What should I consider when buying or taking over a XenForo forum?

[VisEntities]

I'm considering the idea of buying or taking over an XenForo forum from someone else, but I'm not sure what I should be focusing on. Could anyone advise me on the important factors to look at? For instance, what aspects determine the forum's value, what adds to its worth, and what can help during price negotiations?

Any guidance or tips would be greatly appreciated

 

[Mr Lucky]

For instance, what aspects determine the forum's value, what adds to its worth,

If there is income from ads and/or subscriptions ask to see the figures for the last three years or so.

Also ask for access to stats and analytics.

That’s if you are considering it as a business. If it’s going to be more of a hobby then your gut instinct may play a bigger role.

 

[VisEntities]

If there is income from ads and/or subscriptions ask to see the figures for the last three years or so.

Also ask for access to stats and analytics.

That’s if you are considering it as a business. If it’s going to be more of a hobby then your gut instinct may play a bigger role.

It'll be for business, buying them out

 

[Mr Lucky]

It'll be for business, buying them out

Then look at the income. If they and their members rely on specific paid addons you’d need to take that into account along with xenForo licence renewal.

If they have ads consider if they are over the top and intrusive, if that’s the case I’d be careful about taking too much notice of ad revenue as a KPI.

 

[Arantor]

Worth considering: does the forum have a significant memberbase in Europe, and as such being subject to all the data protection stuff in the EU (not least of which is: where is the server located and does that data cross boundaries it shouldn't, especially if you are thinking of moving it after the purchase)

 

[Mr Lucky]

Worth considering: does the forum have a significant memberbase in Europe, and as such being subject to all the data protection stuff in the EU (not least of which is: where is the server located and does that data cross boundaries it shouldn't, especially if you are thinking of moving it after the purchase)

Most forums should have a significant user base in Europe unless they are specific to one country outside of Europe. Europe data protection is no big deal and should have no impact on a site's monetary value.

 

[Arantor]

Europe data protection is no big deal and should have no impact on a site's monetary value.

Unless you decide to move the hosting from, say, an EU-based host to a US one at which point you will run into all sorts of interesting questions about data protection because the Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework isn't a free passage of data etc.

Does it affect the value? Potentially if you have legal responsibilities you have to be aware of that might affect your costs in running the thing.

 

[Mr Lucky]

you will run into all sorts of interesting questions about data protection

What are those questions?

 

[Arantor]

What are those questions?

Transfer of data across borders, data regions, that sort of thing. Data that resides in Europe being moved to the US has legal implications - not insurmountable ones, but implications nonetheless.

I'm not a lawyer, I don't even play one on TV, but as someone who did spend time hosting sites with EU data where some of the hosting folks involved were not based in the EU, this was interesting. (Especially when part of the hosting arrangement involved Australian sysadmins for 24/7 coverage, and Australia was absolutely not covered by any of the frameworks in force at the time)

Warehousing EU data in a US data centre is more doable since, as I said, the Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework (replaces Privacy Shield, itself replacing Safe Harbour) makes this easier but it's not a magic button - you still can't just give data to whoever might want it even if consent is considerably less required outside of the EU.

At a minimum you have to disclose the change of data controller (something that 'oh hey, I'm your new admin' doesn't really cover) because as a business you're holding EU citizen personal data. The hobby end of it is murky enough but as a business such a thing should be a legal formality to follow.

As with everything, it's about doing your due diligence - being unaware of a legal requirement doesn't make it any less of a requirement. If unsure, consult a lawyer.

 

[Kevin]

Any guidance or tips would be greatly appreciated

... besides the items already discussed, also make sure to ask what version of XF they are running and find out which add-ons they are using, especially if they are using an older version of XF or any custom (bespoke) one-off add-ons that were written just for them.

You don't want to find out after the fact that you've gotten a community stuck-in-time because of the possibly daunting task of having to migrate from XF 1.x to 2.x and/or having to deal with a bunch of custom coded add-ons that may also need to be updated or add-ons that were available commercially but are no longer supported.

 

[VisEntities]

And what's the best way to do the ownership transfer? Should he make me an administrator, or provide his account credentials? I'm new to XenForo myself, so I'm not entirely sure how this works

 

[FTL]

And what's the best way to do the ownership transfer? Should he make me an administrator, or provide his account credentials? I'm new to XenForo myself, so I'm not entirely sure how this works

XF has an official ownership transfer system on here and only this should be used. Note that the seller must have a legit and active license for this to work.

P

Thread 'Selling and buying second hand licenses'

Jul 11, 2017

Although we would prefer that licenses are purchased directly from us, we do understand and appreciate that there is a market for second hand licenses.

With that in mind, please ensure that the license you are selling, or buying, is eligible to be transferred.

Licenses are eligible to be transferred 90 days after purchase or since it was transferred to you and must be active.

What this means is you can only sell the license 3 months or more after the initial purchase, or since it was transferred to you, and it must have active support (which can be renewed for $60 for a basic...

• Paul B
• Replies: 0
• Forum: XenForo pre-sales questions

• 

 

[VisEntities]

XF has an official ownership transfer system on here and only this should be used. Note that the seller must have a legit and active license for this to work.

P

Thread 'Selling and buying second hand licenses'

Jul 11, 2017

Although we would prefer that licenses are purchased directly from us, we do understand and appreciate that there is a market for second hand licenses.

With that in mind, please ensure that the license you are selling, or buying, is eligible to be transferred.

Licenses are eligible to be transferred 90 days after purchase or since it was transferred to you and must be active.

What this means is you can only sell the license 3 months or more after the initial purchase, or since it was transferred to you, and it must have active support (which can be renewed for $60 for a basic...

• Paul B
• Replies: 0
• Forum: XenForo pre-sales questions

• 

Appreciate it

 

[Mr Lucky]

t you will run into all sorts of interesting questions about data protection because the Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework isn't a free passage of data etc.

I got some advice on this from someone who had sold a forum licence, re:user data (in most jurisdictions)

As you have suspected, you are not allowed to simply sell the user data. You can hand over the forum to someone else for free or for payment, who will continue to run it. The users must be informed and given the opportunity to refuse the transfer and unsubscribe or agree. Email is not very suitable for this. I would log everyone out and present a new login page. In the event of a takeover, there will be new terms and conditions anyway, which the user will have to confirm. After such a clean transfer, you are no longer responsible for data usage.

 

[VisEntities]

I got some advice on this from someone who had sold a forum licence, re:user data (in most jurisdictions)

As you have suspected, you are not allowed to simply sell the user data. You can hand over the forum to someone else for free or for payment, who will continue to run it. The users must be informed and given the opportunity to refuse the transfer and unsubscribe or agree. Email is not very suitable for this. I would log everyone out and present a new login page. In the event of a takeover, there will be new terms and conditions anyway, which the user will have to confirm. After such a clean transfer, you are no longer responsible for data usage.

I like that, sounds very reasonable

 

[Arantor]

I got some advice on this from someone who had sold a forum licence, re:user data (in most jurisdictions)

As you have suspected, you are not allowed to simply sell the user data. You can hand over the forum to someone else for free or for payment, who will continue to run it. The users must be informed and given the opportunity to refuse the transfer and unsubscribe or agree. Email is not very suitable for this. I would log everyone out and present a new login page. In the event of a takeover, there will be new terms and conditions anyway, which the user will have to confirm. After such a clean transfer, you are no longer responsible for data usage.

Pretty much, yeah, and yet something you don’t see when forums change owners…

As I said, it is something to think about while handling a sale, just in some cases you might not have to think too hard.