Hi folks,

I've made an offer to buy an online forum.

My question is in regards to when I pay a tech person to migrate the UBB 7.5.6 forum to another site where it will be hosted (Already have the tech picked out, btw).

When i have someone do this could they easily make a copy of the forum data to be bridged? Would it be any extra work for our tech person to provide copies to two separate parties – two separate parties being myself and my adversaries.

Could two separate parties each get a copy of the forum? One forum turns in to two?

There is a division among members of our forum. And I’m just trying to find ways of making this easier for the owner. If the owner offered copies of the forum data to BOTH parties I believe that it might greatly reduce the amount of complaining that he’d get.

regards,

What would be the point though, two identical forums seem foolish, you'll have horrible search engine rankings with duplicate content, users can grow frustrated, etc.

I'd try my best to try to retain that there is only one copy of said data, especially if you're purchasing it...

Yes it would sound foolish. But then our forum has become very foolish. Divisions and in fighting have been running it in to the ground. Flame wars causing it run amok. We've never enforced any of our policies on harassment and personal attacks -- "traditional moderating," as i'd call it. Physical threats have gone without warnings. The opposing party has already had lawyers threaten litigation over the absolute dumbest issue -- a threat of a frivolous lawsuit.

Starting enforcement now would be too much headache for the owner.

The owner NEVER wanted to own a forum NOR the headaches. He merely inherited it from one of his former employees. The owner got stuck with it. Years after laying off his small staff he retired. He would like his business -- his legacy -- to live on. But he has no attachment for the forum. It's really caused him headaches.

Actually the fact that we're still alive is a fluke. I was never even meant to have access to the control panel. But after finding it i was able to save the forum from death, with the help that i got from here.

We will be making a purchase offer of four dollars merely to relieve him of the responsibility that he never wanted.

I highly doubt that the other party is anywhere near prepared to host, mod and maintain a forum -- let have they ever even considered it. Whereas we made an offer over a year ago.

The owner making the offer in good faith to both parties would, i believe, minimize the headaches that he would have to deal with.

Yes it seems very odd. But it might be the best rememedy for the very odd situation that we're in.

Sorry for dumping our life history on you.

Truthfully, I understand the issue. I have seen it before. If opposing entities were in fact going to have the same data, and you had a following on yours, I am sure, if they were the type to cause lawsuits, that they would just sue you for (c) material. They would still win. I think that he would only want to sell the data only of the Forums, but not the UBB license to that group. They would have to figure out how to use the data from there. Personally I wouldn't sell the info for the board to one person. Once it is owned by (you) it is yours and the other entity would have no right to the info. Policy enforcement has always been an issue for a forum board, and it is a constant balancing act, work, and tedious. This may not be an option based on what you are describing, but in the interest of all parties I have to agree with Gizmo on this, it would be frustrating for you, the patrons of your boards, and even the opposing entity. It would more than likely just a long goodbye for the forum if it were sold into two different directions.

Gizmo, thanks again, very much for reading and responding. Obviously we have a lot more than simple tech problems to deal with.

Dunny, i'm very intrigued by several points made in your response. I will post questions later.

[salut smile face]


Again, you guys have been soooooo helpful. We would have been in the toilette years ago were it not for you.

I actually meant that I would only sell the info to one person..... sorry I misposted this morning.

Hi Dunny and Gizmo,

Again, I very much appreciate the feedback from both of you.

Rather than throw additional details and questions to you it's probably better at this point that I contact the owner and get an idea of what he's willing to consider.

best regards

Tacks

Dunny, no worries, i figured that's what you meant.

And furthermore...



[more of my passion for longwindedness -- that which lead me here]

whatever path is taken, if any, i WILL consult with you fellows further before proceeding. ...before advising the owner how he might best to "sell" the plan. ...how the owner might inspire confidence and enthusiasm among forum members.

In terms of some of the technical issues, yes you'd need two licenses for the two forums. The database side would be fairly easy.

I used to have my WineIntro forum as a part of the LisaShea forum. Eventually I was persuaded that it would get more traffic if it was its own wine focused forum and not just a sub-part of another larger forum.

So I bought another license for the WineIntro site and copied the entire database and file system into its own area.

Once I had two copies running, I pruned down the LisaShea forum so it no longer had the WineIntro area.

I then pruned down the WineIntro forum so it no longer had any of the non-WineIntro content.

So what you are looking for - two separate forums - was the first stage of my process. I did indeed do that and it worked fine.

I echo what others say about duplicate content and such. That being said, worrying about Google may be the forum members' least concern. They may not care at all about how Google links to them or indexes them. They may solely care about their little community and their own interactions. In which case, I say have at it. Have two separate communities that each can modify. Heck, it could be that each community truncates out the other communities' posts and discussions and that it does in fact end up being two fairly separate sets of data.