Members who leave after the sale of the forum

What do you think of members who leave after the sale of a forum? Are they true members, or members who are just friends with the previous owner, and then you follow them to their new project(s)

Post your thoughts here!

 

Now this I've never had happen (thankfully!) but I have seen it on other forums, and I'm pretty sure it all depends. If you were leaving only because you were friends with the former owner and only wanted to follow him/her to their next project, then I don't think that would make them a true member. However, if they stuck around after the sale, but later left for more legitament reasons, say if the forum wasn't being run properly, that would be a more legit reason for members to leave your or someone else's site.

 

Yea, I don't understand why people jump ship straight away, you need to wait and see what happens before making an informed decision about the new ownership

 

I will stay on a forum after it has been sold, but if it starts to go downhill and not offer the same quality's as it did before i will just leave. The new ownership could improve the forum but more often than not they buy the forum out of desire of owning a successful community and it will just die due to the new owner not putting their all into they forum as the previous owner did.

 

Exactly. Sometimes people who purchase forums have never done so before and are therefore learning the ropes, so you need to give them a chance to get used to a new routine and get used to what the rules of that site are and whatever. You shouldn't always assume a new owner means bad news. Some owners who have never run a site before in their lives sometimes become well respected site owners and whatever, and everyone will warm up to the new owner in time.

 

Yea, that's why you should always give them a chance

Tell me about it, although I reckon half of the time, it backfires because it's usually not too long until the true intentions of the new owner appear, etc.

 

Loyal members tend to follow the owner everywhere he/she goes. It's apart of having a nice-family like atmosphere community. Nobody likes a new owner, would you stay if your favorite forum was sold, and the new owner wasn't like the old owner?

 

I will too. Especially if it's a site that was sold that I really enjoyed being active on, then I will most certainly commence sticking around and being as active as possible. However, like you said, Lines do have to be drawn somewhere, and if it all goes downhill, like if the new owner truly turns out to be nothing short of a piece of crap, then it's time to break all ties with that site: Disable PM notifications if you had those on, deleting your signature/avatar if you had one, etc.

 

If like others have said if the forum goes down hill after the sale then I would leave but I would give the new admin a chance

 

There is many ways you can define a true member, but I wouldn't see a problem with someone leaving a forum if it were sold. Maybe because of the owner they felt comfortable around, and with a new person taking charge it just wouldn't be the same for them, while for others it might not even be a problem.

Take for example if I sold AdminBB, and me and Ashley.S. and were no longer admins here and decided to leave AdminBB after selling it I doubt the loyal members we have here would still be active, it doesn't make them an unloyal member because prior to selling it they were loyal and true and it isnt there fault we sold it causing them to leave, its our fault.

 

That's true, but I would'nt feel guilty because it's their decision to stay or go, it's theirs. We can't force them to stay can we?

 

No we cant

 

A lot of people liked the owner as a person and the idea of a new owner shocks them so they leave.

 

I wouldn't be moping about it or feel guilty about it either, because while it is upsetting, it's nothing to worry about.

 

I can understand why people want to leave when someone else takes over.

Real world references:
Its like when CVS pharmacy bought out Longs pharmacy & started changing things. They lost a ton of business. Or like when my bank was bought out by another bank. I switched to a bank of MY choice after that happened.

 

Good example.
Off Topic: And by banks are you referring to Wells Fargo buying Wachovia?

 

No.
This was a few years ago. It was a local bank bought out by Bank of the West.

 

Members may just prefer the previous owner and follow them or maybe they just don't like the new owner

 

I guess there tired of manging or being around the own forum... Ive seen this before... It's not that he completely left, but he just became very un-active

 

Members that are loyal to a community will stick by - even if the community is sold. As long as the new owner doesn't implement various changes, I'm 100% sure members will stick around for the greater good.