[Sam]

What are your thoughts on merging two forums into one? What criteria will make this a success?

[Mr.Panos]

No, No, No! I think that if you merge a forum you will lose many members and much content. I have never merged two forums and I don't want to do it. I don't believe that it is necessary.

[David]

I am a member of a forum that merged with a very similar forum. Both were very well run, which means that the moderators spent a lot of time on the forum, not just deleting pure spam but also closing policing the forum rules so that it was an enjoyable and productive place. Eventually, it just became too much work for the owner of one of the forums.

The merger took a lot of work because there were some topics in the forum that was going away that didn't fit squarely with the continuing forum. There were some topics and threads that did not get carried over at all because they simply did not meet the stricter rules of the continuing forum.

I am sure that some of the members of the old forum did not like the changes and stopped visiting the forum. Even some that embraced the merger probably did not like the fact that a lot of their posts were deleted in the process.

On the whole, I think that the merger has gone very well.

[Brad W]

I think its a horrible idea if you ask me, it won't benefit either forum really..

[TimeRider]

I also think merging won't work well. More rules and dispute will end it up.

[wasi90lk]

I do not mind forum merging, as long as I do not lose any member or post.

I know a person who owned 7 forums and merged all into 1.

[MoneyBox]

I do not mind merging another forum into mine. This is pretty much the only case I will accept doing such a thing unless the forum I am merging into is really great.

A forum merging into me does not bother me as it just supplies extra content and maybe a few new members.

[juststeven]

Simple. Guests see large post count, guests sign up. However you must make sure you still have active new content because no one joins a dead site even if it has a million posts. I would merge a load of content then make sure there is a steady flow of new discussions/replies as well.

[buysell-browse]

From a technical point of view, merging forums is very doable if you have full access on both machines and lots of patience. I would start by making both forums the same in terms of structure on each individual site, then slowly merge content until they both become identical. If you don't disrupt the service of either site, your users won't mind the gradual changes. When fully integrated, set up your DNS to handle both URLs and redirect, so that the old paths still work, and you're done.

[Bananaman]

No, I don't like merging. Once you merge, I think you use the unique community that was on that forum.

[shamzblueworld]

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

[juststeven]

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.

[shamzblueworld]

Yup, thats what I had in mind as well.

[Bananaman]

Good idea Steven!.

[RNB]

If the two communities share similar interests and like minds, why not merge? I was tempted to merge one of my older forums with my new, but I decided against it because their topics just didn't mesh well.

[Michael W. Smith Fan]

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.

That's actually a cool idea. You still get the content, and everything's still on topic and such with what your forum is about, so I can actually see something like that working out.

[Snobothehobo]

From what I've seen, forum merges tend not to work.

[shamzblueworld]

From what I've seen, forum merges tend not to work.

Can you point out any reason why is that?

[AndroidMaster]

That's will be awesome if somebody do this but there is also remains challenges.

[grecy0905]

To be honest, I saw nothing bad when the forum mergers if they will continue to maintain it. If the forum mergers because one forum owner decided to sell his forum, I think the other forums will collapse or get weak as the forum owner is only one maintaining the forum.