I found that forums was selected as a legacy buddypress component. I had de-selected it previously but it must not have saved. De-selecting it this time enabled the topic to work again so the problem is fixed.
I contacted my web host and they increased the memory limit to my public_html folder to 64mb. Now the forums run properly. In case anyone else has this problem, it seems worth contacting your host.
I find the same problem when I create a fresh installation on the same server. I also have this problem in another wordpress installation on the same server. There was a recent migration of files across to different servers. Is buddypress dependent on particular operating systems?
There seems to be something wrong with the custom header process with the buddypress theme. I set up images with 1250 × 125 pixel dimensions, but they are then cropped and expanded, so part of the image is missing and the resolution is lowered. Most frustrating. Has anyone found this?
I now see that the WP installation combines authors and subscribers (Buddypress). So new subscribers can be added to this list from the dashboard. Thanks me.
I’ll keep this inquiry here in case someone else finds themselves in this quandry.
