Thanks for the replies. I think I’m creating a problem for myself bigger than trying to keep up to date with all the upgrades… problem is trying to upgrade older version of buddypress to new version with some plugins now defunct, so quite a change to the site. Having the ability to run a beta site in parallel tapping into the existing data for the network, groups and forums would allow for development to the point of going live and providing some members to test out with their posts being kept, rather than a complete swap out, with always too little testing.
