There are two options for forums…
1) Forums for Groups
2) New! Site Wide Forums

You might have chosen the first one!
thanks

I did cover the image header question in the other thread – no I didn’t copy the code in to the thread as – in all honesty – stating “copy this ‘named’ function” ought to be sufficient to get started with.

I’ll now copy the function I referenced originally – you need to copy this into your child theme functions file, this function will alert BP not to run it’s original version and allows you to manipulate the rulesets that are created for custom headers.

`
function bp_dtheme_header_style() {
global $post;

$header_image = ”;

if ( is_singular() && current_theme_supports( ‘post-thumbnails’ ) && has_post_thumbnail( $post->ID ) ) {
$image = wp_get_attachment_image_src( get_post_thumbnail_id( $post->ID ), ‘post-thumbnail’ );

// $src, $width, $height
if ( !empty( $image ) && $image[1] >= HEADER_IMAGE_WIDTH )
$header_image = $image[0];

} else {
$header_image = get_header_image();
}
?>

#header { background-image: url(); }

#header h1, #header #desc { display: none; }

#header h1 a, #desc { color:#; }

<?php
}
`

Now in the other thread I explained how to adjust the image dimensions by setting the define(‘HEADER_IMAGE_WIDTH’, 400) that will be displayed on the dashboard settings page and that represent the sizes the image will size and crop to, so you should still have that aspect in place.

If you leave the BP default layout unchanged then the header element width is likely wider than your background image ( the header width is stated in the stylesheet, the background image is set from the embedded styles in the code above) and that background image will repeat – but we went over that on the other thread, with the code above you can now add the required properties to prevent that.

Now code does need to be copied carefully and any stray code that may be causing issues might still affect things. Headers already sent errors have a number of reasons and are not necessarily easy for us to diagnose, I explained one possible cause but only you can determine if that is a reason.

On this issue of instruction; as I have said and now mercime this is a volunteer support forum, we are not obliged to provide absolute instruction we attempt to help and guide, also when one is a web dev professional there will be a level of expertise expected in general terms regarding coding experience. You are attempting to customise buddypress past what it offers in the default so you must expect certain aspects of doing that to be less than utterly idiot proof and there are aspects of BP that many of us struggle with.

@mac02 check if we have “template-packed” your WP theme from list near bottom of https://codex.buddypress.org/theme-development/wordpress-to-buddypress-theme/

Depending on the size of your userbase, you could make all the groups Hidden, then use the Invite Anyone plugin to manually invite (or have established group admins manually invite) the users who belong in each separate group. Don’t get thrown by the first bullet in the description of the plugin, in this instance the power of this plugin will be in your ability to invite people to a group even if you aren’t friends with them (bullet 2 in the description on the link below). Perfect if you are using the Followers plugin as well and have Friend Connections turned off:

https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/invite-anyone/
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/buddypress-followers/

You need this plugin: http://etivite.com/wordpress-plugins/buddypress-restrict-group-creation/

Under Buddypress / Pages, have you created all of the requisite pages for Activity, Groups, Members, etc.? I don’t understand “Everything was spread all throughout the page”. You’ll need that template pack enabled, and it needs to move some components into your active theme. Did you run through the 4 step process?

It’s a beautiful theme you’ve got going there, but I have honestly never had much luck converting a non-bp theme to be truly bp compatible without a lot of massaging. It’s not a plug and play process, hence the default theme. You may want to consider creating a child theme of the default: https://codex.buddypress.org/theme-development/building-a-buddypress-child-theme/

The bb-config.php file is the only file necessary to create forums “the old way” using bb-press 1.x instead of the completely reconfigured 2.0. You’ll notice in the Buddypress / Forums menu there are two options: Forums for groups (that single bb-config file uploaded to the root of your site), and Site Wide Forums, which is the separate bb-press 2.x plugin you have enabled. Not sure if that’s your issue or not. All of that said, full compatibility between buddypress and bbpress isn’t expected until version 1.6.

You can download the bb-config-sample.php file from https://bbpress.org/download/legacy/ and then populate the necessary database information to enable the Group Forum capability, but with 1.6 so close (I think) you might be better off holding out.

@elangley sorry, I understated what was expected. For example, WordPress.com is a custom Multisite installation with around 35Million+ user blogs spread over several DB’s and supported by multiple paid topnotch frontend and backend developers, server admins, etc. Even if you would only have e.g. 100 Networks with WP Multi-Network and you’ve allowed user blogs in each Network and then go BP MultiNetwork, that would require a serious developer skills where making some changes in DB is just child’s play since by that time you’d have to use SharDB, HyperDB, or MultiDB to maintain, sustain and grow the Networks over several servers and DB’s.

In the Buddypress Settings menu, do you have the “Disable BuddyPress to WordPress profile syncing?” set to “No”?

Something like this might provide the lock you are looking for: https://buddypress.org/community/groups/buddypress-mandatory-groups/

Did you install the Buddypress Template Pack Plugin? If you are using a theme that doesn’t have buddypress functionality baked in by default, you need to install this plugin and run through the steps to enable compatibility. https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/bp-template-pack/

@frostdawn Could just be that the surrounding divs for either or both content area and widget-area-1 are already styled to specific widths in stylesheet. You’d then have to add new style at the bottom of your stylesheet to override default widths.

Open up the revised template with the widget-area-1 at 100% width which you’ve posted above, copy all code, post in pastebin.com, click submit and post the generated URI here so we can have better reference.

== When searching these files, i cant find the exact code you wrote. for instance in activity, i found … ==

I don’t know what file you’re opening. For activity/index.php –> lines 12-17 in https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/1.5.5/bp-themes/bp-default/activity/index.php

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/wp-clear/

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.

@turfnet 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 wp-clear 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
`

== What I need is all the instructions, and they need to be correct, or I’ll have to look for another solution because BuddyPress is not the one for me or the website I’m working on. ==

@wendy-cockcroft we are all volunteers here trying to help others. We understand if you want to look for another solution which requires less technical know-how or something which does not require you to have the willingness to learn new skills. Check out WP Symposium or Mingle plugins.