Exactly my point. I even would disagree about the old partly unmoderated forums being bad PR as well as the myth that you find every important discussion on TL too (which you don't...i know enough players who read and posted only on the non-TL and even if the same topic appears on both forums, it is most of the time differently formulated or discussed).
First, it shows (even the trolling and arguing parts) that the game has a LONG history and people actually cared enough to argue.
Second, i find it very sad, that as EU customer i now have a very limited time to browse and read the US forums (in the past i found good help for quests or items via google and then through the forums there as well). I browsed the forums over there usually only when i looked for specific info...not as default. Therefore i find it highly unlikely that more than a handful of people will go and do this now (or even care enough to copy paste things correctly).
Vice versa probably for US customers. I can easily overread and ignore all the drama and troll posts...but i can not bring back what will be lost in useful info.
Third, the workload even in copying and pasting the essential faqs, info and discussions as it is done now is enormously greater than the alternative of just keeping the old forums and then search/link/quote.
I find it hard to believe that money for webspace is an issue nowadays...and my offer still stands, if that is the only reason where funcom is in trouble Any other reason (like the one Slith stated) is at least a two-edged sword or goes from fishy to beyond fishy, imo. Again, the merge in itself was very welcome and you already see good input from both sides, the decision to delete the old forums so soon is still for me nothing but an insult to caring players.