn't like ideas I had and it seemed like I was a small part of the forum whilst everyone else was taking over. I pulled out of the merge and started my own forum again and I am very glad I did. I would never go into another merge again.

 

[wasi90lk]

I have never done it before, although I have seen forums getting merged.

I do not think merging is a good idea. I am likely to never merge my forum.

 

[JLogan]

Merging small forums (couple thousand posts) with really big forums (15-20k) doesn't seem that bad. When you merge small forums into big ones, it's sort of hard to see duplicate threads but when you merge two small forums together its pretty easy to see all the duplicate content, and members.

 

[shamzblueworld]

It depends on the owners and admins, if they feel like building a partnership, I'd say its a good idea, it never hurts to have more content added, but sam is right, choosing a new domain is the better option, but if a domain has a good PR already, then they should stick with it. It can take a little time for the members of both sides to get along but eventually, it all can pan out well I think.

 

[JLogan]

I have never done it before, although I have seen forums getting merged.

I do not think merging is a good idea. I am likely to never merge my forum.

Mind providing us with a little more information on why you don't think it's a good idea?

 

[Travis]

I do not like the idea of merging forums because it can cause problems among members i have seen it happen many times

 

[MyDigitalpoint]

I started to consider forum merging as a solution when I began to have too many sites with forums each.

However my idea of forum merging was buying a forum-related domain name to merge all those forums that I had installed on an individual basis through different domain names.

This way I made forum management easier, and having a larger community made time that members spend in there more enjoyable.

I have never thought of merging my forum with that of another forum owner though.

 

[Sam1]

I started to consider forum merging as a solution when I began to have too many sites with forums each.

However my idea of forum merging was buying a forum-related domain name to merge all those forums that I had installed on an individual basis through different domain names.

This way I made forum management easier, and having a larger community made time that members spend in there more enjoyable.

I have never thought of merging my forum with that of another forum owner though.

So is your current forum more of a general forum discussing multiple topics?