why not just use buddypress for a forum?

[Gavin_+ 56]

just asking?

[cmunns 16]

You can, BuddyPress has a built in bbPress version which although different from the stand alone does allow forums

[Gavin_+ 56]

How can you set that up? is there an easy way?

[bryan-hadaway 3]

Hi Gavin, Because if you just want a forum, there's no reason to use BuddyPress, that would be pointless and overkill causing unnecessary work. If you want a forum, just use bbPress. Thanks, Bryan

[Gavin_+ 56]

what we want is the "facebook" style forum that buddypress provides.

[eldrmozz 0]

wp symposium is a nice development : forum + social network that integrate easily in your wordpress theme.

[cmunns 16]

Once you've activated BuddyPress getting forums working is a breeze. Go to the WP - BuddyPress - Forums Setup and go through the instal wizard.

[siso 0]

I've been setting up Buddypress with its forums just recently. One thing to consider: If you really want the "Facebook Style" interaction, then you'll need Buddypress. However, the way the forums work within Buddypress (which has its own integrated version of BBpress) seem very "unfamiliar" to me and I believe to the general user public (aka, not very user friendly). Forums are nested inside "Groups". Registered members must be part of a "group" to participate in that particular group's forums. In those forums, you can not create sub-categories - you post a topic (which you can tag, if your user-base will be familiar with how that works) and that's it. If you wanted to use any sort of "sub-category" method, you'd need to define your "Groups" as the categories and then users begin the various post threads... So a user would join a "Group", then click on the "Forums" to view the individual post threads.... In a nutshell, I'm rethinking whether to use Buddypress (with its BBpress implementation) for my forums ... I can see the questions from the users coming in floods and the organizational flow of it really lacks... What I'm looking at now is installing Buddypress just for the group / member interaction -- and having a separate bbpress install.

[bryan-hadaway 3]

Yes, Facebook style is a social network, not a forum. You could also try Mingle: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/mingle/ Thanks, Bryan

[Gavin_+ 56]

i've been thinking i may cross over to joomla for this one... unless there are some other smart wordpress plugins people can recommend. thanks