[Secretmapper]

Anyone know what plugins can make the forums better? THe forums in bp is okay in its own, but I see the lack of many things, for example, you need to join a group before making a forum. Is there an option where there is a “universal forum” also, categories, like the ones in proboard?

[@mercime]

bbPress is going to be turned into a WP plugin which would mesh well hopefully with BuddyPress as lead dev for bbPress is also one of leads for BuddyPress.
https://trac.bbpress.org/roadmap

Some have used SimplePress Forums, Mingle Forums, or BP Global Forums ($30) for what you want.