Why don’t you just use WPMU + BBpress as your starting point?
Buddypress is next generation social networking. It offers features that end-users have come to expect via Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Groups are an integral part of that; forums are an awkward add-on imho.
If you have BP installed on connect.idotter.ch, you should be able to access your group forums at connect.idotter.ch/forums.
How are you trying to install the forums component? It should be as easy as going to “BuddyPress > Forums setup” in the WP admin backend.
i’d like to use BP group forums … (at http://connect.idotter.ch)
@mike that would clearly accomplish the main goal of this idea. I totally agree with you that forums are the best way to have complex and ordered discussions.
The reason i posted this idea as “Forums based on Activity-Items (instead of bbPress)” and not just as “Frontpage Forum Posts” is that i thought it would be great if the forums could directly benefit from improvements on the Activity Stream Technology in the future.
For instance if there would be “Global Content Tagging” (https://buddypress.org/forums/topic/global-content-tagging) and “Attachments for Activity Items” (https://buddypress.org/forums/topic/attachments-for-activity-items) added in a future version of BP the forums could directly benefit of this features, because they were build with the same technology. This should be valid for plugins too. I know this would be a big step, certainly with some drawbacks at the beginnig, but overall i believe this would be more straight forward and future proof.
@21cdb you clearly put a lot of thought and effort into your ideas. bravo. on this one, I am slightly confused though. Aside from the absense of syncing of the stream and forums (forthcoming according to Andy) What do you mean forums are used less and less? To my mind, they are still an awesome way to have discussions remain anchored contextually to the group to which they originate & belong. (indeed it is a pain to have to send a user back to the forum to reply but I view that as a temp setback)
I am also confused by the forums are mor bbPress than BP. I thnk the default styling alone removes the similarities. When Adny syncs them, does this accomplish your goal? (I like the ‘post in’ drop down btw)
I think my situation is somewhat unique as
$bp->forums->bbconfig = $bp->site_options['bb-config-location']; which is loaded in bp-forums.php is different (subdomain) than the wp root bb-config.php which had a stale reference to the default bb table prefix.
I’m not certain – but you may be able to call do_action( 'bbpress_init' );
@dwenaus
Ok, just updated to 1.0.3 and hit another snag. Seems you have the bb_meta table hardcoded as I’m using an external forum install
nevermind – looks like i have weird issue with an external bbpress install and various prefix values being defined (might be a buddypress bug)
@idotter
Can you be specific when you say “reinstalled bbPress twice”?
Are you trying to have an external bbPress install?
Or are you trying to use the BP group forums? eg. testbp.org/forums
I just installed and am yet to Post A Topic because of an error.
http://students.expression.edu
Updated to 0.1.6.
Added localization and ability to set default map (when no markers yet) to user’s city, based on its IP.
@schwooba : try to update to 0.1.6.
If it still does it;
have your firebug enabled ?
Could you try with firebug opened ?
Please reply on the support forum : http://dev.benoitgreant.be/bbpress/forum/buddypress-maps
Anybody?
I did a search in the BuddyPress folder, and I can’t see any mention of a plugins.php file except for within bbpress, which I think refers to the plugins.php file within that.
Can any of the devs of the new theme explain exactly what purpose these plugins.php files serve? From I can see, there’s no purpose….
am i the onlyone with this issue?
I agree that this is more difficult than it should be. I’m finding that when I try following the buddypress codex on this with using @imports, the admin bar works fine, but pulling in the default theme css screws up a lot of things. I’ve found that just grabbing the default buddypress theme’s css sytles that are in addition to the core wordpress ones is working better.
I really think that the buddypress default theme should do a better job at segregating core wordpress css tags from the buddypress specific ones. The buddypress-specific css styles seem to be too dependend on the core wordpress ones. For example, core wordpress typically removes the dots from
entries and the wordpress sub-nav tabs assume that’s already done. I’d like to see the buddypress specific tabs assign all the css properties they need so those can be pasted into an existing theme with ease.
While I’m making progress, the time involved to get it perfect is too high. Not to mention buddypress really adds a lot of overhead and slows down my site. I haven’t even installed the bbpress forums yet as I’m scared to death of what that will do to site performance. I’m on a dedicated server, too, and its just not good.
I’m thinking about writing a tutorial on my site http://xtremelysocial.com to document what I’m doing to help others with this. However, regarless of what tutorials get published, in the end there is just way too much css tweaking required.
I have to say that I’m glad to see that the community around BP appears to be very strong, and that’s good thing. I’ve always tried very hard to advocate for open source, and have done so for over a decade now. I plan on advocating more for WordPress, BuddyPress, and bbPress, as well as the WordPress Foundation through my Autism site. I take exception to those who talk about being able to tell when a site is based on WordPress. Of course, its up to the designer of the site whether or not they will fly that flag, and I’ve long ago decided that I would let everyone know what I was using to get things done. I’ve been running Mobodojo on WP since 1.2.
Sadly, though, I’ve been growing accustomed to the automagical nature of WP and have stopped using themes which need to be tweaked every time the code base gets updated (though Atahualpa and Arras are stunningly powerful themes) as well as counting on plugins to do everything I need. The deficit lies in the fact that I’m hopeless when it comes to coding. Sure, I can edit existing PHP and even make it work 13% of the time, and I’ve been hacking around HTML for years, but there are things I need to have my site do, and so I’ll need to buckle down and either find out a way to do it myself or pass along my passion to someone (or someones) who have the skills.
I realize that my opening post sounded upset, and I was, but that frustration should never have been vented on the BP community. I do thank you all for making some mild fun of me and, otherwise, being very cordial and helpful. I’m also pleased with myself to have managed to spark a little bout of debugging 
The site is phrind.com. If you aren’t a member, you will be redirected to blog.phrind.com.
either create a matching theme or use deep integration
BTW, yes, I understand the principles of customing skinning and css but what I am asking is that it surely must be a fairly simple implant or template linking.
you’ll need to create a new theme for bbpress, as i don’t believe a bbpress look-like buddypress is available
If you use the standalone BBpress option, how can you make it use the same template as the integrated Buddypress/BBpress installation?
Thanks
BTW, yes, I understand the principles of customing skinning and css but what I am asking is that it surely must be a fairly simple implant or template linking.
I am trying to make a general forum any member can access without having to join a group or being limited to only that group or groups.
just a warning for later on headaches
I don’t really believe Buddypress will support this (at least not untill Buddypress 1.4, and even then only if lots of users demand it), their might be a plugin of some sort that allows it though. Shouldn’t be that hard to copy the data to the buddypress version if that happens.
@Xevo
My point was what if BuddyPress supports this at a later date which in my opinion it will. He should have scope for importing that in the BuddyPress then. no?
Just install buddypress with group forums and install bbpress seperate, with intergration offcourse.
There’s nothing wrong with that.
You can certainly have a standalone install of bbPress along with BuddyPress and then integrate it with the site to give user table sharing and login sync.
But I would suggest to check how BuddyPress is going to handle this issue at a later date so that if you want to import it back to single system then you can because BuddyPress might support it then.
Hi
I was wondering if anyone of you tried to install bbpress the “old way” and STILL have groups, in order to have a plain old bbpress forum (not attached to any group) AND groups.
I just installed the brand new BP 1.2 (which is really a great job) and installed bbpress automatically, but, as a couple of you said, it’s confusing to me, and it will be to the users too.
Thx.
