Re: 404 errors
Personally, I have had issues with this as well. I would suggest creating a .htaccess file and place it in your bbpress root directory and only adding the following to it:
Options +MultiViews
That seems to work for most people. Try that first maybe? If not, maybe check what format you have in your WP .htaccess and try a combination of either the previous code or what rewrite-rules.php spits out for you.
Thanks,
Trent