[Lily]

And what happens if I am already using bbpress? What will happen to the posts after I link buddypress to it?

[r-a-y]

It’s currently not possible to have a forum without requiring a user to join a group. However, with the following patch, you can:
https://trac.buddypress.org/attachment/ticket/2540/disable_auto_join_constant.patch

Read the details here:
https://trac.buddypress.org/ticket/2540

—

Re: second part of your question – read this:
https://codex.buddypress.org/how-to-guides/using-an-existing-bbpress-installation/

Also, your external bbPress posts will not show up in the BuddyPress activity stream without a custom-coded bbPress plugin.

[gregfielding]

Brajesh has a solution: http://buddydev.com/buddypress/introducing-the-first-stable-version-of-global-forums-plugin/

[Lily]

@r-a-y: how do I get to the files shown on https://trac.buddypress.org/attachment/ticket/2540/disable_auto_join_constant.patch , e.g. bp-themes/bp-default/groups/single/forum/topic.php?

[r-a-y]

@shimmermoss – Make the changes as outlined in the patch. There are three files you have to modify. You’ll most likely have to access these files via FTP to edit them.