Seems reasonable. The whole reason we don't just run two worlds is that G1 wants to keep our server from being completely dependent on multi-world mods that might become unmaintained or whatever. But if it were a temporary solution to allow people to shuttle over some of their belongings... that might be an option.
While a completely fresh start would be cool, the fact is people would have a billion diamonds and other stuff within a week or two anyway. So not much is lost in the freshness factor by letting people bring over loot.
What does everyone think of this idea:
Temporarily run a smallish 1.8 world in parallel with 1.7 world. 1.7 world goes offline after a couple weeks or something. When 1.9 comes out, 1.8 expands to a larger size. We don't need a huge world to start since the area around spawn will keep people busy for a long while.
EDIT: On another note, anyone know where I an upload a 20MB PNG?
I vote 100% for that. There is not a ton of stuff to move, but it still woudl be cool to move all my wool and dyes over to the new world. Would make rebuilding some pixel art easier.
Let me migrate stuff and I think you can get some of the "new world " hold outs to switch over.