BuddyPress.org

“I’ve been taught not to mess with those files because when update day comes im screwed.”

@porscheheritage, you can mess with those files as much as you please as long as you are not editing the files within pluginsbuddypressbp-themesbp-default

You should in fact have a child theme an entirely new theme to edit so you don’t run into problems if you update buddypress.