The Next Time A2K Absorbs A Board.........

This is a capital idea! You end up with less shell-shock, less resentment for having content hijacked and so on. Some of the negativity can't be avoided, for sure, but any kind of transition wherein folks can *see* what's going to happen gives them time to adjust to the idea.

I realize that the circumstances of this move necessitated some urgency of action; even so, if you want to actually keep the users you've purchased - and wherein it is at all workable - it's money in the bank for the future of your user base.

Good idea

it is a no brainer....

it would help us A2K'ers see where you guys came from and maybe help you adjust better

perhaps someone saved a screenshot?
i've got quite a few from the old a2k...

The next time A2K absorbs another board, I sincerely hope it isn't in emergency circumstances, like on this occasion. I don't have any problem at all, comprehending the dismay & the upset of the subscribers to the philosophers' board. Imagine logging on to a site you really value, only to discover that it no longer exists. Understandably very upsetting.

there was some advanced warning, if i'm not mistaken...

Buying a world that people have been on for awhile, that some people love, the some people have put a lot of effort into building, with every intention of eliminating it and transporting its inhabitants to your world is always going to be a dicey proposition. Calling it an Emergency operation does not change the fundamentals.

Well I'm not a member of their (now defunct) board, Region.
So I don't know if there was or there wasn't any warning of what was about to occur.
But reading just about all the philosophers' posts here, it certainly sounded like a number were surprised & shocked.

It was pretty easy to find you know!

I went over and had a look....actually, I think I was already a member, but couldn't recall my details so re-registered.

There were warnings over there....probably more than here...but, as RG has said in a lot of places, the final merge was rushed for security reasons and the warnings came late.

Thing is, even with LOTS of warnings, lots of people never see them.

Remember the move to the new A2k?...that had been talked about for years, it was like waiting for bloody Godot...and there was plenty of warning prior to the move, but many were shocked and had never heard there was to be a change.

Im a memebr of a story board that has geology as its subject. I fear getting swooped up by the "ABSORBENT" like an A2K, because the comraderie and the comfort level of having only interested parties aboard is so much better. I like Dj's idea and endorse it completely.

A little creativity can go a long way .

I had been here for six months and I never heard about it....to this day I am not aware of any effort to involve the community in the change other than a few people Robert hand picked to test the new programming. The top down paternalistic "it is my way or the highway" attitude has not changed it seems.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:uMY4dUBNKnYJ:www.philosophyforum.com/forum.php+www.philosophyforum.com&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca&client=firefox-a
this is google's cached version of the old forum

Well, as I said to Region, Deb, my comments were prompted by the reactions of the philosophers posting here.
There were a number who appeared to be shocked & surprised.
That's all I can go by. I have no idea of how much warning they actually received.
But, as I said in my initial post to this thread, I'm hoping that future "absorptions" don't happen so suddenly, under similar emergency circumstances.

Just curious. How much warning (prior to the last minute emergency) did the philosophers' forum actually have?

Same as us, I think...though they had become aware the board had been purchased.

It was clear from what I saw that Rob had planned a slow merge, and was doing prep work...then the hack happened, and bang!

A couple of days, I think. It happened that it took longer than that.

The dilemma is being mirrored right here.

I have seen numerous posts here explaining that the merge had to happen on an emergency basis because of a hack. It looks as though you have not seen those numerous posts.

It's just not in Rob's interests to do this stuff so suddenly. Look at the work that is going on trying to manage the results!

He's' made it as clear as is humanly possible that he hated having to do this suddenly.

Thing is, as I said, I think lots of warning and such would have made it easier for some, but I think no matter what was done, there would still have been a lot of Philosophy Forum folk who didn't see any announcements. It's just how humans are.

I don't want to seem defensive on his behalf, but I think it's a bit tough for him to be doing all this work to try to repair the damage from being forced into doing something the exact way he didn't want to do it because of an emergency, and also to have folk telling him he should do it the exact way he had planned to do it.

Likely depends on how long the folk paying for your board and running it are prepared to do so.

I know exactly what you mean, but the tow recently absorbed boards were put up for sale by their owners.

So a couple of days' notice.
OK, I see.

hamburgboy and I were talking about this last night. Did any of the droids hang in after their sudden merge?

I hope at least a handful of the philosophers hang in here. Lots would be better, but changing forums is rough. The food forum I used to spend a lot of time at was pretty much decimated when the software was changed earlier this year. It was a really distressing experience all round.