`I wish there was more written about what buddypress can do and what the end result will look like. I don’t like the examples in the showcase because they don’t even remotely look like the buddypress that I have. I would love to see a very plain skeleton example of what buddypress does and how to set up a basic forum.`
BuddyPress has a test demo site [http://testbp.org] which will show you what it can do out of the box without doing any extra coding. The only way i can think of to put the end result into words is “It gives you a social network out of the box” (which is already on the BuddyPress.org homepage)

I’d highly recommend reading the Getting started pages on the codex https://codex.buddypress.org/getting-started/ go to page links on the right sidebar and read them

`For instance what is the difference between a forum and a post. They look exactly alike in the dashboard.`
As BuddyPress is an extension of WordPress, and is designed for WP users, is defining Blog Post and Forum Post necessary? I think your concern may be better at WordPress.org/forums as BuddyPress doesn’t define the word themselves, WordPress does.

`You can’t start a group because there are no topics.`
Are you using a plugin that makes topics a prequisite for starting a group? That’s not the way it works out of the box from my experience.

`Wouldn’t it be nice to have a little welcome page saying, “Here’s how to set up your buddypress forums. First you create a few groups. Then add topics to each group. You can’t add this until you add that so start with this.

I just want an overview so that I can know if I’m doing something wrong or if there is a problem with the software when I can’t add a forum or don’t see my topic.`
Seems you’ve already figured it out. As an open source project, You can contribute back what you learn by creating a codex article. https://codex.buddypress.org/

“MySQL server has gone away” is a pretty important error which must be affecting several things, even if it’s not the root cause of this issue. The connection to your database is being dropped, or lost, for some reason.

I do not know too much about configuring MySQL servers. The relevant documentation is http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/gone-away.html — I’d hope that your host would have sufficient technical knowledge to better understand approaches to fix the problem (it’s likely to be a configuration change done on the server setup, rather than your WordPress install).

This isn’t a BuddyPress question at all. Look for a robots.txt file in the root of your site in an FTP client (or similar).

This is caused by your use of the “BuddyPress-multilingual” plugin. Please talk to that plugin’s authors for support.

Anything in your web browser’s javascript console (if you know how to access it) when users reply to a forum topic? Anything added to your web server’s PHP error log? (Ask your host for help if you are not sure how to access that).

One of the drawbacks of a plugin that requires it’s own theme located within the actual plugin is that if you deactivate the plugin then immediately try and visit the front of the site you will throw an error as WP still has the bp-default theme listed in the DB as the current theme; a child theme has an approach it can take to programmaticaly switch the theme back to the WP default if BP isn’t active.

We revised that code to work correctly as it exists in the BP default theme but it can’t run from that functions.php file but would work if copied to child theme functions.php.

Otherwise after deactivating BP you need to next access the theme page in the dashboard and if not showing a WP default select one before trying to view the frontend of the site.

There’s one in development, i.e, not on production environments though – https://github.com/r-a-y/bp-reply-by-email

@energynet Go to https://bbpress.org/forums/ and log in using same username and password used here. Click on “Add New” link right after “Topics” title on that page.

@tina have you ever wondered why they can’t get Akismet to block the spammers like it does on WordPress? And even more thought provoking is how does this site block spammers so well but none of us regular users can manage a normal BP install without being overtaken by spam? After all the hard work to get BP looking nice, it’s a waste due to issues like this.

Tina – see response in your post

@neononcon no secret, it takes a village to watch out for spammers in BPorg, WPorg bbPorg etc which share the same userbase. Volunteers report spam, Moderators delete spam posts, Admins delete so from the backend and so forth.

B. At the bottom of the same 16 files, replace:
`

`

with the following (except for registration/register.php):
`

`

with the following for registration/register.php:
`

jQuery(document).ready( function() {
if ( jQuery(‘div#blog-details’).length && !jQuery(‘div#blog-details’).hasClass(‘show’) )
jQuery(‘div#blog-details’).toggle();
jQuery( ‘input#signup_with_blog’ ).click( function() {
jQuery(‘div#blog-details’).fadeOut().toggle();
});
});

`

Save files.

C. Upload the 6 BP folders containing the 16 files you’ve just revised to your server wp-content/themes/canvas-child-theme-name/

D. Copy the style modifications made in BP Twenty Ten at https://codex.buddypress.org/theme-development/theme-dev-bp-template-pack-walkthrough-twenty-ten-bp-1-5/3/ and paste to your theme’s stylesheet. Adjust to taste.

Based on the HTML structure of your theme, you need to use the first option, i.e., change 16 template files within the 6 BP folders transferred to your canvas child theme folder in server during the compatibility process.

If you’ve previously changed any of the BP template files in your theme folder in server, replace all of them for a clean slate by deleting the 6 BP folders – /activity, /blogs, /forums, /groups, /members, and /registration – then re-run Appearance > BP Compatibility.

Download the 6 clean BP folders to your computer hard drive.

A. At the top of each of those 16 template files I linked to above, replace
`

I’m actually about ready to pitch Buddypress completely at this point because of spam. I’ve tried all the options I see mentioned all over the web about how to combat spammers…and my Buddypress site is the only one that its consistently not working on. Even with more than one captcha hoop to jump through on registration, they are still getting in and filling up my activity stream! I’ve about had it.

Check out how it’s done for user profile http://buddydev.com/buddypress/allow-your-users-to-change-their-profile-page-background-using-bp-custom-background-for-user-profile-plugin/

What I can’t understand is how all the big time Buddypress sites don’t have the same heavy spam that little, unkown sites are experiencing. This site for example. Where’s the spam? Or testbp.org, where oh where is the spammmmm?! They are obviously doing something to block it. But what’s the secret, and why is it a secret??

– Make sure you still have BP Template Pack plugin activated
– Check whether you have the create.php file in your theme folder in server wp-content/themes/ifeature/groups/create.php
– deactivate plugins except BuddyPress and Template Pack and check if you can create a group.

Btw, you have `font-family: ‘Nosifer’, cursive;` text showing up right under the adminbar and right before your header image.