Hey Matt!
Without too much detail, I’ve been neck deep in theme development, bug patching, code re-factoring and clean-up since the Windows 3.11 and Visual Basic 3.0 days. I’ve been interested in making bbPress be better integrated with WordPress for probably a year or so now? I was a long time phpBB2.0 junkie, and moved to WordPress because I was frustrated at how forcibly linear typical forum software is. When I fell in love with the WordPress way, I quickly found bbPress, and expected it to include all of the features that BuddyPress now does, hence my shift in that direction.
I’d like to help restyle bbpress.org, maybe bring it a little more in line with the other Automattic websites. There’s no doubt that bbPress needs some TLC in the codex and source-code documentation areas too, and I have recent experience absorbing the WP Code Standards from working under Andy with BuddyPress.
Right now my focus is 100% BuddyPress, but since you asked… I’d love to be more involved in all of the WP projects and communities if there’s opportunity. 
Hi Matt,
I launched the SitePoint community theme project for bbPress (work is still underway):
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/08/05/we-want-you-join-the-sitepoint-communitys-bbpress-theme-project/
My own background is in HTML/CSS coding mixed with a little WordPress.
Assuming the SitePoint project goes to plan I’ll likely be implementing it into a new version of my bbPress template generator which is currently in the works (albeit development is taking longer than I’d like) … http://pixopoint.com/products/bbpress-forum-theme-generator/
I see the key to bring bbPress to the masses is to add a lot of the standard functionality which most forums have by default directly into the theme. This keeps the core nice and light whilst offering maximum functionality to those who require it. I’d also like to make it easy as possible to have your WordPress and bbPress themes seamless integrate their designs by offering identically behaving WordPress and bbPress template generators.
Hi Matt,
I’ve been running a large bbP community for 11 months now, so I’ve come to know what users expect and the kinds of limitations we’ve had to overcome (or not). My skills lie mostly in user experience and CSS coding, but I’m also getting quite proficient in PHP. I’d be more than willing to help in any of these areas. With PHP some of the lighter side of things would be desirable.
I’d also love to help out with the codex, answer questions here, and moderate.
A great person to have on board would be CK ( https://bbpress.org/forums/profile/_ck_ ). She seems to have disappeared off the radar of late, but she wrote many plugin (for 0.9), offered much advice, and stated she’d be updating plugins for 1.0 from December onwards.
+1 for _ck_ to join the bbPress team.
She knows the project inside and out and is a stickler for code optimization and performance!
Sorry, I missed the discussion of this topic, I am not a developer and so excuse me if I have this wrong … but can I underline what seems to be a missing element across the board of WP/BB/BP products …
an integrated search facility.
so that a search at the main portal recovers searches from ALL blogs, user pages, forum posts etc.
I say ‘main portal at least’ but I would have a filtered choice at every search bar, e.g. ‘just this user’ versus ‘whole site’.
Without an integrated search facility, without being able to find related content, it is pointless and frustrating. One may as well have a series of unrelated domain names with bespoke softwares and depend on Google. If the whole WP/BB/BP thing is about building community then those communities have to be linked. Without linking there is no community.
I am a great fan of the WP conceptual approach and am desperate to use and have BBpress work. I have been wasting weeks of my life trying repeatedly to make it all work together. It does not at present and it is deeply depressing.
It looks to me that it all needs to be integrated into one single application with the choice to switch on or off parts. That would also allow for the other big omission to be more easily addressed …
multi-linguality
Let us not forget that English language users are actually a minority and help up to make our communities multi-racial.
@r-a-y – Is _ck_ “she”???
The best thing that could happen with bbPress is having _ck_ on the dev team. I am a freelancer web developer who uses WordPress & bbPress to power sites. So xHTML/CSS & PHP is my cup of tea. Getting close to being proficient in PHP. I would like to develop more plugins for bbPress (3 tiny ones so far)
nonegiven, I deleted your post because it was off-topic. If you’d like to start a new topic to cover those issues, email me at chrishajer [at] gmail.com and I will send you the text so you don’t need to retype it all.
Chris
Glad to see this is still being developed. I REALLY want to see bbPress incorporated into WordPress better!
Calling all bbPress developers, please consider volunteer to help out.
Newbies like myself are counting on you!!!
Hi Matt,
I am a twenty–something designer who profoundly enjoys creating efficient and elegant websites, with abilities focused in CSS/XHTML, WordPress/bbPress theming and Photoshop. I also have a great interest in writing. My portfolio.
I would like to be part of developing documentation regarding theme functions: something in which WordPress excels at and which further allows designers to work more fluently. As a theme designer I often had to explore bbPress core files looking for functions and their behavior in order to develop a site. This was done mostly through trial and error due to the lack of a function reference document. Then maybe even contributing with more quality themes or a restyle of bbPress while also promoting the development of things like P2 in WordPress to show the range of possibilities of bbPress. As a reference, you might register in this website I created to check how some aspects of bbPress were enhanced through theming (encouraging posting by displaying it more prominently though non obtrusive) for a particular project.
I’m a new bbPress user for about 10 months now. I’ve been promoting bbPress in all the other forums I participate in. Love the product and would love to help out in any capacity I could.
I work for myself as a web publisher. I’m a developer at heart (Computer Engineer), but I mostly do community management and marketing these days.
Would not even know where to begin in regards to where I could help. I would like to see the product get a bit more mainstream usage. Every forum I bring it up in or recommend it, no one seems to know anything about it. I find myself sticking up for it against the big hitters like vBulletin, etc. Perhaps a volunteer marketing/advocate role might be useful…
Regards,
Max
I’ve recently been introduced to BBpress, did a migration from FUDforum for http://cycling74.com/forums.
Posted the scripts to migrate as well as the plugin to redirect FUDforum links on github.
http://github.com/aufumy/migratefud2bb
http://github.com/aufumy/redirect_fudlinks
Myself: worked with Drupal at Raincity Studios. Contributed on core patches, and contrib modules.
Strengths: Data import, database, openid, apache solr
What part of BBPress I’d like to be part of: currently just getting to know it, helping out with forums, plugins.
I’ll try to help out in any way I can. I mentioned in another topic here that bbPress needs a Codex, so I’m all for volunteering some of my time to work on documenting functions and such. I’d even help out with some inline documentation of the code too (though I’m not as familiar with it as WP).
Most of the work I’ve done with bbPress is for my own use here:
http://themehybrid.com/support
I’ve dabbled in bbPress plugin development, but most of the work I do is with themes.
We’re interested in helping (PageLines.com)
Tons of experience with WP and BBPress Addons for our themes due out shortly 
Definitely don’t want to see BBPress fall by the wayside so if I can do anything to help, I will.
I have done a couple of BBPress implementations alongside wordpress, mainly theming and small tweaks, but it’s fair to say at the moment my main knowledge is based around WordPress theme and plugin development.
Happy to contribute in any way, wether it’s minor core patches, front end design/coding, or just adding documentation to a codex etc.
Where did Sam go? He felt all alone and decided to stop, or was he assigned something else?
@Matt: I’ll be needing a new forum on my own site shortly; one that fully integrates with multiple WP installs. So I can certainly babysit the code base if you need someone to oversee BBPress for a day per week or so.
It *would* be much more appropriate if CK and Sam were around, however. My understanding is CK got pissed. Where is Sam at?
D.
I would be glad to help out in any way I can.
I have an offline monthly fiction writers group I run, who coordinate via a bbPress forum. Administration of that’s been a breeze, and I can think of no better forum software to use. So I’ve had experience simply administering a bbPress installation (admittedly with only a couple of dozen active users).
I’ve been creating custom themes & plugins for bbPress for a while for my own enjoyment, aiming to bend the software into new and interesting places. For instance
- making a very “blog-like” theme giving strong emphasis to opening posts with all replies looking like comments & discussion of the opening post
- writing and enhanced form of the RSS portion of the site to use bbPress as a super-flexible podcast hosting site generating iTunes compatible feeds
- Forum specific theming (a gaming site who wants an “XBox theme” active for certain forums, a “W.o.W theme” in others, etc)
- creating a fine-grained access control mechanism for forum/topic/board ownership and read/write privilages (to support separation of gaming forum admin, and multiple podcasters for 2 instances of its use)
Prior to hacking on the bbPress codebase, plugins and themes I lived in WordPress land – themes and plugins – using it for blogs, CMS and podcast hosting.
I write HTML/CSS/PHP for pleasure. Java/XML/etc is the day-job.
Greetings
I am glad to hear that an effort is being made into ensuring the continuity (and maturing) of bbPress.
If I could, I would help out a lot where I could. Unfortunately, I’m still in the learning phase with PHP and MySQL. This as I learn by experience.
In the long-term however, I would like to help out as much as I can. I do have a strong taste for interface design, and new ideas.
I’ve always said to myself that forum software seems to be all the same, from brand to brand. Already, bbPress is defying that. bbPress has a lot to offer, and I’d like to extend it somewhat.
In my case, I have released a development community forum (http://www.inniosoft.co.cc/devstation) using bbPress – so that shows one thing. Many people have different purposes for using forum software. With my community (which is still small – it’s new) I wish that it would be more socially interactive. I am in the middle of writing a plugin that will make user-profiles more interactive (ie Status updates, etc). In the long term, I’d like to cater for that kind of thing. Bringing new things into bbPress that don’t seem to exist any any other forum software. Of course, in this case, my idea would only be useful for those using bbPress as a standalone package (ie without integrating it with WPMU and BuddyPress).
I can see that bbPress will ba amazing software one day – competing with the likes on vBulletin and phpBB. If anything, I’d love to be involved with getting it there.
My name is Dennis Morhardt, the man behind the german communities of BuddyPress and WordPress MU. (For you Matt, the guy from the WordCamp in Germany). I think bbPress 2.0 sould the release with the best WordPress integration, maybe as plugin or a combination of plugin and stand-a-lone version with the possibile to use normal wordpress themes. But my focus is internationalization and localization and I would like to help 
Groovy. This is the fun part. A merry band of hackers trying to change the web, or at least our small slice of it.
I’m going to send everybody an email so we can start up a discussion and let’s also try for an IRC meetup next week.
MT reached out to Sam for the redesign files he was working on as well, and we can decide what the priorities are for the redesign when we chat.
I’m saddened to see development of bbPress stagnate since summer. After glimpsing bbPress a couple of years ago, i was enamored with the visual appeal, design and speed. This led me to migrate my fairly large board over to bbPress from older inferior software earlier this year. I dont want to see bbPress die! It’s got mojo and can be strengthened.
Pretty please, update me on how we can carry bbPress into 2010 and beyond as a dynamite communication tool. Thank-you.
That’s what we’re doing, right here. Don’t worry.
