[_ck_]

Unlike WordPress I don’t believe bbPress has an easy way to do role management (yet). There is a privilege built-in for bb_current_user_can( 'write_topics' ) which means it is technically possible to control who can start topics by taking away that role privilege from the “member” role.

In theory a small plugin should be able to do this – I’ll take a look at how it might be done as an exercise in learning more about bbPress roles…