[Robin W]

I’ve just created a fresh wordpress site 3.7.1 with theme twentytwelve, and added bbpress 2.4.1 to it.

I am able to create forums, set up users, tools etc. etc.

[Robin W]

Yes totally.

You can create a full width page forum if you wish – if your theme has a full width page option then just create a full width page, put the index shortcode within it [bbp-forum-index].

But it may be better to have a separate sidebar, so that you can have login and latest posts – see http://www.gospbc.co.uk/forums for an example.

Once you have installed bbpress, then install a plugin called bbPress WP tweaks. it gives you a forum specific sidebar, so you can add login and latest posts widgets

You can also use a plugin called “widget logic” with your normal sidebar to control what widgets are seen on what pages. For instance a widget will not appear if you use the logic !is_bbpress()m or will appear if you use is_bbpress()

[Robin W]

Yes, create a page called say “foumsd2 and put the following shortcode in

[bbp-forum-index]

There’s a full list of shortcodes at

https://codex.bbpress.org/shortcodes/

[Robin W]

One a day, lots every day?

Can you post your url?

[Robin W]

OK, when I get a moment I’ll create a new site and try it from a blank canvass.

[Robin W]

OK, try going into

Dashboard>users>

and edit the username you’re looking at

at the bottom there should be a setting for level of forum access. For full rights it should be keymaster.

Come back and let us know what it is set at, and if not keymaster change it to that and try again

[Robin W]

suggest you uninstall bbpress and then re-install it.

Come back if that doesn’t work

[Robin W]

I just took a look at my forum

On a single topic display, my css is from line 575

#content .entry-title {
    color: #000000;
    font-size: 21px;
    font-weight: bold;
    line-height: 1.3em;
    margin-bottom: 0;
}

and when I view a topic title in a list of forums it is from line 475

#content, #content input, #content textarea {
    color: #333333;
    font-size: 16px;
    line-height: 24px;
}

Have you tried either of those?

It is frustrating that I can’t directly see what you’re looking at 🙂

[Robin W]

Precisely what are you doing to get this message

example

Dashboard>settings>forums

and at what point do you get it?

[Robin W]

ok, would be worth a double check with firebug as to which css is being used.

is it definitely bbpress.css? and on what directory are you using it (ie is it the default directory or a copy you have made, and if the latter which directory have you put it in?

[Robin W]

great – glad you’re sorted!

[Robin W]

great, glad you’re sorted !

[Robin W]

Yes, and I totally agree, the documentation is woeful, unfortunately those that know the answers won’t update, and the rest of us work out bits that function, but are never sure whether these are the best ways.

Anyway onto your question.

bbPress is a plugin, and out of the box it works well with twentyten, and I understand twentyeleven.

Beyond that you’ll need to style it.

This consist of two elements :

Functionality
Styling

Functionality

I create a page called “forums”, and then put whatever forum text at the top followed by the forum shortcut [bbp-forum-index]

See http://www.gospbc.co.uk/forums/ for an example

Then loading a plugin called bbPress WP tweaks adds a forum sidebar to your widgets area.

I have loaded this with a login widget, forum list, recent topics and recent replies, as well as some other stuff from my website. See link about for what is in there.

This then gives you a basic forum area.

Then onto

styling
bbPress using the default bbpress.css as it style doc unless you tell it otherwise

You can customise look and feel – fonts, colours, background quite easily by using one of two methods, knowing what to change is the hard part !

If you have an existing child theme, you can override the bbpress default for elements by adding them to your own child theme style.css BUT you need to put !important into them to prevent the bbpress plugin from loading later and overwriting them with the default

As an example if you wanted to change the font-size of the forums list you’d put the following into your css

#bbpress-forums .bbp-forums-list li {
	font-size: 11px !important;
	}

The alternate method, and perhaps better if you want to make lots of changes, is to copy the default bbpress.css from /wp-content/plugins/bbpress/templates/default/css
to /wp-content/themes/%your-theme%/css/

you can then edit it there to your hearts content, and you don’t need the !important bit.

OK so how do I know what to edit?

You’ll need to get familiar with using something like firebug with firefox. This lets you examine sections of your website and see precisely what css element is styling it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdIk2PztcL0 gives the start of a tutorial on this

When I get a moment, I’ll start to add this to the bbpress documentation.

I only started with WordPress and bbPress in March, and am still learning the basics !

[Robin W]

Not quite sure what you’re after?

Do you want more html or less?

are you not getting the same editor as you’ll be using to reply to this thread?

[Robin W]

Haven’t looked at them, but these two might help start you in the right direction

https://bbpress.org/plugins/topic/support-forum/

https://bbpress.org/plugins/topic/best-answer/

[Robin W]

and that class is the one you tried to change, it is on line 166 of bbpress.css

#bbpress-forums div.bbp-forum-title h3,
#bbpress-forums div.bbp-topic-title h3,
#bbpress-forums div.bbp-reply-title h3 {
	background: none;
	border: none;
	font-size: 16px;
 	line-height: 1em;
 	margin: 8px 0;
	padding: 0;
	text-transform: none;
}

[Robin W]

Ok, you can add the following to it

#bbpress-forums div.bbp-forum-title h3,
#bbpress-forums div.bbp-topic-title h3,
#bbpress-forums div.bbp-reply-title h3 {
	font-size: 16px !important;
 	}

16px is what it is currently set to, just alter the 16px to whatever size you want

h3 by the way is “heading 3” there are a number of different heading sizes that bbpress sets and uses, that are separate from your main themes h3

[Robin W]

Great, glad you’re fixed

[Robin W]

ok, all you’ve got is some bad code in your functions.php file

were you customising this file or another? or via the dashboard?

If you can, post line 344 of the functions.php in your reply, it can be as easy as a comma or semicolon missed.

[Robin W]

ok, so apart from suggesting you re-install bbpress – I’m out of ideas !

[Robin W]

Great, really glad you’re fixed !

[Robin W]

ok, lets try doing a repair on the forums to see if they’ve lost the relationship somewhere
Dashboard>tools>forums

I’d work my way down the first 6 – maybe one at a time to ensure you don’t get hours of spinning discs.

The code you provided to protect does have a section where it is working out whether to show a post, topic or reply, and the code for each is slightly different (starts at around line 40). I’m not good enough ton validate this code, but if you’re still stuck, always worth contacting the codes owner to see if they can help

[Robin W]

OK, all I can suggest is that you try

A re-install bbpress – it is possible it didn’t all download correctly and/or
Changing to a default theme (such as twentytwelve) to see if that fixes, if so, then contact your theme provider

After that I’m out of ideas I’m afraid !

[Robin W]

ok, plan B !

Try this for me

Bbpress sidebar fix
Deactivate bbpress tweaks
Dashboard>plugins>bbpress tweaks>deactivate

Go into widgets
Dashboard>appearance>widgets

And look at the bottom of the left hand side. You’ll see an “inactive sidebar”, with your entries on
Below this is an “inactive widgets”
Drag all the entries from the inactive sidebar to the inactive widgets area.
This them allows wordpress to delete the sidebar
I normally log out and in again at this stage – probably not needed, but I’ve never bothered to check
Then basically reverse the above
Re-enable bbpress tweaks
You see the bbpress sidebar returns
Drag the entries back from the inactive widgets area to the sidebar

If that doesn’t work, come back I have a plan C !

[Robin W]

ok, do you have a child theme with css in it you can alter?