Re: Simple needs wondering if I need WPMU/Buddypress please advise
libationblog, basically BuddyPress/WPMU will meet all of your needs and wants, but you might have to hold its hand and then twist its arm to get it to listen.
When you consider that WordPress alone can do just about all of the things you mention with the help of independent plugins, adding BuddyPress on top of it alleviates all of the user profile woes that WordPress alone can’t do. But if you plan on using BuddyPress, then you need to step up to WPMU, which sounds like you might not really need, but have to have to use BP.
The nice thing about WPMU is that you don’t need to let people have their own blogs, so it will work exactly the same as a single user WordPress installation does, but with BuddyPress on top of it.
I say give it a go, and give yourself a few solid days to get used to how BP works, and you will probably be pretty happy with what you end up with.
