BuddyPress.org

Another side note from Andy’s last paragraph, these BuddyPress extensions could come in just about any form; additional theme files to be added as a “plus pack” (remember those?!) or a plugin to override and replace existing files as a child theme, or included in the next version of the theme itself.

Also, if you’re paying attention the directory of the included parent theme is “bp-sn-parent.” It stands for “BuddyPress Social Network Parent” which insinuates that theme authors are encouraged to create their own parent themes for something other than social networking, and opens the door for other parent theme sets to be included in the core if they’re rad enough.

Say someone makes a sweet micro-blogging theme ala Twitter, that gives us “bp-mb-parent” to let you switch between totally different setups. Or say someone switches the emphasis away from blogs and users and shifts it to the discussion or support forums; that gives us “bp-df-parent” and “bp-sf-parent”

Andy’s right too. The majority of people so far interested in BuddyPress have been people that are also first being introduced to WPMU and starting a social network. Very few support questions come through asking how to port this existing theme to fit BuddyPress. The ones that do are typically answered by the theme author or the person is so devoted to making it work, that they convert the theme themselves.

I’m really not sure how much harder it is for existing themes to use BuddyPress; it’s just different, but in a better way in my opinion.