Rebranding and Merging: The Hot Trend in Communities?

[frm]

What an entertaining read that link was, thank you.

And, it got even more entertaining as I made my last reply before bed.

They got some tall horses up in the stables of ForumPromotion. (High horse pun)

I can drag this on for as long as they keep replying.

 

[frm]

So, I also believe rebranding is also good

Rebranding from RS was also necessary as I was unaware that they'd be all uppity with the domain name alone, not comparing it with the content, to toss it into Safe Search, which isn't an obvious thing to be made aware of (there's no messaging that your site is in Safe Search in Webmaster Tools, etc. — I accidentally stumbled upon it by VPN hopping and trying to see what my snippets visually looked like).

 

[Arantor]

Not quite sure how I feel at this time about the whole "one login, many forums" idea I've read about... I remember something sort of similar being tried back in the early 2010s, and if I recall correctly it ended promptly when one malicious forum owner decided to add what was essentially a keylogger to his forum's login page to harvest logins to access other user's accounts on other forums... and I'm not quite sure I'm aware of a technological solution, short of mandatory activation of 2FA (which will put off a lot of forum users) that could counter this at the current time.

Well this is solveable in the modern era with OAuth style authentication, and where you end up is essentially what Mastodon does. Which is fine until your home instance/server/forum shuts down, leaving you stranded from the entire network, not just your corner of it.

Which means you get people running their own Mastodon instance just to ensure they’re never booted off the wider network, which is firmly ah unintended consequence.

 

[Bawse]

You have no idea of the story behind some of the mergers. Do not assume it was a lack of desire or time. Other reasons exist.

I don't need a story or care for one. This is just an observation. I've seen a lot of communities merging, and it's also my opinion. You don't have to agree with it.

 

[Arantor]

I don't need a story or care for one. This is just an observation. I've seen a lot of communities merging, and it's also my opinion. You don't have to agree with it.

It’s not about agreeing with it, it’s about how insulting it is to some of the people who chose to merge, because you think it’s only ever about how weak they are, that they can’t stay the course. Don’t laugh about people I’m situations you have no understanding of, because it makes you look like an arrogant fool, with limited empathy.

Some of the people that have merged forums over the years did so to ensure that the information wouldn’t be lost before they died. Some of the people I have called friends over the years have died, and you think it’s fine to laugh at the idea that they want some of their legacy preserved.

 

[Bawse]

It’s not about agreeing with it, it’s about how insulting it is to some of the people who chose to merge, because you think it’s only ever about how weak they are, that they can’t stay the course. Don’t laugh about people I’m situations you have no understanding of, because it makes you look like an arrogant fool, with limited empathy.

Some of the people that have merged forums over the years did so to ensure that the information wouldn’t be lost before they died. Some of the people I have called friends over the years have died, and you think it’s fine to laugh at the idea that they want some of their legacy preserved.

How was it a insult? I'm sorry I think it's funny that I see people start countless forums then merge them. Maybe if more attention was put to one forum, you wouldn't need to merge. Merges only help with content, maybe get a few members, not if all the sites are small though. Probably a lot of the SAME members so I think the merges are basically pointless. Again, not a insult just my opinion.

 

[Arantor]

How was it an insult? I'm sorry I think it's funny that I see people start countless forums then merge them. Maybe if more attention was put to one forum, you wouldn't need to merge. Merges only help with content, maybe get a few members, not if all the sites are small though. Probably a lot of the SAME members so I think the merges are basically pointless. Again, not an insult just my opinion.

Like I said, not everyone who merges forums does so the way you think is funny. Just have a bit of empathy for others who aren’t as fortunate as you. (Not everyone who merges is a serial forum starter. Not everyone who merges does so because they’re bored. Not everyone who gives up their forum to a merger lives to see the other side of 10+ years of history trying to be preserved.)

 

[Bawse]

Like I said, not everyone who merges forums does so the way you think is funny. Just have a bit of empathy for others who aren’t as fortunate as you. (Not everyone who merges is a serial forum starter. Not everyone who merges does so because they’re bored. Not everyone who gives up their forum to a merger lives to see the other side of 10+ years of history trying to be preserved.)

I never said everyone, but I won't go back and forth here. Good luck with your merges. I'm not hating. I do wish you success, but I don't see how merging smaller communities helps, and I stand on that.

 

[Arantor]

I never said everyone, but I won't go back and forth here. Good luck with your merges. I'm not hating. I do wish you success, but I don't see how merging smaller communities helps, and I stand on that.

I didn’t say I was merging. I’ve just been around long enough to have lost friends who merged as one of their final acts to ensure their work didn’t get lost. I do not find it funny, at all.

 

[frm]

I didn’t say I was merging. I’ve just been around long enough to have lost friends who merged as one of their final acts to ensure their work didn’t get lost. I do not find it funny, at all.

You're using an emotional argument and applying it broadly to all mergers, despite it being relevant only in uncommon cases.

The fact is, mergers happening within the past 3 months have, for the most part, been all small communities, and the number of mergers that have occurred in this fashion probably outweighs the number of mergers in the scenario that you proposed by a great deal.

I don't know how you can take insult to 98 mergers of small forums over 2 forums that have merged over the decades. But, I'm not going there.