bbPress has always shifted the emphasis of the forums towards the topics and content. Traditional forums tend to focus on content categorization, the forum hierarchy, and what content lives where.

Because of this, the transition from some-other-forums to bbPress is sometimes met with the wish that it looked and worked like what you’re used to. A few people have mentioned wanting something like this in bbPress core, and while I think there’s merit to the idea, I don’t see it as a priority above the other things bbPress needs (user management, BuddyPress integration, etc…)

If you’d like to help build this enhancement, chime in here. I’d love to have someone that wants this in core to take it on, while I work on other priorities for 2.2. I’ll gladly review patches and help you all build this, but you’ll want to get something up and working independently to start.

Any takers?

[@netweb Keymaster 12 years, 4 months ago]

Firstly if you only see bbPress as a WordPress integrated forum software package in the traditional sense of what other forum software looks like then please step outside of that box, it is far more flexible and powerful than just that.

Take a look at how PostDesk have uniquely integrated forums into their site and check out in particular the ‘featured sites’ at https://bbpress.org/about/examples/ showing what can be accomplished with theming in bbPress.

That all said, I also see merit in having the option of a traditional forums hierarchical category sub-category forum layout for those who do want that feature/layout option available.

I have a few ideas already and would love to hear your ideas and feedback.

Cheers,

Stephen aka @netweb

[@sadr Participant 12 years, 4 months ago]

I don’t think this should be a priority for bbPress. You’re doing the right thing by “outsourcing” it. But even that might be unnecessary. Most websites would be better served by adjusting to bbPress, not the other way around.

Those strongly opposed to change should simply consider options such as SimplePress, which follows the traditional (legacy imo) style of forum structure.

Maybe the teaching route is better than the development route in this case? An instructional blog post or codex page to ease people into bbPress’ new concepts could go a long way. That’s the Git approach for instance.

[@kriskl Participant 12 years, 4 months ago]

I would disagree.
there are certain features of old / traditional forums that users like or need
for example, one omission in current bbpress is “number of views”

it does influence and show how popular certain topics are.

we have a large forum, where categories are necessity,.. because in category has 10 or more ‘forums’
and if they were laid out like traditional forums, it would make it easier for the members to see the whole structure of the forums.. as it is, I had to manually create a table with all the categories/ forums

(having said that, we are still using buddy press forums.. and hoping to migrate to bbpress as soon as the converter becomes available..

[@trendy0 Member 12 years, 3 months ago]

With the current way of doing things in bbPress, you can implement such a feature with a bit of theme hackery, so you’re essentially looking for someone to develop a standized theme for this sort of layout?

[@johnjamesjacoby Keymaster 12 years, 3 months ago]

@trendy0 – exactly right.

[@johnjamesjacoby Keymaster 12 years, 3 months ago]

Unsticking this. Doesn’t seem like a lot of activity, though I’m still willing to help anyone that wants to take this on.

[@jaredatch Member 12 years, 3 months ago]

It’s funny, because almost every bbPress gig I’ve worked on the clients want forums like this – or specifically, almost exactly like what Lynq came up with (https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/customising-bbp_list_forums-last-poster-block/). So far they have all changed their minds when they find out its actually going to cost money to achieve this format, vs something that is just built in. However, it’s definitely something I’d like to see. @johnjamesjacoby – what are your thoughts on this? Having a separate theme? bbPress compat hierarchical? etc We can at least get a trac ticket for this in place and maybe that will jump start some activity 🙂

[@johnjamesjacoby Keymaster 12 years, 3 months ago]

Should make it part of the default theme. Thought there was a ticket already; if not, make one and feel free to patch it up. 🙂

[@jaredatch Member 12 years, 3 months ago]

So you want it an option that’s available in the default theme or that’s what the default theme will have, period?

[@johnjamesjacoby Keymaster 12 years, 3 months ago]

In my imagination, it’s just the new default thing. Let’s get it working first, see how dramatic it is, and go from there.

[@jaredatch Member 12 years, 3 months ago]

See ticket #1958 (couldn’t find an existing ticket).

I guess step 1 would be deciding just how we want to structure and layout the hierarchy. Not sure if you want to discuss that here or in trac.

[@cc-cailin Participant 11 years, 3 months ago]

Hi, has this been created in the meantime? I really need this…

[@ebunny3k Participant 9 years, 8 months ago]

Is it really hard to add this categories thing to core code? So anyone can use them without any hassle? And yes it is so nice to point out some nice websites where people rewrite bbpress code to make it usable. <- But it does not help other 99% users.

[@robkk Moderator 9 years, 8 months ago]

@ebunny3k

copy the loop-forums.php file into your child theme in a folder called bbpress

https://github.com/robkk/bbPress-Hierarchical-Forum-and-Category-Layout

also i need to move this file to a gist….it seems more appropriate over there