bbPress.org

This is certainly possible with some custom code, though the real question remains as to why you want it. Given the WordPress comment systems have a far greater “forum-ness” about them these days (pagination, avatars, html/bbcode, wyswig threading etc etc). What would be the advantage to your users of having the same content in two different places on your website?

In fact, wouldn’t it be easier to just theme your wordpress to make your comments bigger and loko more forum like (maybe even removing the actual article on page 2 of the comments?)?

On one of my wordpress installs, the blog-post only appears on the initial page and with no comments, and all the comments are handled under “www.website.com/blog-post/comments” so they have their own pages with more space etc. It works really well for that site in a place where I couldn’t have used bbPress due to it’s complete lack of moderation.

Ah right, well in that case what you want is this:

1) A “forum/category” that users can add to threads, but not make their own threads. (requires a bbPress plugin)

2) A plugin in WordPress that “posts” a thread in that same “forum/category” for users to comment on.

3) When someone clicks on a link on your blog to read comments, that link should go to the right forum (that’ll require a plugin too)

4) When someone enters a comment on your blog post, it posts it to the forum (another plugin – possibly an extention of the same one but new functionality). It should then link them to their comment (which is actually a forum post).

You’re basically looking at a WordPress plugin that has 3 main functions which go against how WordPress works. Its possible, totally possible really, but it’s neither simple or straightforward. Given that the work would have to be done at the WordPress end, you’d have more luck posting there than here sadly.

I’d also strongly suggest against this sort of thing. While in theory you’re moving the “conversation” to one place rather than two, you’re also duplicating the blog post into two places. That always confuses users. Its also worth thinking about whether you have the size of userbase where this will be benefitial. Lastly, people use blog comments and forums for different things. At a technical level they are very similar, and many experienced forum users look on both in a truly similar light; but your “average joe” sees a comment on a blog post as a comment on the blog post, while a forum is an open place to talk – or realistically have others argue against what was said.

A comment is a “1 to 1” communication (seen by others ofcourse), while a forum is an “many to many” communication; and users do treat them differently at a base level.

If you thought this was imperative for your site, i’d suggest ignoring the bbpress aspect of it, and pay someone very knowledgable to theme your comment sections to look/work like a forum. bbPress is going that wasy as a wordpress plugin, so pay for or putitng the large amount of time and effort into coding your solution might have very little RoI.

Good luck whatever you do, and keep us posted if you do anythign v cool!!

Yeah for sure, I helped out with the original WordOfRaids back in the day and they do that, but they just manually link to a forum post ( i set up a custom field on WordPress, so they make forum and copy/paste into there).

I’m not against the idea, its just definitely not going to be “off the shelf”; and nor is the original poster’s ideal solution going to be easy to come by (where it all happens automatically, though if you had time and the need it’s v possible).

I sent slightly off topic (big shock) but this sort of thing depends on the usergroup immensely. people who play mmorpgs as an example are used to forums and doing things in front of others; where as say a Classical Music Magazine website/blog’s users might not be really up for entering a forum flame war. Sorry if i gave the wrong impression, I sometimes feel its better to manage expectations a little with bbPress, especially with all the wordPress “as a CMS that can do anything” stuff flying around

Hi Lethality,

Sadly WordPress/bbPress integration isn’t well defined anywhere outside this website – it basically means shared users and login (though for alot of people thats ideal).

If you have the cash to spend on something that already works, I’d definately favour that option.

The idea of extending bbPress into WordPress is a good one, but of course you’d still need to edit WordPress to either post comments to the right forum, or to redirect to the right forum if someone tried to add a comment. I’d be surprised if there was much desire for this on the whole, so going with the existing solution might be your best bet.

Good luck in whatever you decide, and let us know

Kev

@KentonMr

I’ve no issue with us disagreeing on things, heck if we all agreed on everything it’d be a boring life; but you’re making a few leaps here mate.

To state that WordPress is difficult to customise is, frankly, absolutely mental. WordPress’ strength was and is just how amazingly easy it is to customise. Thats not to say it’s the best tool for every job, but “[WordPress] is difficult to customise”?? lunacy.

To also suggest that WordPress has un-managed comments from visitors show a total lack of knowledge of it. WordPress handles comments and visitors amazingly well. Pagination, threading, custom types, moderation, different theming, searching, functions oh my the list goes on and on. Again, it’s not the best tool for every job, but “un-managed comments from visitors” is so wrong a statement its unreal.

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All of that aside, as I said above, creating a post to bbPress button or plugin for WordPress would be easy. In the same way you’ve managed to get yours working.

But I commented on between what yourself and Lethality wanted to do, is that you’d only mentioned about the initial stages, and not how the users would react or use the site. If you want to define the topic of conversation and have users comment on it – guess what, thats a 1 to 1 conversation. If you want to define a topic and have users comment on it but allow them to comment on each other’s commnet, thats a 1 to many conversation (threading). bbPress and forums on the whole don’t work that way, not because someone hasn’t thought it up before, but because the user doesn’t think that way.

Paul Hawke made a good example about a site in the MMORPG community. I replied with a similar one, showing how this way of thinking would work, as long as it was followed through for the user. I also quantified this:

slightly off topic (big shock) but this sort of thing depends on the usergroup immensely. people who play mmorpgs as an example are used to forums and doing things in front of others; where as say a Classical Music Magazine website/blog’s users might not be really up for entering a forum flame war

Over the years we’ve had loads of requests for weird and wonderful things in bbPress. Some cool, some not, some interesting, some not. How many cool and interesting forums (bbPress or not) that work differently to the norm do you see out there? There is a reason for that. It’s not because I’ve got a different view, or becasue I’m being difficult, it’s becasue Users go with what they know. If you plan to do anything in a slightly different way, you have to also plan for any and all ways random users will attempt to either do things the way they know or a new way.

A very wise man at Microsoft once said:

Users on websites are like the frogs at the end of Jurassic Park.

No matter how much you think something through, how much technology you put in place, how much you hope they’ll do things they way you want them to or how difficult you make something for them… as soon as you change something that they want to do, they’ll start fucking it up and making very obvious and loud dinosaurs.

I’m seriously all for you folks doing something new and wonderful; and heck if you pull it off my hat will be the first one off. Infact, i offered step by step adive on exactly how to do what Lethality needed, I just suggested that he think about it from a different perspective too. The internet is littered with websites who tried to change how users interacted with it, very very few succeed, and those that do are very very dependant on their userbase’s base HCI mechanics.