BuddyPress.org

I am the administrator of an online interest community. For the past 7 or 8 years, we’ve ran everything on a simple php-based “forums” software. We’d like to migrate our website to a “social”-type website, and we’re thinking that WP+BP+(maybe)bbPress might be the way to go. I’d like some advice on if this is the best solution for us, or if something better might be available.

Here’s what we currently have: approximately 10,000 member accounts have come and gone over the years. Roughly 2000 “active” members (logged in within the past month), and we average about 100 users online at any given time. We receive about 5 new member accounts each and every day.

We have dozens of “sub communities”, where right now the moderator staff simply creates a new forum board when any new “sub community” is requested. The list of forums and sub-forums is probably 100-150 long. Very unwieldy. Most members only belong to 1 or 2 of these sub communities, but they must wade through the list of all 150 boards to see the one(s) they want.

We’d like our new website to be “social” (instant messages, friends, self-managed groups, etc.), but we also require some light moderation with staff members being able to wade in and break up the occasional spat, or delete the occasional offensive topics. So, some of these “elevated privilege” moderator accounts need to be able to “see all and hear all”, while the moderators themselves are also regular community members and belong to one or more of the various sub communities. We need some dedicated forums that are open to the entire site, and also an easy way for the sub communities to have their own forums that they can restrict if desired (or make open if desired)… i.e. “invite only” groups, or “join at will” groups. (but also keep in mind the moderator requirements).

Since we’re not really a “blogging” site, I have my reservations about running on WP. Joomla is another option that was proposed, but it seems like the BuddyPress aspect of WP has what we’re looking for.

If we go this route, we would start from complete scratch. All users would be asked to “start new” at the new site, as this will allow us to abandon the deadwood. So, we would also like to have the entire site operational before we start inviting our members to “cross over”.

If anyone has thoughts on this topic, I’d love to hear them. Is WP+BP+bbPress the best combination for our needs? Can the software keep up with 100 users going at all hours of the day and night?

Thanks for your insight and observations.

Jim