[chrishajer]

I don’t think anyone but you can answer the first one.

BuddyPress does have a good forum, as far as I’ve heard. You can learn more about how bbPress was integrated with Buddypress in this IRC log:

https://bbpress.org/blog/2009/12/2009-12-09-meetup/

You can ask Andy directly about forums in BuddyPress too:

http://twitter.com/apeatling

Or John James Jacoby:

http://twitter.com/johnjamesjacoby

He was active here for a while and then became a dev for BuddyPress. He would be a good one to ask about the energy required.