My set up: WP 3.3.1 – Directory root – BP 1.5.3.1 – Twenty Eleven Theme – bbPress 2.0.2

I followed lmburfords guidlines http://bbpress.org/forums/topic/dummys-guide-to-installing-bbpress-buddypress-and-wp
To paraphrase:
I the changed the BBPress “Forums base” name to “Forum Boards”, made a wordpress page with that permalink. And then put in the short code [bbp-forum-index]

I changed the BBPress Forums base name to “Forum Boards”, then made a new wordpress page with the same permalink “Forum Boards”. So my forum would be located at mywebsite.com/forum boards. Theres still nothing there regardless of if I created new forums or topics. I created a page “Forum Boards”, and popped in the shortcode go to mywebsite.com/forumboards and its there.

I wanted to change the name “Forum Boards” so I deleted the page and changed the name in bbPress settings Forum slug to “Community” to avoid clash with Buddypress. The Forum base name is now “Forums”

When I click Forum in the Menu it goes to the home page which I don’t think should happen. However if I go to via the Dashboard I can access the Forum pages and then View them.
If I could be pointed to the php page with the offending code that would be a start I think to solving this problem I have.
Suggestions greatly appreciated! (starting to go loopy!)

[@dcavins Keymaster 12 years, 11 months ago]

I didn’t have any luck with that setup either. My working setup for a site-wide forum is
1) Disable the BP Forum component altogether (BuddyPress>Components)
2) Don’t create a “Forum” page. If one exists, I got odd behavior, even if it was in Draft status. (Definitely don’t make a Forums page with the shortcode.)
3) Enable bbPress plugin
4) Create a new forum via the admin menu.
Now, when you go to your bbPress default slug, it should take over and build the page.

[@mercime Participant 12 years, 11 months ago]

After you make the changes, go to dashboard menu Settings > Permalinks and Save page.

[@trickyshot777 Member 12 years, 11 months ago]

Thank you very much for your advice and tips… absolutely brilliant!

[@trickyshot777 Member 12 years, 11 months ago]

Everything has tidied itself up which is great… final dilemma… how can I have a page visible in my sidebar without creating a link-page to go there!? The Forum page exists via bbPress but there is nothing for the visitors to click on the Front-end… sorry if this is obvious!

[@mercime Participant 12 years, 11 months ago]

>> how can I have a page visible in my sidebar

Not quite sure what you mean. If you activated the Sitewide Forums, you’d find that there are bbPress widgets that you could add to your sidebar like:
– bbPress Forums List
– bbPress Topics List
– bbPress Views List
– bbPress Reply List

[@trickyshot777 Member 12 years, 11 months ago]

Thanks for reminding me about using widgets! How nuts is that!… ‘paralysis-by-analysis’ and all that – I was just mesmerised by getting the forum to work, which it does now… incredible! Thanks dcavins and mercime!

Question for mercime: Perhaps the deactivation of Discussion Forums via Components tab should be mentioned in the Installation instructions for BuddyPress so bbPress would work and do its thing. I would never have known how to sort this out because I was on a hiding to nothing following the advice on the bbPress forum itself, which had me chasing my tail! Good thing you guys know what you’re talking about!

At https://codex.buddypress.org/getting-started/installing-group-and-sitewide-forums/2/ I still don’t quite understand the following…
“Note: During the Installation Wizard, Forums will be associated with the “Forums” page. In some installations, you do not need to change anything. But if your sitewide forums won’t work, go to wp-admin BuddyPress > Pages and you’ll find the association and remove the Forums Page as the selected page.”
As far as I can see removing the Forums Page is not an option from the Pages tab (!) – only from the Components tab where Discussion Forums can be unchecked…mmmmm…