BuddyPress.org

Hello,
I am super new to BuddyPress but I like what I see so far. I have successfully installed the script and a few plug-ins but I’d like to make some modifications–if at all possible.

I’m struggling with the lack of a link to the WP admin dashboard. I’m surprised it does not exist on the BuddyPress top banner. Is there an easy-ish way to add this to that bar?

Secondly, I’d like to combine the groups and forums pages–or simply enable the groups list to appear in the forum tab because it’s confusing to have both (it’s not immediately obvious that post to a group just leaves a comment on the main page, instead of creating a forum post in that group). Any help is appreciate.

Next up, is there a way to link forum posts and WP posts? I’d like to be able to make a post in an “Announcement” forum that is both a topic and a blog post that will appear on the main page. Perhaps I am thinking of this the wrong way around. Would it be more appropriate to insert some code on the index to have forum posts from a specific group appear there, instead of trying to link WP and forum posts?

Lastly, I love the automatically linked name (for example: @name) but can that functionality be extended to blog posts, too?

Thanks so much

ETA:

Ack, one more thought. I’d like to add some sort of rules list before registration that users would have to agree to. What’s the easiest way?