Copy the bbpress.css from the bbpress plugin directory to yourtheme/bbpress/bbpress.css and then edit the CSS/font size from there 
hey mate,
this is precisely the kind of overly simplistic response which turns people off using bbPress. Your suggestion is pretty much contained in the bbPress documentation already and is less than useful.
Sure, you need to copy bbpress.css to the right directory and edit it. But what you fail to mention, and what is mentioned nowhere in the bbPress documentation, is that many of the font specifications are not actually listed in that CSS file — you need to puzzle out the CSS entry yourself and add a new CSS entry, not edit an old one, to change the font size.
I spent three hours working this out last night. The correct entry is:
bbpress-forums .bbp-topic-content p,
bbpress-forums .bbp-reply-content p {
font-size: 12px;
}
I have seen this same response from the moderators on the bbPress forum dozens of times as I searched it last night. This same arrogance — ‘just copy the CSS file and edit it’. Technically you’re right, but without any detail or documentation around bbPress, this suggestion comes across as the contempt of an experienced web developer for someone who is, in their eyes, a ‘n00b’.
I operate a major WordPress site and edit its CSS files daily. And yet, the CSS for bbPress is hideously complex and hard to understand. I suggest that you guys modify your attitude and start looking for actual solutions to people’s problems … especially around making default themes easier to customise. Otherwise, bbPress, which is an awesome solution to a long-held problem for WordPress site owners, will remain the little-used forum software that it is.
Cheers,
Renai LeMay
Publisher, Delimiter.com.au
@renai42 – Thanks for the feedback. The great thing about bbPress being open-source is you’re able to fix the things you don’t like on your own with Subversion patches via our Trac.
Sorry you’re finding the CSS to be complicated. There are some compromises we made to be able to make bbPress as good as it can with every possible WordPress theme available. As such, some CSS rules are more strict than others, and we tend to have things wrapped in ID’s to allow groups of content to be styled and/aggressively reset.
The staff here are volunteers, every one of us. We operate under the assumption that if you’re in the code, asking code questions, that you’re comfortable taking on something new and foreign. I’ll defend the code here though, since bbPress’s code is nicely documented and orderly.
Volunteer community members represent the project, but they also represent themselves. If someone’s made you feel bad, that’s between you and them. We’re all adults here, and it doesn’t benefit anyone to talk above or below anyone else; when it happens, it weeds itself out pretty quickly.
Regarding CSS specifically, it’s in the name: it cascades down. This means you’re able to add whatever rules you’d like in the stack, and the browser will interpret those new rules in kind. If it’s not obvious enough to you, that just means you learned something new today. That’s not anyone’s fault, or anything that anyone should be upset about on either side.
Again, thanks for your feedback; if you’d like to talk privately about a specific matter or person, contact me privately (a Google search should bring up multiple ways to do this.)
hey John,
I appreciate your response.
I’m sorry, but I don’t agree bbPress’ code or the process of implementing it is nicely documented. In fact, very little of it is documented that I can see — and much of what does exist refers to bbpress 1.x. As an example, I found it almost impossible to find any documentation this week on how to install a new bbPress 2.x theme, or how to modify existing themes. For a WordPress plugin … this is pretty unusual.
I appreciate that this is an open source community … I guess I’m disappointed because I feel what bbPress is doing has the potential to be revolutionary — and that its difficulty of implementation is limiting that potential. WordPress has needed what bbPress is doing for many years.
Cheers,
Renai
Jared Atchison.
