I'm just curious if anyone has had experience with changing the name of an established forum. I think mine really needs this change, but I'm afraid it may have less than desirable effects. Along with it I planned on changing the look and set up too (same forum, only adding content to a main site).

My forum has been up since 9/05. We've got 7668 members, 3450 active members. During the day there's anywhere from 200 to 350 members online at one time (right now at midnight, there's 120). Over 500k posts. We also get about 30-40 new registrations a day...although, I don't expect changes to affect that really.

Hoping someone has some words of wisdom before I make such huge changes.

I would advise against changing your name that far along... stick with it! Obviously you're doing something right if you have those numbers.

__________________
World of Warcraft Forums - Your #1 place to discuss all things World of Warcraft.

whats the current name and what do you want to change the name to?

because your forum has those stats i would just stick with the name because it seems fine

__________________
Will Stumpf - TalkNikon
Submit your sites -> Quality Link Directory

My forum is a parenting board focused on parents who use cloth diapers (and generally live naturally). With diaper in the title, it seems we get some adult fetish traffic now and then and I'm just not comfortable with that at all.

I know a name change won't fix that completely, but maybe it will cut down on that traffic. I'm also hoping it clarifies that the site is NOT about that. Once you visit, its obvious its not about that....but, some of those sickos still get off on the normal stuff we chat about.

About a year ago or so members of the community (not just my forum specifically, but 2 other forums) used to feel comfortable sharing pictures of their kids every now and then....often to show off a cute cloth diaper or to demonstrate fit, etc. A LOT of these pictures ended up on an adult diaper fetish site. Luckily, the authorities got involved and the people running that site did some jail time, but there are most definately still people like that out there Members are much more protective about their pictures, but pictures are still shared now and then.

Wow. That really sucks!

__________________

wow that is really not good but at least the people got what time!

As for the name chnage i went through this not long ago i changed the domain and found the domain i wanted i think it was the right move i set up a redirect of the old site name so it sent the person to the site i have seen this done on other sites now ware they leave a page telling you the site has been moved it did not do anything to my site other than lose it PR rank it had at the time.

__________________
My forum AllTones4U
Freembiworld
mygreatsite

Ahhh the wonders of the internet.

I did change my forum domain after 5 years and along with it the name. But, the switch was to a name more appropriate for the subject of the forums.

I don't regret it at all. It took a lot of planning and preparation, but it was definitely a great move. My traffic totals are on pace to triple this month from the averages over the last year at the old domain/name.

Now, I don't attribute all that increase to the name change, as we also upgraded to vbulletin and had a large userbase to begin with that we could email about the upgrade/change. That really got a lot of our inactive users back and posting. But, a name change is survivable and can be beneficial, as in my case.

__________________
Michael Sasek

osCMax - supercharge your e-commerce

Judging by the problems that you're having with your current domain, I would recommend making the change also. It's definitely a long term solution, because things will not return back to normal right away or any time soon, but things should be better off in the long run.

If/when you do it, just set up a redirect from your old domain and make sure that all of your members are on the same page regarding the change to a new name. It might not hurt to ask for feedback before you make the move - Give your members a chance to pick the new name, they might like that

__________________
...some super-sweet signature

Getting your members to think of new domain names could be a risky move.

__________________

Yeah, that is just gross. Changing the theme of the website and the header might help. Once these perves realize they aren't going to get what they are looking for, they will just leave. (Hopefully )

__________________

Like Music? Talk about anything music related here!