[Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)]

Ah. Yes, but no. Read https://bbpress.org/about/

bbPress is a simple forum software. Full stop. The fact that it integrates better with WP than other forums is … a bonus. In fact, none of the about pages mention wordpress except in that WP was the reason for tBB to be made.

The reason people come to BBPress is becuase of the intergration possibilities

Yes, most likely this is true. Heaven’s knows it was for me!

limiting the deep integration is the most Counter-Intuitive thing against its own selling point

Except it’s not a selling point. If it was, I’d agree with you, but it’s clearly not. Even in the documentation on how to to shallow and deep integration, it suggests not doing it because of load and overhead and other things.

I have no need for deep integration and I never will. I use four totally separate tools for my website: MediaWiki, bbPress, WordPress and Gallery2. ONLY WP and BB are integrated and even then, it’s just users so people can comment and post. I could, if I wanted, integrate WP+BB+MW, but even then I’d just want logins.

Why? Because while I want the site to look the same on each one, each tool I use is slightly different and needs customization. I feel that I can give my users a BETTER level of cross-tool integration if I take the time to customize each of my tools to that it is consistent with my site design AND consistent with the intended use of the tool itself. And I’m not the only person who thinks that way.

Some people want a silver bullet, a tool that does it all. Some people want the right tool for the right job and will customize as needed. Neither is right or wrong, it’s just preference.

By keeping bbPress NOT deep-integrated with WordPress, bbPress leaves itself open to be integrated with any other application, or not. It allows itself to be customized based on the needs of the client. And that is, in my opinion, a fantastic selling point