quick response, I’m a UK farmer, so out a lot of the daytime !
As a ‘quick and dirty’ solution you would need to create the topic
Then in a new item I’ll add in the dashboard enter the post ID and the Topic ID
This will then create a new reply.
It will keep the existing comments.
from memory bbpress uses ‘anonymous’ for any user that no longer exists, but if you create a ‘deleted user’ I might be able to add that to the code
Thanks, Robin — that would be absolutely fantastic!
With a smooth and simple solution like that, I could even consider importing 3–4 more posts that originally were discussion posts and would fit much better in the forum. But no larger volumes than that.
I don’t know exactly how you’re planning to solve it, but if possible, it would be great to keep the original post and its comments intact until everything is confirmed to be working. If it’s easier to convert the existing content directly, that’s perfectly fine as well.
In our system, users also have the option to delete their own accounts if they wish. I assume we therefore need to take into account that some users who commented may no longer have a valid user ID. In that case, I guess a fallback user is needed? I do have such a user in my system called “Deleted User,” whose user ID could be used if necessary.
I’m also not entirely sure how bbPress handles topics and replies when the original user accounts are deleted — I haven’t had a chance to test that yet. 🙂
Many thanks for your help. I really don’t have the required level of knowledge for this, so it’s very much appreciated. 🙂
Thanks, Robin — much appreciated.
Unfortunately, no, I’m not comfortable with code, and definitely not at that level.
With the plugin you’re suggesting: am I correct in understanding that it does not import existing comments from the original post as replies in bbPress? What I would really like is to move all 78 comments over as replies in the bbPress topic, and ideally be able to delete the original post entirely afterwards.
I’ve already created the topic itself manually in the correct forum, preserving the original text, date, and author. The only remaining (small 🙂) problem is the replies. And since those 78 comments contain a lot of valuable content, it wouldn’t feel right to start over from scratch in the forum.
Ok, I am just a volunteer who helps out here, I am not a bbpress author, but I have written a number of bbpress related plugins.
I also took over a defunct plugin called
Post Comments as bbPress Topics
I did not write this, I just did enough coding to get it working again.
if you are code savvy, then function build_topic on line 485 of index.php should give you some code that you could maybe use in a plugin or use the code snippets plugin.
otherwise if you only have a few posts from which you want 2, you could enable it convert, disable it and then delete the topics (posts) you don’t want.
Hi. I don’t get any chance to enter a topic ID. The page crashes as soon as I click “Add New Reply”, and the form never loads at all.
I agree that normally there’s no real need to create replies via wp-admin. The reason I want to do it in this case is to paste content from comments on a regular post, in order to move an existing discussion into bbPress (see my other thread about importing individual posts and comments into bbPress). From the admin side it would be easier to create replies, attach them to a topic, change author and date, and paste the original text.
It is possible to do this via the frontend and then edit the replies in the backend, but that adds several extra steps. Also, since the “Add New Reply” function exists in wp-admin, I assumed it should work — and it didn’t feel right that the page crashes instead. 🙂
That said, if there is a more automated or cleaner way to import posts and their associated comments into bbPress, that would be much better, and in that case I wouldn’t really need to use Add New Reply in wp-admin at all.
Hi, I have a somewhat unusual question. On my site, I have a specific post with 78 comments. Now that I’ve set up bbPress, I’d like to move the entire discussion—including the post and all comments—into a forum as a topic with replies.
I haven’t found a ready-made way to do this. Using WP-CLI, I exported all 78 comments to a CSV file in the following format:
“author_id”,”date_time”,”comment_text”
I then tried creating a shell script that uses tail on the file, processes it with sed and cut to separate the columns, and then loops through an import with wp cli post create using post_type=reply and post_parent set to the main post (which I can easily create manually).
But with my very basic knowledge, I haven’t been able to get it to work, so I’m giving up trying on my own. 🙂
I only want to do this operation for this specific post, and maybe one more with 12 comments. It would be wonderful to have it moved as a topic in the bbPress forum.
Does anyone happen to have a ready solution, or a bit of time to help me out? 🙂
I’m encountering a strange behavior in my new bbPress installation. Here’s what happens:
Setup:
• Forum: “General”
• Sticky post in this forum containing the rules (closed for replies)
• A test topic: “Now I’m drinking coffee”
• A reply added to the test topic
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Create the topic “Now I’m drinking coffee” in the “General” forum.
2. Add a reply to this topic. Everything works as expected.
3. Go to wp-admin → Topics → All Topics.
4. Move the “coffee” topic to the trash.
Observed Behavior:
• The reply added to the trashed topic also goes to the replies trash.
• Its post_parent changes from the “coffee” topic to the sticky rules post (still published).
• If I restore the topic from the trash, the reply is no longer associated with the topic.
Expected Behavior:
• The reply’s post_parent should remain linked to the original topic.
• When emptying the topics trash, the reply should be deleted along with the topic, similar to how comments are handled with regular posts.
Environment:
• bbPress latest version
• WordPress latest version
• No child theme active
• Plugin: “Enable bbPress for Block Themes”
Has anyone else experienced this, or is there a fix/workaround?
Hi. I’m running a site with a brand-new forum. I haven’t imported anything and have only created a few test topics. I’m getting the same 500 error, and in my case PHP also tries to allocate memory endlessly.
Creating replies on the frontend works perfectly, but not via wp-admin → Replies → Add New Reply.
Every time I try, an empty reply is created with post_parent set to 0. I assume these empty replies are left floating around in cyberspace and have to be manually deleted from the database?
I’d also appreciate any help. I’m using the Blog FSE theme and the latest version of bbPress, together with the plugin “Enable bbPress for Block Themes”. We do not have a child theme active.
I noticed that this thread is almost a decade old at this point, so I’m looking for an update on measures bbPress has taken to bring your plugin up to the latest WCAG standard, especially in light of recent updates to Title II of the ADA stating that all state and local government web properties must be compliant with WCAG 2.1AA.
Please let me know if you have created a VPAT or Accessibility Conformance Report recently. Also, if you have a link to your accessibility statement I would love to have it for my records since our agency would like to be able to use your plugin from time to time but enforce the policy that all the plugins we use prioritize accessibility. Thanks!
I have a link in a post,
“https://[address]/myUrl ”
in frontend gets converted to
“https://[address]/myUrl”
The string is linked correctly, but the final quote becomes an entity.
How to avoid this? I see this happens also in this installation, I had to add a space before the quote
My bbPress version is 2.6.14 on wp 6.9
Thanks a lot
I suspect it works well with Kadence, but I am just a volunteer here, and don’t have the time to find out what combination works.
I presume you tried the fix in
dashboard>settings>bbp style pack>theme support
Otherwise I have no specific theme to recommend as bbpress works with almost all themes I have seen.
I have seen it working for i-max and flash to name just 2
Can you recommend a classic theme that does not interfere with bbPress?
I’m using Kadence theme. I have followed instructions from Kadence support to use a child theme in order to make additional modifications to bbPress. I have also copied all the bbPress & css templates into the child theme.
Edit:
Thanks for the shortcode list.
I tried to follow the bbPress Codex set up instructions.
However, when I used Method 1 and created a page called “Forums”, the link sent me to a page with just the word “Forums” and nothing else. But once I deleted the “Forums” page, the link worked by showing the forum index. Is this the right way and the instructions are outdated?
2nd problem is that if I use Method 2 to create another forum style using another page and use shortcodes to show the forums, e.g. website.com/chats, if I type website.com/forums, I can still access the forums in that way, which is something that I do not want. I tried changing the “Forum Root” under Settings > Forums but it messed up the layout of the “Chats” page that I created using shortcodes. Is there any way to use Method 2 and still not let people access the forums using /forums?
Edit:
Lastly, is there a list of all the shortcodes that I can use for the forum? I know there is a list in bbp style pack and bbp Private Groups. Are there more shortcodes that I can use or is that all there is?
I’ll give bbPress Notify (No-Spam) a try and see how it works on our setup.
Appreciate the help
bbPress Notify (No-Spam) works fine as far as I know
Thanks for the suggestion 🙏
However, I checked the bbp style pack plugin on WordPress.org and it doesn’t add email notification functionality to admins — it mainly adds styling options and display features for bbPress, not admin notifications. 
Do you know if we should use something like:
👉 bbPress Notify (No-Spam), a dedicated plugin that actually sends emails to site admins when new topics or replies are posted? 
Thanks again!
bbpress is a ‘light’ plugin and you will need an additional plugin to ensure admins get notified
Install
bbp style pack
once activated go to
dashboard>settings>bbp style pack>moderation
for how to set this up
Hi there 👋
We’re using bbPress on a WordPress site and we’ve noticed that the forum administrator is not receiving email notifications when someone creates a new topic or replies to an existing one.
Here’s what we’re seeing:
• WordPress email is working fine — we’re using SMTP and other emails are being delivered correctly.
• Users who subscribe to forums or topics do receive notifications with no issues.
• The only problem is with the forum administrator / super admin, who does not receive any notification emails at all.
Environment:
• WordPress: 6.9
• bbPress: 2.6.14
Our questions:
1. Does bbPress send notifications to administrators automatically?
2. Is there a specific role, setting, or filter we should enable so administrators receive all notifications?
We need the admin to be notified so they can reply within 24 hours, but without email notifications this becomes difficult.
Any help or guidance would be much appreciated — thank you!
Bonjour,
Je me permets de vous contacter concernant un problème d’accessibilité sur le forum BBPress du site rayons.handivelo.fr. Plus précisément, j’utilise le shortcode [bbp-topic-form] pour permettre aux utilisateurs de créer un nouveau sujet.
Problème rencontré :
– Je parviens à lire les champs du formulaire avec mon interface vocale, mais la liste déroulante des forums/catégories n’est pas accessible.
– Mon lecteur d’écran indique qu’il y a 19 éléments dans la liste, mais je ne peux pas les lire ou les sélectionner correctement.
– Pour information, je suis non-voyant et j’utilise un logiciel de synthèse vocale pour naviguer.
Questions :
1. Existe-t-il un autre shortcode ou une alternative pour rendre cette liste déroulante accessible ?
2. Serait-il possible de remplacer la liste déroulante par des boutons radio ou des cases à cocher pour faciliter la sélection ?
3. Avez-vous des bonnes pratiques ou des plugins à recommander pour améliorer l’accessibilité des formulaires BBPress ?
Contexte technique :
– Site : rayons.handivelo.fr https://rayons.handivelo.fr
– CMS : WordPress + BBPress
– Interface utilisée : Lecteur d’écran (ex : JAWS, NVDA)
Je reste à votre disposition pour tester toute solution que vous pourriez proposer. Merci par avance pour votre aide, et je vous souhaite une excellente année 2026 !
Bien cordialement,
Christophe
Yes, @johnjamesjacoby much appreciation here for your work on bbPress!
And Happy New Year!
I have a new problem in my forum (theeagleye.net/forums).
My one forum (Off-Topic Lounge) has a problem I have not had before. Unlike every other forum I have, this one always shows the user as signed out (even if they are not, and the other forums do not show this). When they try to sign in, it still does not allow them to sign in. I already tried clearing the cache and checking all the settings in this forum, but they are all exactly as they are supposed to be and nothing is solving the problem.
Has anyone else had this issue and what can I do to solve it?
I use the Twenty Twenty Five theme, have WordPress 6.9, bbpress Version 2.6.14, and my site is theeagleye.net/.
I am not a bbpress author, I am simply someone trying to help out.
The slugs do whatever the plugin author codes them to do, and this plugin does not do that.
You can add this additional plugin
bbp style pack
once activated go to
dashboard>settings>bbp style pack>shortcodes
and you can see a shortcode you can use in a page
[bsp-profile]
with options for wording and edit
