[Mihailo]

If it is the same niche, you can merge it. But it is very dangerous proccess, be careful.

[mcliffi]

That will be a bad idea to merge forums.One is likely to be swallowed by the other.This means you lose one and promote one.Some members might migrate too and this could not be good to you and your forums.

[thisnthat]

How about mergin two different niche into one? Would that work?

When I release a new section to my forum, maybe sports for example I buy and merge a small sports forum to give that section a kickstart with discussions users can reply too. Little merges like that really can make a bigger difference than you'd imagine.

This sounds like a good strategy. I hadn't thought about doing it that way, but it makes perfect sense, if you can find the appropriate forum venue to merge with your own. Creative thinking. I like it.

As long as the other site has a similar flavor, rules, and expectations, this could work well.

[lightning18]

I think it depends on the the topics of the other forum. If it is related to each other then people will understand the merge but it will add more topics then it's not worth it. I think some members will quit the forum if they are not used to the website having a merge.

[blair]

If I own both forums and they both target the same audience I am going for then it would be easy for me to decide to merge them. Less cost, less maintenance, and my efforts are focused.
If another owner wants to merge the answer is no. I had been through some partnerships and none of them seemed to work. These even involved more money than setting up and maintaining a forum.