Administrators Nathan Posted March 8, 2012 Administrators Share Posted March 8, 2012 Anyone else purchased other forums of a similar topic to merge with their own? Have you actually completed the merging of the database on your own? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckTesta Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 I've not done this. I wonder though, how does it work? I mean it obviously pulls all the data over, but is this a manual process? Or is there an automated script? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Nathan Posted March 8, 2012 Author Administrators Share Posted March 8, 2012 Depends on what Forum software you run on. Most have converts that you can import the data in to your database. Then it's just moving, deleting topics, setting up old member permissions ect... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dojo Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 I have merged one forum into a community of mine years ago. The other admin was tired of the community and, instead of just closing it down, she decided to merge with mine. It's not worth paying for this since most of the members WILL NOT COME back into the new community (most of the time if someone is offering to merge with you, they're already inactive. I assume a very active forum that earns you money is not something you'd give up except for some emergencies, so most of the time the forum you're offered is pretty dead anyway. So you're only getting MAYBE few members and just bragging rights with a bigger database. Which can also mean a lot of useless posts and junk from that other forum, more work to clean it up etc. I wouldn't bother if it was paid. If it was offered for free, maybe I'd go through the motions again, but that money can be better spent on promotion and editors and getting my forums nice and 'fat' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Creaky Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 Not done this so far, have been looking for a suitable site though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkGizmo Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 I agree with Dojo. A lot of time mergers do not work and often times it makes an already inactive forum look even more inactive. It's very hard to get people to come to a community they are unfamiliar with and if they don't like the looks of it, just because they now have an account there doesn't mean they are obligated to stick around. I would definitely not buy other forum's databases and merge them into mine for these reasons. Also you don't know what kind of content is posted behind the scenes and most admins who are willing to sell you their database won't let it go for cheap. It's more hassle then it's worth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckTesta Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 I disagree. I think if you buy content... you've already took the time to review some of it. If you feel that the content is relevant to your niche, nothing bad can come of owning it for hits if nothing more. Just having the content here for google to index is a huge plus. That's what it's all about, right? Driving traffic here for content! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Nathan Posted March 9, 2012 Author Administrators Share Posted March 9, 2012 I don't agree at all. If you take the time necessary to go through the posts/thread and distribute them correctly then the content is easily worth it. If it's good content as well it will bring in a lot of extra search engine traffic after it gets indexed. The previous members may or may not come back, but either way you get the content and a chance to bring the members back. True it's not an easy task, but if done correctly there are a lot of benefits. ChuckTesta 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bryce12 Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 It would be interesting to see case study of such a project. I'm sure a lot of people would be interested in learning more about the best practices, challenges faced and lessons learned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Nathan Posted March 9, 2012 Author Administrators Share Posted March 9, 2012 I think the reason it goes wrong so often is that people don't take the time to do it right. They just import a bunch of crap and dump it where ever. It took me a little over 7 hours to spread the topics around to the right boards and cleanup junk/spam threads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessi Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 I think the reason it goes wrong so often is that people don't take the time to do it right. They just import a bunch of crap and dump it where ever. It took me a little over 7 hours to spread the topics around to the right boards and cleanup junk/spam threads. I agree that sometimes it's just done in a very poor manner. It's disorienting enough to be a member of the other forum and suddenly be redirected to a new site with people you've never seen before, etc. If you can't even find your way around or things are cluttered with posts dumped all over the place, I wouldn't want to come back either. Not having any warning at all can sometimes cause the merge to go bad, too. With forum communities, people tend to settle in and like their little groups of people. People on the smaller forum being brought in can be bitter they're being dumped on a new site, and members from the current forum can be annoyed by all the new people who somehow think they're entitled to something (it's a common attitude). Preparing both sides can go a long way in keeping any tension down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkGizmo Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 I'm looking to purchase a xenforo site and merge it into my current one. If I do this it'll take at least 24 hours to sort through the content and such after it's been ported over and whatnot. Re-setting up permissions for the new content and membergroups blah blah blah. I'm not sure if it's worth it though because there's a lot of duplicate threads on the site there and it may clash with my own site so for what it's worth I'm not sure. Plus the guy wants close to $500 for everything and I don't need the Xenforo license he has so i'm a bit at a standstill with this decision. I probably won't go for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessi Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 For $500, I would recommend not doing it. It sounds like there's a lot of duplicate content and if you're not sure the communities are even a good fit, then you're better off not wasting 500 bucks on a deal that's probably not going to bring you much. I don't normally encourage poaching, but if the guy is selling, there's a good chance whatever deal he makes elsewhere could lead to many of the members quitting his site anyway. You may want to make yourself known on the forum a bit more and possibly pick up some of the members before it merges elsewhere. DarkGizmo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkGizmo Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 I agree. That's not a terrible idea, Jessi. I don't like poaching either because I have a member or two on my own site who does this and she's walking on extremely thin-ice as it is. I've gone as far as to disable her PM access on my site. I'll probably try my best to be more active on the site in question and try to bring members over to my site before it closes or merges. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Nathan Posted March 11, 2012 Author Administrators Share Posted March 11, 2012 What is poaching? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkGizmo Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 Basically like leeching off someone else's forum success by stealing their members and activity while trying to make it look like you're remaining an active part of the community. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victor Leigh Posted May 11, 2012 Share Posted May 11, 2012 I am active on one forum that has, at last count, gone through three ownership changes. The forum software used was also changed. So far as I can see, there hadn't been much problem with the migration. Not all the members followed the changes but there is still a core of diehard members who are still there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessi Posted May 14, 2012 Share Posted May 14, 2012 Basically like leeching off someone else's forum success by stealing their members and activity while trying to make it look like you're remaining an active part of the community. Yeah, although it's not even necessarily acting like you're a part of the community. I've seen people join forum simply to try to steal members without ever really actively posting or acting like a real member. They go there and start soliciting people privately. Huge no-no and very disrespectful. That's why I suggested making himself known and having an open door for anyone who might want to trickle over when the other one falls apart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crumblepie Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 I know this method sometimes works, but most of the time it doesn't. Because the two forums merged together just don't 'look' quite right, you can find a lot of unrelated topics. And those who are inexperienced with databases (like me) could have a lot of trouble doing it right. It's always best to start from the ground up IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackClarke Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 I've never done this but I am very interested in doing something like this in the future. I have a community that is just about on the edge of the cliff and it only has a few members about but a few members is still a community. I've reached the stage where it's hard to give them much more and people weren't and aren't joining the community. By purchasing other forums or merging with them I'd be able to breathe some fresh life into the community. If I can find another forum or two in a similar situation and am able to make the few members left stick around I'd be able to create a larger community. This would potentially keep both communities going together as the users would be meeting some new members. Obviously there are some issues. Some posts may not fit in or may be duplicates and you just have to do your best to sort these things out. You can close one topic and link it to another or merge it but whatever you do make sure you're consistent across the board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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