bbPress is still like the Wild West.

This is what Chris Hajer had to say about bbPress in a forum topic about a year ago.

This statement still holds true today. There isn’t a vast database of knowledge like we have with the WordPress Codex. There are only a handful of useful plugins.

More importantly, there aren’t enough themes.

The themes out there look a lot like the choices we had a few years ago with WordPress: solid foundations for a system in its infancy.

I think a lot of WordPress users shy away from using bbPress as their forum software because there’s just not as many choices as there are with other forum packages when it comes to themes.

Well, I’m going to try and change that.

What’s bbPress?

If you don’t know what bbPress is, then you can always read about it at the bbPress Site.

In a nutshell, it’s forum, or message board, software by our beloved WordPress team.

From the bbPress about page:

bbPress is plain and simple forum software, plain and simple. It’s easy to use, easy to administrate, fast and clean. But don’t let its simplicity deceive you; underneath the gleam, it’s got some powerful features and is highly customizable.

Coming bbPress themes

If you’ve been wondering why I haven’t blogged much lately, this is why. I’ve been busily putting together five different bbPress themes. This sytem is a beast that’s not easily tamed.

Here’s a gallery of what’s to come. Note that two of the themes are for Project M’s design (support and ideas forum themes).

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I know, they’re not too advanced yet, but these are just the initial templates. I’ll try to branch out with the designs a bit.

Pushing for more bbPress users

This is my way of asking more people to move over to bbPress.

It’s in its infancy, but the more people we have working on it and using it, the better it becomes.

If you’re using one of my WordPress themes, you can look forward to an accompanying bbPress theme.

What do you think?

Everything’s pretty basic right now, but I had to get the design elements down. The most important thing is to make solidly coded themes to build upon.

I’m sure I’ll be adding neat things such as tabs to the sidebar, so don’t worry about that.

I’ll also be releasing some alpha versions of the Options and Structure themes for bbPress in my forums. So, if you’re using one of those WordPress themes and are interested in testing, check out the bbPress testing thread in the forums.