[chrishajer]

What version of bbPress are you using? Those instructions are for 1.0.1. Also, are you using a stock theme?

Basically, you need to find, in whatever template file you want to change, the bbPress function that shows that text (it won’t be immediately clear because the function has a default text which is used if you don’t send it anything else. The default text is set in the core file bb-includes/functions.bb-template.php.) Just look in the source of the generated page and try to get some context for where in your template file this function will be (top, middle, bottom, in a table cell, near a unique css id, etc). Then, try adding your text in comments inside the parentheses, instead of them being bare. So, from this:

bb_do_whatever()

to:

bb_do_whatever('Add New Essay')