BuddyPress.org

@Modemlooper

I ‘kind of’ agree with you when you say post_types are for individual pieces of content, but also disagree. Post types allows me to create a new object where I can assign multiple attributes to that object type ‘metadata, taxonomies’. You are also able to easily group individual object types of the post type together much easier than with pages. The real power comes into play when you create multiple post types and link them together. Then I have a ‘pods’ type of system with multi-relational datasets to a given object. There is just 100x more that I can do with a post type than with a page.

For instance, I am building a complete custom forum system using a post type. You could never do that with pages. Well I suppose you could but it would be much more work and not nearly as elegant. basically my goal is to completely dump the bbpress as it’s so far behind that it has no business in my sites. By using post types, I have all the inherent wp tools right at my fingertips for forum posts. Want to add images/video/tags/ to a post.. done… no work needed.

The advantage is then I could easily add that new post type to the activity stream, complete with all its attributes, ‘metadata’ for the individual object. Something else you can’t really do with pages.

Here is a really generic example of 3.0 multi relational post types in action. (It’s only a start, so please don’t complain about layout, have not even started that part yet, this is more concept than anything else)
http://deardaddy.org/sermons/daneil-ponce-sermon-1/

What you see here is much more than meets the eye
1. This is a custom post type sermons which is related to post types podcasts, preachers, locations.
2. The sermon title, description, and video are part of the sermon post type
3. When on the ‘add sermon’ admin page, you are also able to link it to a pre-existing post type to grab the preacher, podcast, and location. If they do not exist then you can add those attributes within the sermons post type without having to leave. Meaning you don’t have to go to post type podcast to add the audio file to a sermon. Same goes for preachers, locations.
4. sermons and podcast post types also have related taxonomies, ‘series, topics’. which you can directly link within the sermons page.

The easiest way to see how it’s linked is to notice the ‘locations’ link on the sidebar. It goes to:
http://deardaddy.org/locations/his-sanctuary-of-prayer/ which is the post type ‘locations’.

Keep in mind I did not have to manually type in the location when I added the sermon, although I could have, because it already existed. I simply chose it from a drop down of existing locations and they were linked together.

The power of this is simple.
1. I create a location one time
2. I can now add the individual location attribute to any new post type I create so long as I link the post types together, create a relationship in my themes functions file. This means that a user never has to input data more than 1x, it can be used over and over again in any post type.

To wrap up:
You said ‘a way in the front end of bp for users to add a movie’. I am already doing everything but the adding via the front end for the sermon example above. Adding the ability to the bp front end, will take me a bit of work, but it’s possible. I just have not yet had the time to read the bp code close enough. Hence my argument for post types in bp instead of pages. why add a movie page, when I can add a post type movie with all the attributes into the stream. Much much more power that way.

@r-a-y
will be interesting to see the direction they take. If they don’t worry about backwards compat well then the doors are wide open.