Could be an issue with theme compatibility in bbPress. To get around that make a bbpress.php file in your theme.
Getting Started in Modifying the Main bbPress Template
You can see what WordPress conditionals affect what bbPress pages by using the test that is explain in this ticket from the user. Or you can check the theme compat file in bbPress.
https://bbpress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/2723
Would yu be able to tell me what line(s) in the file I would change if I want to go back to a right side bar like the rest of the pages?
I just edited this gist file so just recopy the code to bring the sidebar back if you do want to use the login widget.
https://gist.github.com/robkk/b97ff7d7655080cbcaab
If I ever want to change themes will I still be able to use this file? I suppose I can see if a new theme has issues. If not, I guess I am OK. If I do, can I use this file as is or does it need to be modified for each theme?
Every theme could be different. Most important the surrounding divs and their classes in simple themes, but it could get more way more complicated in some theme frameworks.
Did you place the forum index shortcode into a static WordPress page?? Does clearing cache fix the issue??
Troubleshooting
@davidschwartzer
It is blank on the forum root because of the theme. Use this bbpress.php file I just created and plop it in your theme preferably a child theme to fix that issue. I also fixed an issue where the user profiles also lead to a blank page.
It also makes your forums full-width, I didn’t really know if you wanted full-width forums but I just created you full-width forums haha. (I could change it to a sidebar layout if want.)
https://gist.github.com/robkk/b97ff7d7655080cbcaab
For the top level I created a Forum called Apple Tech Talk Forums.Under that, I have forums for General Discussion, Hardware and Software. Those forums point to the Apple Tech talk Forums as the Parent.
You do not need to do that anymore since I just fixed the forum root page for you.
Within those forums I have set up categories like Desktop, Portable, etc. It’s within those categories that topics would be created.
I think it is better for you to have Software as a category and say IOS as a forum for example.
I tried to remove the Apple Tech Talk Forums from the Forums list but then I get a 404 error if I go to the Forums tab on the site.
Just change the menu link url to a custom link that leads to /forums on your site.
Glad you resolved your own issue! 🙂
I knew about the user sync plugin would be helpful but damn good find on the other one.
@davidschwartzer
I will try to test out your theme (Simplecatch) to see if it is causing any issues, then come back to you with any solutions.
You can reactivate bbPress New UI plugin and use the CSS you had again as of course those plugins were not causing an issue.
Perhaps I added a page or category in a way I wasn’t supposed to. I tried to follow the step by step guide on the bbPress site but clearly I did something wrong.
This may be why your forum root page /forums is blank for some reason, but I will check it out.
@casiepa
Per forum moderation is in 2.6 alpha if I remember correctly. So I assume it should ship with 2.6.
In my reply in that topic I got my information from the bbPress milestone roadmap, and also the feature was not complete til about 3 months ago, 3 months before that reply.
https://bbpress.trac.wordpress.org/roadmap
Huh didn’t know Robin’s plugin could do that, that’s pretty cool.
Clicking the hidden link should show the normal post lists of either replies with the spam posts (either caught by Akismet or a moderator) marked with a red tint.
In the WordPress backend filtering the posts to only see spam posts, then you can see the actual text content by clicking the little icon in this image.
I forgot you are using the Responsive theme and you shouldn’t get the same issue as some other theme frameworks.
Remove your CSS and use this code for your bbpress.php file. It should work fine and be full width for your bbPress pages.
https://gist.github.com/robkk/8a2a01a4d0e7d29c9d12
@davidschwartzer
Your forum urls for each section is weird for some reason. Have you added a slug that is something like this forums/forum for the forum root slug in Settings > Forums in the WordPress backend?
Your forums archive page is blank and only showing a sidebar login widget.
appletechtalk.com/forums/
Yet strangely here is how your forum archive should look like and yet it is in a single forum page. Since this is a single forum page there is a reason there is this notice, as single forums should have topics and not a forum archive. I think you could have possibly echoed a forum index shortcode in the single forum bbPress template?? I am not sure though, I am just guessing.
Oh bother! No topics were found here!
appletechtalk.com/forums/forum/forums/
A single forum page should have this by default.
yoursite.com/forums/forum/forum-name/
Or if you have categories
yoursite.com/forums/forum/category-name/forum-name
Your topics are fine though.
appletechtalk.com/forums/topic/notes-not-syncing/
I am not sure how much template editing you may have done, but can you rename your bbpress folder in your child theme to like bbpress-1 so I could see without any template edits what were your original issues then I can try to help you on that.
Sorry you had to start over, but glad you got bbPress working fine on your site.
Make sure to take regular backups, so that you do not have to just redo everything and just restore to a previously saved backup.
https://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Backups
Backing up your Database and Files
In a single forum or a topic, you would usually see a description like this describing what a topic or forum contains.
This topic contains 12 replies (+ 1 hidden), has 1 voice, and was last updated by robkk 6 days, 7 hours ago.
To see any all the posts especially those marked as spam per forum/topic just click the (+ 1 hidden) , “1” is how many topics/replies are marked as spam or pending moderation.
To just see all of the topics/replies sitewide marked as spam/pending, login into your WordPress backend and to see all the topics go to Topics > All TOpics and you should see an action link labeled spam and pending to filter the posts. Similar with replies except it is Replies > All Replies.
Here is an example of the action links in Topics > All Topics.
I do not think there is any plugins for this but this functionality should be in the 2.6 version of bbPress.
Here is the trac ticket.
https://bbpress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/459
This might be related to your theme and bbPress theme compatibility. I think what you are experiencing is similar to what other theme frameworks could experience with bbPress.
https://bbpress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/2545
There might be a workaround for this though by using the template you are already using and creating a bbpress.php template from that so that all your bbPress pages you that template.
Use what the file to find out what template is being used from your theme for the other bbPress pages, then copy that template and rename it bbpress.php.
Getting Started in Modifying the Main bbPress Template
The forum search should show up on the forum archive page that is usually yoursite.com/forums by default and I do see it there on your site.
The input box for the math captcha could just be a CSS issue. Unless you have anonymous posting activated in bbPress, you may need to send me account details for a Subscriber/Participant test user account as I may need to be logged in to your site to be able to even see the captcha.
Also not sure why you are using bbPress with some other forum software plugin, you could possibly get issues by having them both activated together. If you are just importing from one to the other your simplepress data should stay in your database and you just import all of that.
You should try some troubleshooting to see if some of the issues could be theme related. Make sure to check in a theme like Twenty Twelve, and also check to see if Simplepress could be causing an issue if you have it activated with bbPress.
Troubleshooting
In the code I posted the menu links should lead to the default WordPress forms.
Login, Register, Lost Password links
Other plugins can add frontend forms like Theme My Login, woocommerce, some other membership plugins.
I am basically saying the bbPress forms are incomplete in functionality, it might be better to use something else like the default WordPress forms.
It probably will be a lot easier using functions to set up the menu items.
This might be considered custom development too.
Do you have any hidden forums?? Hidden forums are only for Admins and mods, participants might get a 404. There might also be a bug if you are using it with BuddyPress groups for group forums.
You can test to see if it could still be a user capability issue on your site too. Just installing a plugin that modifies the bbPress user role capabilities could mess it up and it could still mess up even if you removed the plugin. Some users say the Members plugin by Justin Tadlock resolves some user role capability issues just by installing it, so you can try that.
Makes sure to test this in a default theme to make sure you do not have multiple issues regarding capability issues and a theme issue.
Make sure to test with your normal Keymaster role and also with a testuser accout with a Participant role.
Are you trying to use the bbPress shortcodes in pages for logging in and registering??
These forms are really incomplete in functionality, they don’t redirect back to the login form and show error messages above that form, it just redirects to the default WordPress form to show the error messages. I think using the default WordPress forms or other frontend forms are better for now.
@paul-burwell
Yeah only Admins and moderators can see hidden forums. Private forums are forums for only logged in users though, participants can see private forums too.
I will test to see if there is a bug with BuddyPress groups later today.
Did you ever install any user role and capability editing plugins before?? Some plugins could have an issue with the bbPress capabilities.
I think you just copied form-user-register.php into your theme and added that text, not entirely sure though.
