Ask HN: Purchase small site as launchpad?

AFAIK there are 2 reasons to acquire a company:<p>a) when there's an operational deficiency (and you have the wherewithal to solve it), and<p>b) when there's a management deficiency (and you have the wherewithal to solve it)<p>I imagine that's every bit as true on the web as it is offline. So from where you're standing, do you see an opportunity the current owner is missing? Do you have the skill and resources to install that value? If after a good hard consult with your gut you can answer Yes to both questions it may be a good idea to move forward.

It's a good strategy. Do it if you can get it for a good price.

In some sense, good forums become "communities". And communities aren't really for sale. You can buy the domain name and administrative rights, but you can't buy the community, if that makes sense. If you don't have a fairly good idea of how you will win over the members of the community, you may be just wasting your time and money. Simply replacing whoever runs the place now is likely to fundamentally change the character of the community and may lose a lot of members in the process. I would encourage you to spend time there as a member and try to understand what the community is all about.<p>Communities often largely revolve around a few key personalities. Losing one of them can seriously damage traffic (as well as other aspects of the experience). It may be necessary if they are a huge fly in the ointment, but then the question becomes "what are you going to replace them with?"<p>Building community is more than just a numbers a game.<p>Good luck with this.