BuddyPress.org

You will need to configure WordPress to allow user registrations.
To install the forums, after you’ve activated BuddyPress, go to the Network dashboard (I am assuming you are on WordPress 3.1), go to the “BuddyPress” menu item and then “Forum Setup.”

https://codex.buddypress.org/home/

The docs are fairly thorough, and assuming you’ve correctly installed buddypress and bbPress forum integration, the forums should appear along with all the other newly created pages – i.e. – example.com/forum, example.com/groups. If these pages are not appearing in your navigation, your wordpress theme may not be compatible with wordpress. In this case you could switch to a theme designed for BP or work to make your current theme compatible.

Also, make sure these components are enabled in the buddypress admin dashboard settings. If you feel you’ve done everything correctly, you should be able to create new groups by going to yoursite.com/groups and clicking the new group button that appears at the top of the page.

https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/bp-group-management/

This always works for me.
http://interconnectit.com/719/migrating-a-wordpresswpmubuddypress-website/

also – change the name of your beta folder so that links going there are easier to see

The safest way to do it is like this:

– If your site is currently being actively used, block access with an .htaccess rule. (This is not required, but I do suggest it.) See http://www.techiecorner.com/97/redirect-to-maintenance-page-during-upgrade-using-htaccess/ for example
– Download the most recent stable build of BuddyPress https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/buddypress.1.2.8.zip and unzip.
– With an FTP program, go to wp-content/plugins. Delete the buddypress directory and its contents (Don’t worry – this only deletes the plugin files. Your data is stored elsewhere, and is completely safe.)
– Upload the unzipped buddypress directory to your wp-content/plugins directory.
– Verify that the site is working, and then remove the redirects from .htaccess (if you did that step).

As long as you update the database for WordPress per https://codex.wordpress.org/Moving_WordPress, other than the activity stream links in BuddyPress breaking as I mentioned above, I think it should work fine.

Just downloaded qawker theme and it actually “looks easy” to copy over HTML structure onto transferred BP files. The sidebar in that theme is called in the footer.php.

1. Download the 6 folders with 13 files transferred via BP template pack process to your qawker theme folder down to your computer https://codex.buddypress.org/theme-development/wordpress-to-buddypress-theme/#revise-templates

2. Open up each file with text editor and make the following changes:

At the top of each BP template file replace this section
`

I installed latest WP and BP locally and am having no database crash so far. It leads me to believe @Paul Gibbs is correct.
You can try it yourself https://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress_Locally_on_Your_Mac_With_MAMP

BuddyPress doesn’t do anything unusual with regards to database queries. After all, BuddyPress is a WordPress plugin. It does add extra load, though, as you’ve found out. I think you will need to see about scaling your MySQL resource.

I’m using buddypress 1.2.8 with wordpress 3.1 and I have no problems…

Can you confirm how far you have progressed with this process:

https://codex.buddypress.org/theme-development/wordpress-to-buddypress-theme/

You need to explain just what you are stuck with really otherwise it will be hard for anyone to help, be specific when creating threads on forums as it will get a better response if we know what to help with.

You need to get the template pack process underway – if you haven’t already – and then post back, also might help to keep the progress live on your test site.

@DJPaul – I hear what you’re saying… really. But WP isn’t into taking criticism even if it’s dished out very delicately. They delete any criticism.

But good news … After WP caused plug-in developers to pull out their hair for 48 hours, BP Albums + is back in action and it works now. So if anyone was holding out updating just because of this, it’s working. Here’s the thread. https://buddypress.org/community/groups/bp-album/forum/topic/unable-to-upload/

Little late to crash this party, but I wrote a plugin for this: https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/stick-admin-bar-to-bottom/

You could create your own home page by a) creating `home.php` (a special WP template recognized by BP) or by b) creating custom `Page Template` set as front page
which contain:
1. widgetized areas – see this bp-default child theme for example https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/buddypress-widget-theme
and/or
2. special BP and WP loops and/or template tagsto call in data
https://codex.buddypress.org/developer-docs/buddypress-template-tags/
https://codex.buddypress.org/developer-docs/custom-buddypress-loops/

Heres the group link https://buddypress.org/community/groups/wordpress-network-3-1/
Im not rolling back because I want this fix so Im putting my site on the line for the rest of bp.

Good suggestions @modemlooper and @boonegorges .
I have WPMU (thankfully backed stuff up) went to 3.1 but noticed a few hiccups and rolled back to the previous version. I’m going to wait until a few things are resolved before I use it on my live sites.