I notice a lot of forums are being bought up by companies who then convert the forum to their own forum software/platform so they can serve ads and sell product

I notice a lot of forums are being bought up by companies who then convert the forum to their own forum software/platform so they can serve ads and sell products to the "captive audience". For example, VerticalScope[0] who use nice euphemistic PR language like "enabling the world to share expertise and discover knowledge on subjects they love", which actually means "we buy thriving forums so we can sell advertising on them". According to their own site, they have 1200+ forums. Pretty disappointing, but the commercialization and monetary exploitation of the internet knows no bounds. I love the testimonials on one page[1] where they market to businesses: "By utilizing the VerticalScope network of sites, we are able to engage with enthusiasts and position our business as a contributor in order to better understand our customers, improve products and service, and build brand awareness." One thing I'm really curious is how much the payout is for forum admins who sell their community to businesses like this. I'm basically not really willing to participate in forums anymore because this (or a domain squat) appears to be the ultimate destination of the overwhelming majority of them. Well, that and their likelihood of becoming an avenue for adware/malware distribution since they get hacked constantly. :P Oh, it turns out VerticalScope isn't immune to the "getting hacked" issue, either, as some 45 million accounts were compromised a while back[2]. Now a whole different type of business can "engage with enthusiasts", it seems. On the upside, it appears their UI has improved greatly since they first started buying up forums. Initially the usability was pretty poor IMO, but now is fairly acceptable. [0] https://www.verticalscope.com/ https://www.verticalscope.com/ [1] https://www.suzuki-forums.com/business/ https://www.suzuki-forums.com/business/ [2] https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/11/2nd-breach-at-verticalscope-impacts/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/11/2nd-breach-at-verticalsc...