Re: Hand-coding widgets into theme OR is there a plugin that remembers the defaults?
Currently there is no “Default Blog Widgets” plugin, but I’ve thought long and hard about making one. 
Currently hard coding the sidebars is our only option to do this. It isn’t difficult, but it does involve some knowledge of HTML and WordPress/BuddyPress functions.
There are however tons of articles in the WordPress codex on how to do this, as well as write ups from random WordPress enthusiasts all over the web that explain very well how to do this.
The way I did it, was to copy the buddypress-home theme files into a new directory called buddypress-user. Edit the style.css file and rename the second theme to whatever you’d like. Delete home.php. Delete the sidebar code in functions.php. Go into sidebar.php and delete the widget function call. Still in sidebar.php, start editing and inserting your HTML and php functions.
