New forums for my site
I finally decided to create a message board for this site, which I’ll mostly use for WordPress theme support. Right now, it’s entirely experimental, and I want to know what you think. Check out the forums.
After a lot of nagging from users of the Structure theme and finally getting some time to work on it, I decided to put this thing together.
One of the reasons it took me so long to get a forum up was because I was torn between which forum to use. I checked out what other theme designers were using. Darren Hoyt is using Vanilla for his Mimbo forums. Small Potato is using vBulletin for the WPDesigner Forums. The WP Snap Forum is powered by bbPress. Plus, I had to seriously consider using the Simple Forum plugin.
There doesn’t seem to be any widespread agreement on which forum software or plugin to use. In the end, I decided to use bbPress. I really wanted to use Simple Forum because of its easy integration but didn’t like all the bells and whistles. I wanted the more lightweight bbPress, even if it was a pain to integrate.
Some problems
One of the major problems I had was getting permalinks to work. I’m not sure why it’s such a problem because my WordPress install works great. Most of the threads I found on the bbPress support forums regarding permalinks were about GoDaddy. Unfortunately, I’m still using their hosting service. I can’t remember what thread I found this code on, but it fixed my permalink problem.
You need to edit your “.htaccess” file for this. Put this code in in the file (the top two lines should help GoDaddy users):
AddHandler x-httpd-php5 .php
AddHandler x-httpd-php .php4
Options +MultiViewsAnother problem I ran into was not being able to create new forums as an administrator. This was caused by one of the most popular plugins (one that’s definitely needed), Display Name.
To correct this, just deactivate the plugin when you need to create a new forum. Then, reactivate it. Problem solved.
Why did I choose bbPress?
I chose bbPress for several reasons.
- The future for bbPress is looking up. I trust Matt and co. will continue building upon the software with an extra $29.5 million laying around.
- I like the open-source community of WordPress. If bbPress gets revamped, I believe the WordPress community will embrace it. This means more people helping out at the support forums and better documentation.
- Even though it was a pain to integrate because of my permalink situation, it’s nice to be able use other WordPress functions easily.
- Easy to modify with the template system.
- Very lightweight compared to other forum scripts.
What do you think?
I’m sure there are some bugs, but you should go play around on the forums a bit. I even have a practice forum set up for now.
Another thing that’s been bothering me is the naming situation. Since I’m still in the early experimental stages, I can still change the name. Currently, it’s “forums.” I think “forum” sounds better, but I don’t like the forum slugs, which would look like “/forum/forum/forum-name” using that naming convention. Most of all, I like “message board” but figured it was a bit too long.
Go give the forums a test drive and let me know what you think. I do need a few lab rats to help test it.
I used bbPress before switching to vBulletin. Right now, bbPress doesn’t have the features and management flexibility I’m looking for.
If Automattic decide to get serious with bbPresss, I’m sure they’d include a vBulletin to bbPress importer in the future.
p.s. - Looks like I’ll be in Korea sooner than expected, between April and May
Thanks for setting up a forum.
I’m almost 60 and have just started using the Structure Theme for a new site I am working on. I love it! And, I’m having so much fun with it, but.. at my age, I don’t have too much “code” knowledge. I read everything you publish, but still have questions.
All the WP Themes you offer are so clean and easy on the eye.
Hopefully, being able to read more info on the Structure theme and others will educate me. I have been “blogging” for two months, so I am a total novice.
Thank you for everything you publish. Love your work and send everyone to your site for info.
Justin, congratulations on your new addition, I think forums are a great way to communicate and keep the community active. bbpress shows up to be a great platform, I like it because of its integration with wordpress, while keeping separate databases. Cheers. Luis
Small Potato
I was considering some other forums because I assumed that there’d eventually be some type of importer. I don’t need as much flexibility with my forums, so I went ahead with bbPress.
I’ll be looking forward to hanging out when you come this way. Stop by on May 1 and we can celebrate my birthday.
SinDe
You’re welcome. I’m really trying to push the forums as a community-driven thing. I’ll probably answer a lot of questions to kick-start this thing, but I’d like other users to really contribute in the long run. So, head on over and start posting.
Luis
Actually, I’m using the same database because of the user integration with WordPress. bbPress has its own table names. Feel free to stop by the forums and join in on the discussions.
I use bb press without any flaws, easy to cutomize and manage,
however Matt (from WP) announced to built up a new forum solution, looks like a spiced up bb press.
You may want to add a link to Forums at the top of your site.
milo
Matt and co. coming up with a new solution for forums is on of the reason I decided to use bbPress. I do believe he said it would be built upon the bbPress framework or something like that, so it should be easy to keep upgrading as the developments come along.
Aaron
I will once the initial trial period is over. I haven’t quite finished working on the template and making sure everything is running well enough yet. Plus, I’m not sure if I’m going to use it for just theme support or other things. I figured most users would come to the forums through the Structure theme page anyway, at least for now (there’s a link on that page).
I want to integrate BBPress into Structure theme is that easy to do how would I do about it, I am a numpty
Can you add a forum link to the top nav of your site?? Even though I’m “sure” you’ll be changing this design soon…Get that donation button up to…I owe you a beer/scotch/juice box…
Justin, I had the same issue with permalinks before I saw the same solution with the ‘Options +MultiViews’. I’ve been having 404 errors and couldn’t figure it at first.
I have a site in mind where I would integrate bbPress + WP-MU. It is still in the backburner but hopefully, I’ll get it up and running soon. So far, I like the lightweight-ness of bbPress. I’ve been playing with the templates. Since graphic design is not my forte, it takes me awhile to get it to work with my ‘wireframes’.
So far, 9rules site is the most aesthetically designed bbPress I’ve seen so far. I just hope it will get some more developers to work on plugins and sort. It will be nice to just have it as a simple plugin for WP.