[davidbessler]

An educated consumer is our best customer. Take a look at Drupal (www.drupal.org) and Joomla (www.joomla.org), as these may be more along the lines of what you are looking for. They are the equivalent of the all-inclusive resort of online community systems. They offer a lot of what you are looking for almost out of the box. The idea behind bbpress is that while WordPress is a great system for blooging and news (A few people write, lots of people read), it did not offer anything in the way of serious egalitarian discussion, like many conventional message boards. So, bbPress was born to fill that gap. But, it was just born. I think, the future lies in modular community bulding, where people pick and choose each module of their system, and they all work together. bbPress is along those lines, and that’s why I love it. However, if you want to plop a community down on the web with all sorts of gadgetry, chattery, and photo-uploadery, check out Drupal, Joomla, or some of the other CMS (Content Management Systems) … Check this out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_content_management_systems

Sorry, fellow bbPressers, I have to give an honest opinion.

So, again, bbPress and WordPress are like booking a vacation to the far east and choosing a great hotel your friends recommended, then reserving a spot on a cool mountain-climbing excursion you read about in a magazine, and then dining at that revolving restaurant you had always heard about etc … Drupal or any other CMS, is like calling 1-800-awesome-trips, plunking down your credit card, and relying on them to decide all those things for you. Truth is, you may have an AWESOME vacation EITHER way. It depends on the person. And THAT’S the truth.