bbPress.org

One thing I missed in the long post:

Standalone bbPress

I appreciate the reason why you sought to create a standalone version of bbPress.

The plugin makes sense because it provides access to a large captive base of WordPress users. But on the other hand it ties bbpress down to WordPress, making it usable *only* with sites that use WordPress.

What if someone who doesn’t use WordPress wants a forum software?

Well, I have a suggestion. bbPress should ONLY be developed as a WordPress plugin (as I believe it is now).

However, a standalone package should be available at bbpress.org. This would basically be a bundle of WordPress and bbpress, where bbpress is active by default.

Additionally, by default, the forum root would be selected as the static page that appears as home. You will need some help from your colleagues at WordPress for this…at the moment only pages (and not custom post types) are allowed to be selected as home. (update: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/19958 )

To sum up, it will still be WordPress with a bbPress plugin, but would be *sold* as forum software. The distinction being target market. bbPress plugin is targeted and marketed to people who use WordPress and are LOOKING for a forum software that integrates with it. The standalone package is targeted and marketed to people who are looking for forum software.

You might think this is a zany idea, and it probably is. It just might work, though.