[@johnjamesjacoby Keymaster 15 years, 4 months ago]

1. Change the forums base to something else. I am running it perfectly fine over at testbp.org by changing the base to ‘discussion’

2. The reason for the double ‘forum’ is because your root slug is ‘forum’ and the forum slug is ‘forum’ and you’re choosing to include the root slug.

3. Don’t remove the forum slug.

Widgets should work anywhere you have a widgetable area. Since your theme is mostly custom, you’ll want to research how widgets work, insert your sidebar, etc…