A rumor says it will happen sooner than we think. There’s many ways a move would benefit both the forums and its members.
The cost of running an independent community site is heavy, and the site need to expand. Facebook is a platform that already scales.
Another benefit to both guests and members is Facebook’s wide established user base where many users have web tech issues that would be better met if Sitepoint was on the platform for easy access. And SPF will have a wider audience than it could ever have on its own,
Sitepoint could finally get access to knowledgeable developers. They built Facebook, they use it too, and surely they will help out our own questions. The switch to Discourse long ago was a dificult task but then SPF was on its own, this is different.
And most urgent, at Facebook there’s easy access to much more personal information of every user visiting the community. That would make tailoring the user experience much more friendly, even for first time visitors, e.g. bring SEO issues to the top and push the accessibility department to the bottom.
One argument in the negotiations is that SPF staff could help Facebook in their strive to fight fake information. The need for Facebook is to find a way to weed out bad web tech advices and advisors that makes them look unproffesional.
The hardest question seems to be how much Facebook is ready to share of the wealthy ad revenue SPF will bring them. But that wont block the deal much longer. As of April 1st 2021, SPF will be moving anytime this month. Only staff departments will be left alone until the move is complete.