Hello everyone,

Sorry for being so clueless about community buildling. But have some very simple basic questions, which will give you the idea of just how much I don’t know. and how new I am to this.

I want to create a unique online community. One that I have not found online yet. Although it sounds very familiar like all the others. It has several unique ideas that I feel will give it some strength to create a momentum and grow into a very popular community.

First question am I at a good starting place with bbpress.org to create an online community? Am I still in the right starting place if my community needs the capability to upload and manage/organize photos? I want the community to be very user controled. Meaning I would like the members to have allot of control over their profiles. Template, colour schemes etc…

I would also like this community to become very friendly for advertisers. Not that I will be seeking any company that wants to advertise, as the advertising will have to remain true to the mission of the website. And advertising I don’t expect to worry about anytime soon. My main focus is getting the community started. Does bbpress.org sound like a good starting place?

Thanks for your time.

Kevin

[@chrishajer Participant 17 years, 10 months ago]

> First question am I at a good starting place with

> bbpress.org to create an online community?

Yes, it’s fine software for an online community.

> Am I still in the right starting place if my community

> needs the capability to upload and manage/organize photos?

IMO, no. There is no provision for uploading, managing and organizing photos built into bbPress.

> I want the community to be very user controled. Meaning

> I would like the members to have allot of control over their

> profiles. Template, colour schemes etc…

Also, no. bbPress, IMO, is not set up to allow that level of control over the user’s profiles.

> I would also like this community to become very friendly

> for advertisers.

There’s nothing inherently good or bad about bbPress as far as advertising goes. There are a few themes with Google Adsense space built into them already. Other sorts of advertising would be equally easy.

https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/304?replies=9#post-1494

https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/434?replies=9#post-2418

There’s also an Adsense plugin:

http://boakes.org/talk/tags/bbpress-adsense

> My main focus is getting the community started. Does

> bbpress.org sound like a good starting place?

bbPress is great for community building and it’s lightweight and easy to use. It will not be the solution for you for photo sharing though. You might consider bbPress for your forum, and another package for managing and sharing photos, similar to the way that a lot of users here use WordPress for their site and bbPress for their forums.

I wish you luck.

[@trent Member 17 years, 10 months ago]

The great thing about bbPress is that it can handle a great deal of things that you want and integrates really well (perfect user integration) with WordPress that can handle all the things that bbPress cannot do. There are also many plugins for galleries and chat with WordPress as well. bbPress has plugins for private messenging and other great things! I would think, between the 2, you could have a great online community!

Trent

[@davidbessler Member 17 years, 10 months ago]

An educated consumer is our best customer. Take a look at Drupal (www.drupal.org) and Joomla (www.joomla.org), as these may be more along the lines of what you are looking for. They are the equivalent of the all-inclusive resort of online community systems. They offer a lot of what you are looking for almost out of the box. The idea behind bbpress is that while WordPress is a great system for blooging and news (A few people write, lots of people read), it did not offer anything in the way of serious egalitarian discussion, like many conventional message boards. So, bbPress was born to fill that gap. But, it was just born. I think, the future lies in modular community bulding, where people pick and choose each module of their system, and they all work together. bbPress is along those lines, and that’s why I love it. However, if you want to plop a community down on the web with all sorts of gadgetry, chattery, and photo-uploadery, check out Drupal, Joomla, or some of the other CMS (Content Management Systems) … Check this out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_content_management_systems

Sorry, fellow bbPressers, I have to give an honest opinion.

So, again, bbPress and WordPress are like booking a vacation to the far east and choosing a great hotel your friends recommended, then reserving a spot on a cool mountain-climbing excursion you read about in a magazine, and then dining at that revolving restaurant you had always heard about etc … Drupal or any other CMS, is like calling 1-800-awesome-trips, plunking down your credit card, and relying on them to decide all those things for you. Truth is, you may have an AWESOME vacation EITHER way. It depends on the person. And THAT’S the truth.

[@chrishajer Participant 17 years, 10 months ago]

DavidBessler, thoughtful comments. That Wikipedia page is very daunting. The last link on the page though is the resource I use for testing the various CMSs:

http://opensourcecms.com/

You can test and try all the Open Source packages right there, admin and front end. It’s a good resource.

[@null Member 17 years, 10 months ago]

I agree with this all. This is also one of the reasons I’ve started the bbPortal project (bbportal.org) The idea is to use bbPress as the basic and build some nice stuff around it. It’s not much yet, I’ve just started it).

WordPress is great for BLOGGING and some people forget this. It’s designed for a personal blog not for a whole community. Sure you can extend it with plugins etc, but still.

bbPortal is/will be more for communities like clans/guilds that use the forum heavily. (so forum driven and not blog driven.)

You can also take a look at wordpressMU (multiuser), That can give every user a own wordpressblog that you can administrate. If I may be so bold I see it like this:

Personal/blog………….>>…………Community driven

..wordpress

……………………….wordpressMU

………………………………………………………. bbPortal

(ignore the dots, they where needed for outlining)

Joomla and Drupal are way bigger, but to my oppinion, needs some more understanding about php and coding aswell.

Though choise huh

[@carpediem Member 17 years, 10 months ago]

Wow!. Thanks to everyone who responded. Very kind and helpful.

Take Care,

Kevin