^ ^ How do you find these dead boards/Forums?! I'd love to snag some members of a ditched project >_>

I know the guys, they become colleagues, then ZAZ! some day they decided to shut down the place... and I bet it happens too often, I going after the users not the licenses...

Then I will sell you theoretical members. Per 1 theoretical member will cost you 1 theoretical x the speed of light + theoretical $.

Dealio! how can I transfer you the theoretical money???

I think I will hire a undergraduate MBA and try... there's still the technical part and the psychological aspect of the users...

Every merger brings anxiety and collective hysteria...

http://pro.corbis.com/images/42-1767...-B451207C29AE}

p.s. happened here when Jelsoft was acquired

Mailing lists are bought and sold every day. Some companies like Publisher's Clearinghouse actually make their money selling their mailing lists, including emails. Why do you think when you order something from one company, you start getting catalogs from a dozen different companies?

This would be no different. Forum A with 10,000 users sells those users including username, password and email address to Forum B for 35 cents per user. They just made $3,500. They can then sell it to Forum C, D and E for the same price.

Really not something that would be difficult to accomplish. Personally, I feel this is unethical and wouldn't participate in such a transaction but many people do on a daily basis. Someone can go buy a DVD with every address in the United States on it for about a $100 at Best Buy and then sell that data to others as well. You can find more specialized databases on the Internet. Most likely if you search hard enough you will find people selling their mailing lists for newsletters and forums.

Thanks for your post, somehow you always bring the big picture afloat...

Well, it's unethical for the sellers, not for the buyers, and the transaction will not be an one step process, you have to reassure me that you will close your board at least for 3 months in order to convey the sensation of full transfer... and I will pay on installments... kind of ;)

Reminds me of a guy who tried to set up a site mimicing mine. To give you an idea of how close this mimicing was, he'd bought the same skin, the forum setup was almost the same, and he had copied the site rules word for word, save for altering the site and admin names. He'd apparently found the slowest shared hosting he could find, and he wanted some sort of business deal with me. I never got the details, since I was too busy laughing, but his main offer to readers was to spam myspace with an award of $100 for the best poster that month. It ... really didn't work. He paid it out, but it didn't work.

Being a devious sort, I wandered over to Whois and got his details - in the UK, as am I, so I had his phone number. However, just to make a point, I sent him a birthday card with Scooby Doo on the front wishing him a happy 6th birthday, and wrote on the inside that it was from all the friends he wanted to have at *mysite*.com. Please don't think I'm evil for this - I spent a little extra and got him the one with the badge on it. I'm generous.

Rapscallion

Thats exactly what I do. I talk to a lot of admins because I like to compare ideas and then their site is gone and I go after their database by just asking. More than half the time, they ask to become moderator. Usually, I say no, but depends on the size and its great for traffic. Also, sometimes, I get a free domain name with it. :D

Well it's not like dealing with consummate business ppl, with all due respect we are hobbyists...

I won't sell my members, but if it were possible to buy guaranteed members (such as another forum like mine, is going out of business/closing - and the users merge over to mine, and post)

Then I would, but other then that, if they don't like the new 'change' or the new site, they will just leave.

Money wasted :(

I'll buy them at .01 per member. ;)