Comments on: What bbPress Needs To Really Work

By: ddd

ddd — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:20:03 +0000

It’s not like bbPress is the only application that can do that though, Renato; punBB which I mentioned above can also integrate with WordPress user accounts. And as you can see from the example I gave above (Total Spore forums), punBB integrates really nicely with WordPress.

bbPress isn’t bad, but when you look at other free software out there in a bit more detail you’ll find that they’re superior. bbPress isn’t the only forum software that’s gone for the ‘clean and lightweight’ philosophy, and in bbPress’s case it’s simply too lightweight. It doesn’t have basic innovations in forum software that’ve evolved over the years. It’s like going back to 1999.

By: TDH

TDH — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 10:02:02 +0000

Oh, and 0.9.0.1 is out. Nab it if you haven't.

By: Salman

Salman — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 03:37:54 +0000

Like with most software packages, it is hard to please all. It really depends on the initial design decisions of the developer/community, as forum software can be created to be ‘simple’ while others want to bling them out.

By: bbPress 0.9 Is Out, Integrates With WordPress 2.5 : The Blog Herald

bbPress 0.9 Is Out, Integrates With WordPress 2.5 : The Blog Herald — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 10:21:31 +0000

[...] I did whine a bit about bbPress recently, over at Devlounge. I think it still is pretty far from 1.0, check that post out if you’re interested in the [...]

By: Ryan Williams

Ryan Williams — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:24:47 +0000

It's not like bbPress is the only application that can do that though, Renato; punBB which I mentioned above can also integrate with WordPress user accounts. And as you can see from the example I gave above (Total Spore forums), punBB integrates really nicely with WordPress. bbPress isn't bad, but when you look at other free software out there in a bit more detail you'll find that they're superior. bbPress isn't the only forum software that's gone for the 'clean and lightweight' philosophy, and in bbPress's case it's simply too lightweight. It doesn't have basic innovations in forum software that've evolved over the years. It's like going back to 1999.

By: TDH

TDH — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 18:24:43 +0000

All good points here. Besides 9rules Notes and the official WordPress/bbPress sites, are there any great examples of original use of bbPress? Anyone got any nifty links on that?

By: Renato

Renato — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:15:46 +0000

I'm running a bbPress Forum on a live site and it works fine. The same bbPress user can write some comments on the wordpress blog with the same account. That's wath i need. Shure, the backend could be the same pretty like wordpress 2.5... I hope the development isn't stopped!

By: Ryan Williams

Ryan Williams — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 11:06:27 +0000

It's good for very, very basic purposes. Indeed, it was originally designed as a support forum and this shows throughout; all the features that communities actually like to have are absent. I'm a huge WordPress fan and advocate the development of a forum brother, but at the moment other free forum software such as MyBB, punBB (totalspore.com has an excellent WordPress/punBB integration), and some others are simply too refined, too mature, and too good for bbPress to compete with. And of course for more complex forum layouts and architecture such as my own LucasForums (click into sub-forums to drive the point even further), the feature set offered by bbPress isn't even close to being adequate.

By: Andrea_R

Andrea_R — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 23:26:02 +0000

I’ve used it on live sites – for a simple forum, it does what it says on the box (as they say). Sure, it could use a ton of improvements, and I agree it’s miles behind WP.

But for a really simple forum that integrates well with WP, it totally works.

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:51:38 +0000

I love the simplicity of bbPress and I hope they save the bling for either plugins or optional activation. It’s just right for smaller communities.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:39:39 +0000

I use it, and I was less-than-impressed the first time around. I spent way to long getting WP and bbP to talk to one another. One thing bbPress would have quite the angle on is integration between the two, but right now it's as difficult to integrate an external one. I'm impressed right now with Vanilla, and of course punBB is good--stripped down but good.

By: fLUx

fLUx — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:54:02 +0000

At first I thought this would be great. But then again, I am an active member of several forums, so I think I know how the forum software should run….bbPress is way too simple.

I’m not saying vBulletin, Invision Power Board and phpBB are any better, they all have nice features, but they are a pain to develop for.

I will probably be looking at it later in the week in more detail, see how accessible it is.