[gregfielding]

How can I have master categories like “ideas” and “gallery” etc?

Here, you have to be logged in to comment, but you don’t have to join groups and you certainly don’t have to join different groups for each master category.

Is this do-able in buddypress 1.2? Or does it take an integration with bbpress?

It seems like, ideally, buddypress would offer both options: group forums and general forums like the ones on buddypress.org.

I’d like to see the “master” forums listed at the top with group forums listed below them on my “Forums” page. Ideally, they would be searchable from the same place, with shared tags, etc.

It seems to me that this would give buddypress communities the best of both worlds.

[Paul Wong-Gibbs]

This site uses “Deep integration” with a standalone bbPress install. In the near future, this website will change and forums/groups will follow the regular BuddyPress model. The only reason this is like it is currently is because of historical reasons and the fact that the site’s theme hasn’t been updated for a long time.

If you want a site wide forum, just create a group and call it “site wide discussion”. Easy as that.