No, it's not that critical...a scheduled downtime isn't out of the question. I was just running several different ideas around in my mind, and was just curious if something like this was possible. Yes, it would be more work, I'm more curious about the logistics....COULD it be done. I didn't know if there be any data on either that would conflict trying to merge two databases like that.
TheGerman wrote:...The only problem I see is that you will have duplicated post/user id fields. Say you make a db dump and let the users keep posting. Then convert the dump, and let the users keep posting there. New posts from after the dump (but before the conversion), will have the same id as new posts from after the conversion, and trying to merge those into the same database is a primary key conflict (the "alternate timeline" problem). I don't think that will be easy to get around, especially if we're talking about so many users/posts a day.
That's exactly what I was foreseeing as well, but I'm no expert. Thanks for the info...I'll just go with the planned downtime.