buddypress and bbpress are plugins for wordpress, so they need wordpress to work.
bbpress does have an older standalone version of itself, it can work by itself.
Using it with newer versions of wordpress might cause issues.
About
About bbPress
bbPress is forum software, made the WordPress way.
Have you ever been frustrated with forum or bulletin board software that was slow, bloated, and always got your server hacked? bbPress is focused on ease of integration, ease of use, web standards, and speed.
We’re keeping things as small and light as possible while still allowing for great add-on features through WordPress’s extensive plugin system. What does all that mean? bbPress is lean, mean, and ready to take on any job you throw at it.
Philosophy
Now that bbPress is all grown up, we’re certain of a few things:
Open Source, always and forever
Less (code) is more
Code is poetry
Simplicity is a feature
Speed & security are paramount to a great user experience
Every line of code is written with these principles in mind, and if that sounds good to you get involved!
About
About buddyPress
BuddyPress is a powerful plugin that takes your WordPress.org powered site beyond the blog with social-network features like user profiles, activity streams, user groups, and more. Some fantastic uses might be:
A campus wide social network for your university, school or college.
An internal communication tool for your company.
A niche social network for your interest topic.
A focused social network for your new product.
If you’re using BuddyPress in a unique or interesting way, be sure to let people know on the forums; we’re always interested!
BuddyPress is not “all or nothing”
BuddyPress comes with several components that integrate directly with your site, with each other, and even with other plugins (check out bbPress for support forums.) If you only want to use a few features, BuddyPress will automatically adapt, showing only the menu items, pages and buttons for the features you have enabled.
BuddyPress.org
This site is built on WordPress and BuddyPress (we believe in the software we build!). Please consider registering and becoming part of the BuddyPress community. By doing this you’ll be able to contribute to the documentation, ask questions in the forum as well as build your BuddyPress profile so other BuddyPress developers and contributors can keep in touch with you.
