My humble opinion is Automattic should acquire a SimplePress Forum plugin, incl. the developers. It works just great with BuddyPress.
Great post. Thanks a lot.
@grassrootspa
There’is a lot of cons&pros.
The decision makers must keep in mind all the WP/BB/BP community interests.
“It’s time for Drupal to take on vB4”
(Some interesting thoughts from Drupal community)
“vbulletin 4 was released late last year and there seems to be a consensus that it’s a disappointment. Jelsoft (the company that brought us the original software) was bought out and the current developers are, imo, more concerned with quick turnover than delivering a solid project. This thread is not to bash the current programmers, as I’m sure they work very hard. But since vb4 comes with a CMS (a buggy, feature-anemic one at that), now seems like the perfect time for Drupal to take the charge.
There has never been a fully functional integration between vbulletin and a robust CMS. If a webmaster wants a great CMS and a great forum, we have to settle for a buggy bridge/plugin/module (Drupal/Wordpress to vbulletin). If a webmaster wants true user and content integration with no bugs, we have to settle for the inferior forum (Drupal). A complete solution has been in high demand for years, but I suspect it’s never come to fruition because it would require months of hardcore coding to duplicate the functionality of vbulletin. Maybe programmers feel their time is better spent developing paid services, or contributing to an open source forum like phpBB.”
Full post:
http://drupal.org/node/682094
@Kawauso
1. SimplePress looks better than BuddyPress did before Automattic has acquired it. I intent to emphasize rather business aspect, than technology one. It would be better for WordPress community if the resources will concentrated, not dispersed.
2. Try vBulletin4.0(beta). It’s “light, adaptable, etc”…
3. My company develops 4-6 [WP-based] sites (not blogs) a month. God bless WordPress!
CMS=ContentManagementSystem, isn’t blogging about content management?
And you’re right, hopefully, it’s CURRENT shortcomings will be overcame in 3.0 
@rvlawrence
I’ve suggested to Matt that Automattic will acquire SimplePress, as they did with Buddypress
Matt,
1. Automattic should to acquire SimplePress and to merge it with bbPress (just as you did with Buddypress – smart move).
2. The best forum software is vBulletin (and now they have a full-featured CMS). Look at vB, and you’ll see the roadmap of all the forum software.
3. Stop calling WordPress “blogging platform”. It’s a CMS, FYI! I even hope WP3.0 will become a CMF.
