Re: Future of bbPress
For bbPress to continue moving forward it has to start seamlessly integrating with WordPress.
There are only two ways of doing that. Move WordPress so that it uses BackPress, or extract BackPress from bbPress and point it to the code existing in WordPress (if it is integrated). Moving WordPress to use BackPress is a considerable job and would likely need the attention of a completely new version number. In the short term the time it would take isn’t feasible for bbPress (or BuddyPress for that matter) to continue moving forward at a reasonable pace.
The second option is quite possible and has already been done. Despite it not being the truly “ideal” method for the long term it could be used without problems until WordPress moves to BackPress. There is code in BuddyPress that allows bbPress to install, configure and run all within the WordPress environment. If someone was willing to put some time in and extract this code into a plugin (or perhaps a core extension) then the job would almost be done.
The integration / abstraction code is here: https://trac.buddypress.org/browser/trunk/bp-forums/bp-forums-bbpress.php
The configuration / setup code is here: https://trac.buddypress.org/browser/trunk/bp-forums/bp-forums-admin.php
I’m happy to help someone along with this.