[RandomGuySays]

I understand what you’re saying. But like I said, these are basic forum elements that are missing – for instance, if you have more than 10 topics, by default your forum is now 2 pages long as opposed to giving the option to choose what’s visible so you can prevent this problem from happening the way other bulletin boards do – without having to edit code. Polls and the like are also standard forum material that are absent with bbPress. As I’ve said before, I understand the premise of the bbPress software – less code is more. And to a degree, I agree with that, where the ability to customize the software’s appearance to suit almost anything is a huge reason why I considered it. But as Kawauso said, even if the bbPress team made their own optional plugins supporting these basic features (again e.g. polls), at least we wouldn’t have to worry about them losing support.

And rjeevan, you’re right, there’s always a risk. Say I install bbPress and one day they stop development. I already have the risk of whether or not a plugin providing a basic accustomed feature will just get discontinued one day, now I have to worry about losing the entire forums too. You’re argueing that there’s always risk, but missing the fact that with software like bbPress (and to a lesser extent, phpbb) there’s more risk. Things like this are in my opinion what’s holding open source software back, when Kawauso provided a simple solution that could in turn please everyone (provided the plugins are developed and maintained by their respectable counterparts).

Ben – For the record, you not reading the EULA on any forum you joined is exactly why an EULA is needed.

[bravo81]

Hi all,

I am using BB Press here:

http://www.mobclan.co.uk/forum/

(Sorry if your offended by the site title.)

Basicly, I am Admin/Bravo81.

My posts, here:

http://mobclan.co.uk/forum/topic.php?id=2

Dont appear? But everyone elses comments do.

Then, If I edit my post. The text is in the textfield?

What have I done & how do I fix it? Haha.

Thanks,

Dean.

[zaerl]

Exactly. And zaerl is the perfect example of what happens when you skim through something instead of actually reading it. There’s a reason it’s lengthy, so next time read the whole thing before complaining about it.

Dear “random guy says” when you choose a software, like when you choose a car or a banana you look at the thing you will buy and then you choose.

There are a lot of bulletin software out in the wild and you have a lot of alternatives. As you can see from the main page of bbPress that particular piece of software has been built in order to be the most light as possible and to let the users expand it the way they want.

Now you are in the “bbPress Support Forums” and you are saying that you can’t choose bbPress. It’s ok, I accept your position but your post isn’t exactly a “feedback” but just a rant from a user that doesn’t understand the philosophy that drive bbPress as well as WordPress as well as every modern CMS-like system used nowadays.

I have read your entire post and you are just saying that you can’t choose bbPress cause it isn’t shipped with everything you want and that you are afraid by the fact that plugins are third-party software and that the mantainer can stop supporting it. Then you know what? Install phpBB. It is a gargantuan software full of every feature your mind can even imagine. But it’s slow, bloated, full of double-flip hack in the code and you need a ninja server when your userbase grow up a little. Or buy vBullettin. It’s slightly better that phpBB and you have also phone assistance. That’s what you’re searching for.

But answer me: why do ranting on the bbPress forum regarding the bbPress/WordPress philosophy? You think that you will change something? Or that you will add something valuable?

I dare to make an analogy: you are like a customer that enter a Tesla Motors reseller saying that he will not buy the new Roadster 2.5 cause you like the smell of gasoline in the morning.

[zaerl]

Exactly. And zaerl is the perfect example of what happens when you skim through something instead of actually reading it. There’s a reason it’s lengthy, so next time read the whole thing before complaining about it.

Dear “random guy says” when you choose a software, like when you choose a car or a banana you look at the thing you will buy and then you choose.

There are a lot of bulletin software out in the wild and you have a lot of alternatives. As you can see from the main page of bbPress that particular piece of software has been built in order to be the most light as possible and to let the users expand it the way they want.

Now you are in the “bbPress Support Forums” and you are saying that you can’t choose bbPress. It’s ok, I accept your position but your post isn’t exactly a “feedback” but just a rant from a user that doesn’t understand the philosophy that drive bbPress as well as WordPress as well as every modern CMS-like system used nowadays.

I have read your entire post and you are just saying that you can’t choose bbPress cause it isn’t shipped with everything you want and that you are afraid by the fact that plugins are third-party software and that the mantainer can stop supporting it. Then you know what? Install phpBB. It is a gargantuan software full of every feature your mind can even imagine. But it’s slow, bloated, full of double-flip hack in the code and you need a ninja server when your userbase grow up a little. Or buy vBullettin. It’s slightly better that phpBB and you have also phone assistance. That’s what you’re searching for.

But answer me: why do ranting on the bbPress forum regarding the bbPress/WordPress philosophy? You think that you will change something? Or that you will add something valuable?

I dare to make an analogy: you are like a customer that enter a Tesla Motors reseller saying that he will not buy the new Roadster 2.5 cause you like the smell of gasoline in the morning.

[mr_pelle]

zaerl editor: https://bbpress.org/plugins/topic/zaerl-editor/

Excellent plugin!

[mr_pelle]

zaerl editor: https://bbpress.org/plugins/topic/zaerl-editor/

Excellent plugin!

[tungjacob]

Do you know how to show the markup buttons like these when creating a new post

This is what i want:

This is actually what i’ve got:

And here are plugins I have:

Do you which plugin i need to make those buttons appear

[Ben Sutcliffe]

Heys,

I have to disagree. bbPress is the exact alternative to other forum software, and that’s why it’s great. It’s lightweight and really easy to fiddle about with. You do need to know PHP and an understanding of how other Automattic products work comes in handy, but the end result is that bbPress is a great base for dynamic forums.

I’ve used it to create forums that don’t really look like they ever were bbPress, and I think that’s the beauty of the software. There’s very little point in Automattic creating another phpBB – the market is already flooded, and services like vBulletin already “do that”.

bbPress doesn’t do a lot of things by default: it’s behind WordPress on things like threaded replies and the like, but it’s damn easy to create that kind of thing, without excessive code. If you want it all done for you, use something else; bbPress gives you the platform to take code and build on top. Add threaded replies if you so wish, require users to sign up using Twitter or FB Connect if you want to keep the robots out, and create templates and designs that are truly yours. You don’t have to use whatever pre-defined nonsense is held within phpBB.

If you want to get rid of links, you can comment them out or delete the link altogether in the template. The simplicity and lightweight nature of bbPress make it truly flexible. With plugins bbPress can do anything. I’ve never had to deal with a single element of spam on any forum I host, and I have a lot of posts on one of them. Akismet keeps spam down, like it does on WordPress, and ReCAPTCHA is a beautiful and highly functional tool for keeping robots out. It’s a little like WordPress: if you want a ready made blog you use Blogger or Tumblr, if you want to take more control, WordPress allows you to (simply) control anything.

Finally, why do you need a EULA? KISS – a terms of use page linked to from your footer works just as well. I’m not sure I ever actually read the EULA on any forum I joined.

Ben

[Ben Sutcliffe]

Heys,

I have to disagree. bbPress is the exact alternative to other forum software, and that’s why it’s great. It’s lightweight and really easy to fiddle about with. You do need to know PHP and an understanding of how other Automattic products work comes in handy, but the end result is that bbPress is a great base for dynamic forums.

I’ve used it to create forums that don’t really look like they ever were bbPress, and I think that’s the beauty of the software. There’s very little point in Automattic creating another phpBB – the market is already flooded, and services like vBulletin already “do that”.

bbPress doesn’t do a lot of things by default: it’s behind WordPress on things like threaded replies and the like, but it’s damn easy to create that kind of thing, without excessive code. If you want it all done for you, use something else; bbPress gives you the platform to take code and build on top. Add threaded replies if you so wish, require users to sign up using Twitter or FB Connect if you want to keep the robots out, and create templates and designs that are truly yours. You don’t have to use whatever pre-defined nonsense is held within phpBB.

If you want to get rid of links, you can comment them out or delete the link altogether in the template. The simplicity and lightweight nature of bbPress make it truly flexible. With plugins bbPress can do anything. I’ve never had to deal with a single element of spam on any forum I host, and I have a lot of posts on one of them. Akismet keeps spam down, like it does on WordPress, and ReCAPTCHA is a beautiful and highly functional tool for keeping robots out. It’s a little like WordPress: if you want a ready made blog you use Blogger or Tumblr, if you want to take more control, WordPress allows you to (simply) control anything.

Finally, why do you need a EULA? KISS – a terms of use page linked to from your footer works just as well. I’m not sure I ever actually read the EULA on any forum I joined.

Ben

[pkandathil]

Hey,

I am trying to install bbpress for my WordPress 3.0.1 website.

1) I created a folder called forums on my webserver

2) I extracted the bbpress code and copied over the files

3) When visited http://mystite.com/forums and I was able to complete the first step in the installation process.

4) I provided the correct db information.

5) When I clicked on “Go to Step 2” I see a white screen.

I checked the error log and this is what I get.

PHP Fatal error: main() [function.require]: Failed opening required ‘/hermes/web05/b2075/moo.techsamuraiscom/demo/forums/bb-includes/backpress/functions.wp-scripts.php’ (include_path=’.:/usr/local/lib/php-4.4.9/lib/php’) in /hermes/web05/b2075/moo.techsamuraiscom/demo/forums/bb-settings.php on line 987

Please help

[Adam Harley (Kawauso)]

I’m pretty sure bbPress is becoming a WordPress plugin rather than a BuddyPress one, with a converter being made once it’s stable. I also gather there’s a movement to branch the 0.9 code into a standalone forum which would also have a converter available for 1.0 installs.

That said, I really do have to agree with the rest of the points you made. I work a lot with WordPress and the level of documentation available is just without parallel in BuddyPress, but you really do need to know bbP just to do the simplest things at times.

Ideally there ought to be a set of core plugins, as was proposed for WordPress, so that essential functionality could be bundled but not necessarily included per se. I don’t support incorporating such functionality into the core itself though, since that would essentially be at odds with the WordPress/bbPress design philosophy.

[Adam Harley (Kawauso)]

I’m pretty sure bbPress is becoming a WordPress plugin rather than a BuddyPress one, with a converter being made once it’s stable. I also gather there’s a movement to branch the 0.9 code into a standalone forum which would also have a converter available for 1.0 installs.

That said, I really do have to agree with the rest of the points you made. I work a lot with WordPress and the level of documentation available is just without parallel in BuddyPress, but you really do need to know bbP just to do the simplest things at times.

Ideally there ought to be a set of core plugins, as was proposed for WordPress, so that essential functionality could be bundled but not necessarily included per se. I don’t support incorporating such functionality into the core itself though, since that would essentially be at odds with the WordPress/bbPress design philosophy.

[bbuser12345]

^ And here is the attitude of so many in the “open source” community.

The question is are you making your software for the end user or as a plaything for other developers. So many open source projects look like a giant circle jerk.

If it takes editing .php files and knowing SVN and other developer centric things just to get basic functionality then your software will never get out of the ghetto you have created for yourself. At least have a help page that walks people through installing the latest trunk (what is that anyway?).

I can’t even read the blog updates and get any real sense where the project is because of all the jargon and “project in-group speak”. And here is the kicker I write code all day. I am not even close to the kind of user I would think you would want to be able to run your software.

It just gets really frustrating and the dismissive tone with which our concerns are often met exacerbates the problem.

[bbuser12345]

^ And here is the attitude of so many in the “open source” community.

The question is are you making your software for the end user or as a plaything for other developers. So many open source projects look like a giant circle jerk.

If it takes editing .php files and knowing SVN and other developer centric things just to get basic functionality then your software will never get out of the ghetto you have created for yourself. At least have a help page that walks people through installing the latest trunk (what is that anyway?).

I can’t even read the blog updates and get any real sense where the project is because of all the jargon and “project in-group speak”. And here is the kicker I write code all day. I am not even close to the kind of user I would think you would want to be able to run your software.

It just gets really frustrating and the dismissive tone with which our concerns are often met exacerbates the problem.

[anabecse]

can you please provide the code you used?

I have this exact problem.

[RandomGuySays]

Don’t get me wrong, I want to. bbPress looks wonderful, I love the simplicity and ease of use, as well as it’s integration features which are a huge plus to me. And while I acknowledge that bbPress is going through some tough times (being semi-new and through my understanding, the project lead leaving), I cannot choose bbPress for my site. The worst part about my specific situation is that I’ll most likely end up using it in the future once it’s matured, and knowing that is even more of a kick in the pants.

A lot of times with software, the more simple it is to use, the less features it has to be used. However, bbPress lacks basic bulletin board features – like poll creation, simple appearance settings such as customizing visible forum structures, and even a pre-made registration EULA. Other bulletin boards include prepared terms and conditions to protect your site, bbPress simply asks for your e-mail which with the lack of spam prevention filters like Captchas, even with the right plugin becomes an open door towards floods of spam. Other bulletin boards also give you the ability to, for instance, change the number of how many subforums are visible: Say you have a video game forum, organized as follows: Games (Category), Console/PC (Forums), Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo (Subforums), Xbox/Xbox 360 (Sub-subforums), Hardware/Accessories (etc.). On most forum software, the appearance settings default to showing one set of subforums per-page – e.g. when you click, ‘Console Games’, the next page displays only, ‘Microsoft/Sony/ Nintendo’, and you go from there. bbPress however, defaults to listing them all at once, resulting in enormously long forum pages that can only be changed by editing code. This may not be a problem for a lot of people as it should only require changing one or two lines to fix, but as a basic feature found in most other bulletin boards, to expect people to know how bbPress’ code works would just be wrong, and as such becomes a huge turn off.

In my opinion, one of the biggest bottlenecks and double-edged swords of open source software such as WordPress, bbPress, and even other open source forums, are the plugins. I remember reading a blog discussing the state of bbPress where the poster used the phrase, ‘there’s a plugin for that’. Plugins can be great, but they should also be considered an added bonus and not relied on for basic features. Most plugins are created by a third party, or even people like us. Just for talk sake, lets use wp-united for example. Wp-united is a plugin that links accounts between WordPress and phpbb so people can use their account from one, with the other. Say I used WordPress with phpbb, and then used wp-united to link the two. One day the wp-united team ceases support, and their latest version is incompatible with the new phpbb/WordPress. Now what happens to the huge install base I’ve developed? Do new users now have to register twice? Is my database going to be completely screwed up? bbPress eliminates this problem by having seemless integration with WordPress, but it just shows an example of how plugins can be both a good and bad thing, and how some features (like poll creation) need to be made a part of the main software despite, ‘less code being more’.

And lastly, arguably the number one issue preventing me from using bbPress, is the state of bbPress itself; the development of this software is up in the air with there being two completely different places to discuss it’s progress (this being one of them), and the other claiming talks of turning bbPress into a BuddyPress plugin. So the people new to bbPress, such as myself, don’t know what to do. Should we install the software now? Or wait until it’s a plugin? If we install now and they change it to a plugin, what happens to the standalone installations? Do they get screwed? Are they forced to install BuddyPress and switch everything over? Now I’m only human. I have no problem admitting when I’m wrong, I make mistakes. But even if not all my facts are straight, the fact that doing the research lead to this whole scenario makes for quite the first impression.

I didn’t post this to bash bbPress, I just hoped it would clear some of the confusion and thought it might in some way shape or form help bbPress and it’s users by getting these issues out in the open.

[anabecse]

I have installed a fresh copy of bbpress onto my server. Everything works except 1 thing.

On the start page there is a spot that says “Topic — Add New »”

When clicked this is the message I always get.

403 Forbidden

Access to this resource on the server is denied!

---

Powered By LiteSpeed Web Server

LiteSpeed Technologies is not responsible for administration and contents of this web site!

How do I make it so it takes the user to a login or register an account screen.

I can provide my url if requested but I am not sure of the rules so I didn’t include url.

Also don’t want my url cached hehe!

Any help is appreciated.

Thank you,

[Gautam Gupta]

Hello folks,

I’ve ported the famous Mystique theme for WordPress over to bbPress and it can be downloaded from here.

For the time being, there is no settings page – I’ll add one soon. Till then, you can edit the file settings.php located in the lib folder of the theme (from lines 11 to 20) for some basic settings.

Requirements: bbPress 1.0+ (works best with bbPress 1.1+ – it hasn’t been released yet)

Screenshot: http://gaut.am/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/bb-mystique-full.png

Announcement on my blog: http://s.gaut.am/1f

[OreilleMalade]

I just checked and… this is exactly the one I’m already using (Google Sitemaps Version 0.1 | by Olaf Lederer)

bbPress Sitemap Generator (0.6.1) Author: Rich Boakes & Frédéric Petit is no good ?

[OreilleMalade]

Hi !

Any idea ?

Shall I try to install bbPress Sitemap Generator (0.6.1) Author: Rich Boakes & Frédéric Petit ?

Or this one ? :

http://www.finalwebsites.com/bbpress/google-sitemap.php

Is there another sitemap plugin for bbpress 1.0.2 ?

Regards

[kevinjohngallagher]

Thi is a unique theme. It has not been released.

It’s not overly hard to replicate from code on this forum.

[kevinjohngallagher]

Thi is a unique theme. It has not been released.

It’s not overly hard to replicate from code on this forum.

[_ck_]

Some interesting statistics for the entire 10,000+ collection of all bbPress installations:

bbPress Version Popularity

1.1 : 1%

1.0 : 48%

0.9 : 36%

0.8 : 15%   (includes sites below 1.x that hide their version

as 0.8 has no consistent way to be detected)

PHP Popularity

5.3 : 4%

5.2 : 70%

5.1 : 4%

5.0 : 1%

4.4 : 6%

4.3 : 1%

?? : 15% (unknown)

So PHP version 5 adoption has finally taken off in late 2010.

Server Popularity

Apache 	 	: 40%  	  (specific version unknown)

Apache/2.2 	: 35%

Apache/2 	: 10%	  (sub-version unknown)

Apache/1.3 	: 5%

Nginx 		: 5%

Microsoft-IIS	: 3%

Litespeed 	: 2%

(and quite a few others/variations but below a single percent each)

Downloads via bbPress.org as of October 2010

bbPress 0.9 : 150,000+

bbPress 1.0 : 129,000+

_ck_ plugins: 102,000+ (total, all included)

[_ck_]

Some interesting statistics for the entire 10,000+ collection of all bbPress installations:

bbPress Version Popularity

1.1 : 1%

1.0 : 48%

0.9 : 36%

0.8 : 15%   (includes sites below 1.x that hide their version

as 0.8 has no consistent way to be detected)

PHP Popularity

5.3 : 4%

5.2 : 70%

5.1 : 4%

5.0 : 1%

4.4 : 6%

4.3 : 1%

?? : 15% (unknown)

So PHP version 5 adoption has finally taken off in late 2010.

Server Popularity

Apache 	 	: 40%  	  (specific version unknown)

Apache/2.2 	: 35%

Apache/2 	: 10%	  (sub-version unknown)

Apache/1.3 	: 5%

Nginx 		: 5%

Microsoft-IIS	: 3%

Litespeed 	: 2%

(and quite a few others/variations but below a single percent each)

Downloads via bbPress.org as of October 2010

bbPress 0.9 : 150,000+

bbPress 1.0 : 129,000+

_ck_ plugins: 102,000+ (total, all included)

[_ck_]

bbPress is now being used in over 100 countries/regions in over 50 languages!

Here is a sample of the Top 50 countries/regions:

United States

Russia

Germany

United Kingdom

Spain

France

Italy

Turkey

Poland

Brazil

Canada

China

Netherlands

Sweden

Japan

Australia

Denmark

Romania

Ukraine

Switzerland

Czech Republic

Finland

Norway

Argentina

Thailand

Bulgaria

South Africa

Iran

Hungary

Austria

Latvia

Lithuania

Belgium

New Zealand

Israel

Indonesia

Slovakia

Portugal

Tokelau

Ireland

Chile

Mexico

South Korea

Serbia

Taiwan

Saudi Arabia

Greece

Malaysia

Estonia

Philippines

Note that the targeted audience as indicated by the flags on the right of the list is more of an art than a science, so please do not be insulted if my algorithm got it wrong. It’s a combination of looking at the TLD and the declared language type being used on the page.

For example a site may have a flag for Spain if Spanish is used but no other specific variation or TLD is used, etc.

The most popular TLDs for bbPress forums are:

.com (by 50% !)

.org

.net

.ru

.uk

.de

.it

.info

.ca   (honourable mention as .ca has 50% less than .info

however pl, fr, nl, se and au all have over 100 sites)