Uh, the information is located on:

http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/index.html

Which most people check lol, so anyone who keeps up with FFXIV knows the merge/transfer is coming and what to do, they also know if they're not playing or went inactive they won't get to pick, so that way they can coordinate through their respective means of communication even if they can't use the forums.