EDIT: It's been over a week, and it seems particularly important that CEA answer this.
I see some significant disadvantages to this, to the point that it should be reconsidered.
EffectiveAltruism.org is designed around making EA welcoming and appealing to newcomers. The EA Forum is quite the opposite... it is in depth, can involve controversial ideas and discussions, and can sometimes have a less welcoming tone in the content and comments.
They're really polar opposites in terms of EA, and by bringing the two together in the same domain and with the same front-end you're closely associating them. This violates Marketing 101, bringing two things together that are positioned so differently.
By sharing the same domain, they two will be closely associated in search, and by changing the front-end the association will be much stronger.
Is the intention for the forum to have more newcomers on it? I fear it will become like the Effective Altruism Facebook page in depth of content and usefulness.
Or alternatively if the forum content doesn't change, it will turn off newcomers and detract from the utility of the main EffectiveAltruism.org site.
I'd like to further understand the plan for bringing these quite different things together, and how you might mitigate the dilution of the forum.
Small side note: Forum.effectivealtruism.org has some SEO disadvantages (v. EffectiveAltruism.org/forum), and the way you implement this transition from a technical standpoint will also affect SEO significantly, so I urge you to consult with somebody about proper ways to do so.
Thanks Julia!
I would like to add my thanks to Ali Woodman and Rebecca Raible, who did much of the moderation over the last couple of years, as well as Dot Impact, Trike and the rest of the previous moderators. My perspective is that since I've moved toward research and CEA has grown, it no-longer makes sense for me to dedicate my time to continuing to manage the forum. So I'm grateful for CEA's takeover. Of course, I'm still happy to consult if you need help understanding how the forum has run, or thinking about its strategy.
Thanks all and long live effective altruism! ;)
Ryan