BuddyPress.org

only a certain level of members, or see members listed by country, that sort of thing

Those two things require different approaches to gathering member ids.

Adding the order option is easy.
But filtering the members will require specific solutions.

Read this:
https://buddypress.org/support/topic/adding-new-order-by-on-members-loop/

You can remove default choices by creating a template overload of this file and adjusting the select element:
buddypress\bp-templates\bp-legacy\buddypress\members\index.php

Note that it will default to ‘active’ regardless.

The issue is in the BuddyPress Live Notifications plugin.

You should report the issue and your fix to the plugin authors:
https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/bp-live-notification

The bbPress plugin integrates into BuddyPress, not the other way around.

So your question is best suited on the bbPress forums:
https://bbpress.org/forums

I can tell you that multiple group forums are not officially supported in bbPress at the moment though.

You’ll want to keep your eye on this ticket:
https://bbpress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/2191

You’ll probably want to follow this guide:

Twenty Thirteen Theme

The guide is for the twentythirteen theme, but it works as a general guideline with any theme. Replace the references to the twentythirteen theme with your theme and you should be good to go!

Check the Codex documentation, which will guide you on creating a custom buddypress.php page to mirror your themes page.php and in which you could then remove the sidebar from markup.

Read here: https://buddypress.org/support/topic/customising-members-loop-pagination-problem/

Where to put the code: bp-custom.php or child-theme’s functions.php

You should ask for this on your premium theme support.
Read first here:

An Introduction To BuddyPress

https://buddypress.org/support/topic/missing-argument-for-bp_modify_page_title-elegant-themes-and-buddypress/

You can place this in your theme/functions.php or in bp-custom.php.

It will stop recording entries for 3 types after you include the function.
You can add other types as desired to the $exclude array.

function steve_dont_save_activity( $activity_object ) {
 
    $exclude = array( 'new_avatar', 'updated_profile', 'friendship_created' );
 
    if( in_array( $activity_object->type, $exclude ) )
        $activity_object->type = false;
 
}
add_action('bp_activity_before_save', 'steve_dont_save_activity', 1, 1 );

To delete existing entries, use the interface here
[yoursite]/wp-admin/admin.php?page=bp-activity

If you switch to a WP theme like 2013, does the problem persist?
If not, it’s something in your theme.

What are your media settings re images? Are they square?
Here: …/wp-admin/options-media.php

Have you have set any avatar size constants in code?
See: https://codex.buddypress.org/themes/guides/customizing-buddypress-avatars/#how-to-change-buddypress-avatar-sizes

BuddyPress templates are stored in bp-templates/bp-legacy/buddypress/

To customize your theme, create first a child-theme.
In this folder, add a folder called buddypress and copy any file you want to modify into it from /bp-legacy/, by respecting the original path child-theme/buddypress/members/xxx.php or /child/buddypress/activity/xxx.php

More details are avaible on codex.