EscapistAccount said:
Given that the entire point of this reboot is a clean break and given that they really want to get rid of all the Gamergate stuff if they can and finally given that I personally don't think that ten years of 'is Half Life 2 overrated?' has much reread value I'd be inclined to just let it go. It basically becomes a case of sure, we could preserve the decade of mostly obsolete and forgotten posts and all the banned user accounts, or we could reboot the site and start from scratch.
I would second this motion. If they want a new face and a departure from all the old grudges and controversies that have stuck to this site over the years, thats fine, but it makes no sense to attempt to preserve the old forums. The old crap, minus whatever was put behind the premium account wall, is all going to be found on the internet archives anyway. Leaving it here just draws attention to the fact that the biggest discussions ever on this site are about things we can't mention now.
Considering the pure breadth of banned accounts, people who left and never came back, old contributors, old staff - may as well knock out the user database and start over as well. If you want your old name back you can take it, whatever, but keeping a massive database of people who were banned or left a decade ago makes no sense. If you were thirteen in 2008 and got banned on the escapist you could have a bachelors and a masters degree by now. It would have been a pretty quick masters, but you could crank that thing out in 1.5.