I would pick your url that you want..
SiteA

merge siteB into siteA
Then update the counters, get the forums setup.
merge siteC into siteA
update counters....
merge siteD into siteA

etc....

Give me a buzz if you need a hand, I just got done merging a few forums together.


no, you can merge sites together with no problems ;)

Personally....

I wouldnt merge these forums together.

You have 5 large and active forums. (except # 5 -- maybe merge that into another one, maybe not. I would have to see it.)


Why wouldnt I merge? Simple. Advertising.

You can sell ads on all 5 forums for more then you can sell ads on 1. You have 5 times the banner ad space and those ads can be better targetted.

Another reason, right now, you could sell one of the 5 forums. Cant do that after the merge.

I would suggest you really think this through and err on the side of caution.

Very valid points ... and I have thought about this. I plan on keeping the sites cosmetically separate using the styles system built into vB. That being said, they will each have their own advertising capabilities because they will have a unique header and footer (where my ads are). The selling point is something I have never considered ... since I have no intention of selling them off one by one. I've spent a lot of time branding my communities (and have my company brand tattooed on my back). If I were ever to entertain an offer ... if would be for all communities combined, which is why I don't think that point applies to me.

I'm mainly looking for a performance issue ... will things run better, worse ... the same? I keep thinking that searching larger tables mean longer load times, but is that going to be negligible with proper indexing? I doubt scanning a 1 million post table versus scanning a 5 million post table is 5 times faster ... or is it?

I dunno. To me, its about flexibility. You narrow your options across the board by combining the sties. I prefer to be as fleixble as I can be.

Also, while talking about selling, you wil have a much harder time getting the value from one mega site, simply because as the price goes up, the number of people who can afford it dwindles.

As far as running better. I think it can be run similar as far as performance, but you'll ned the equipment to handle it. Im not even sure what you'll need but yes, I also would suspect that searching is going to place a much larger load.

You might want to discuss the performance aspect with vB development people directly. Im sure you'll need at least a number of servers, load balanced, and some super fast drives. But This is an area outside of my expertise.

One mega site seems nice, but it could just be the human greed involving it self..

Have you had any problems with the forums like these?..

You could merge 1 or 2 of the forums if there very similar.. but its totally up to you...

just don't do anything you will regret later on..

What are the URL's?

Going to baby step the process and end up with 2 sites ... at least that's the plan if I can just get ImpEx to do what I want it to do. LOL!

As for the sites, the largest one is www.hcrealms.com ; the other ones are in the header of that site. All Hobby Gaming related.

I would try hard to make 5 mega sites rather than 1 mega site. Put in the extra money for advertising and you will be set.

I would love to do that ... but the truth of the matter is that the Hobby Gaming industry is in rapid decline (due to people preferring to play online games). Ideally, I would consolidate these sites, and redirect my members to another (non-hobby gaming) community and grow something outside of my niche. My member are very loyal ... and I think that if I launched any site that has mass appeal, they would jump on it. I'll let everyone know how it goes. :)

Sounds like you know your stuff! Good luck in whatever you decide to do.:D

How will the community react to the changes ? That should be the first concern. While i agree with chgo, advertising is key, community (content comes with) should come first.

A large merger was done not that long ago with about 50 huge auto forums, complete failure and it resulted in killing some of the communities.