Hello!

Question might seem stupid but hear me out;

The last update, per the download page, seems to be from November 2021.

Usually, a plugin that hasn’t seen any updates in the last year, to me, is abandonned and should not be used in a new production; Theres always a little nugget to change every once in a while, so even the most basic of plugins, barring a few exceptions, get updates at least once a year.

But, bbPress has not been updated in a year and a half; is it just that there is nothing to fix/modify, or was bbPress left behind to make place for a new forum plugin by the WP Core team and that should be the thing I do install?

I ask because I am right now creating a brand new site where bbPress would be used. So if the current plugin is under another name, I should install that one and not this one.

[@michaelrich Participant 1 year, 3 months ago]

That is a very good question.

I asked myself the same a few months ago, because I am starting a new forum on my website with it at the moment. I hope it is fine, but I would love to hear what a developer would say about that?

I mean it still seems to be the offical solution and works with the newest wordpress and PHP version.

But alone that you haven’t got an answer for weeks makes me a bit nervous…
My website now is really dependent on it…

I used it because it meets my requirements by far the best.
But it had kind of a bad taste because of that.
A new WordPress, PHP version or security vulnerability could break it and on my host I am forced to update PHP regularly.

Normally I am not installing any plugin which haven’t got an update in the last year because normally this is a pretty red flag.

[@robin-w Moderator 1 year, 3 months ago]

I am just a moderator here, and not a bbpress author.

The authors tend to release updates every few years, rather than more frequently.

My personal view is that you should consider bbpress to be a ‘mature’ product, ie any releases will be to fix issues rather than add functionality.

bbpress is written really well, and has loads of hooks. There are no show stopper bugs in it, it may throw a few deprecation notices (and these are very few at the moment), but WordPress recommends that you should not show error messages in live sites.

I currently have my test site running WordPress 6.3 and php 8.1 with no issues.

The only major issue with bbpress at the moment is that it does not work well with FSE themes.

However my bbp style pack plugin has fixes for this

bbp style pack

as well as block versions of the widgets and a ton of styling and functionality add-ons.

All plugins are subject to the authors commitment, and bbpress is no different.

The main WordPress support forums use bbpress, and it would be mega work to move those over to some other product.

But with open software you make your choices….

[@frederic-pilon Participant 1 year, 3 months ago]

Thing is Robin they might update every once in a while, maybe, but even here; If it was not you there would be no replies from anybody close to bbPress on these forums.

[@robin-w Moderator 1 year, 3 months ago]

Thanks, but yes that is life !! People move on to other things.

I might get run over by a bus tomorrow 🙁

[@ricsca2 Participant 1 year, 3 months ago]

@robin-w let’s hope not, without you we are all lost 😀

The one key thing that BBpress lacks by default is image uploading in posta.

[@robin-w Moderator 1 year, 3 months ago]

hey thanks 🙂

[@ibnat Participant 1 year, 3 months ago]

I have asked this same question myself over the last few weeks as I am busy making my BBPress forum compatible and converted to a fully funcioning mobile app.

I decided to push ahead because the support forum of wordpress itself is running on the BBpress plugin and there seems to be no signs at all of it being switched to something else (as @robin-w says)

Whilst there are hundreds of plugins that are no longer maintained, the BBpress essential plugins very much are, and support for them is absolutely excellent. ( @amauric and @codejp3 ) 🙂

I believe that the future of niche forum websites like mine are in the mobile app direction with push notifications etc to users through their smart phones. WP and BBpress is lightweight enough to work fantastic on a mobile.

The three authors I mentioned earlier are great examples of why BBpress will carry on for the foreseable future no? Thanks guys for your continued help and support!

[@ricsca2 Participant 1 year, 3 months ago]

On wordpress.org bbpress has various updates to this that we can download such as the gutemberg modules

[@ibnat Participant 1 year, 3 months ago]

@ricsca2 Do you mean the “blocks everywhere” plugin by automaticc? I looked at that but am not comfortable with editing php files so am waiting for a more “user” friendly update for that plugin. 🙂 I like the idea of the block editor in forum posts and replies though to replace tinymce.

[@ricsca2 Participant 1 year, 3 months ago]

I have this visual on wordpreds.org

[@robin-w Moderator 1 year, 3 months ago]

that’s almost certainly the ‘blocks everywhere’ plugin.

I don’t personally like blocks for forums, my logic is that most people (who don’t admin WordPress sites) are entirely unfamiliar with the concept of blocks, and they are far from intuitive to use.

I much prefer the tinyMCE editor in either limited or full form.

But it’s personal preference 🙂 🙂

[@ibnat Participant 1 year, 3 months ago]

I was just hoping that the blocks everywhere plugin would help me fix the issue I have with embedding video into forum posts which I think is something to do with TinyMCE: https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/youtube-links-not-embedding-in-forum-posts/

I get what you mean, though, about the general user having issues with the block editor. I am still getting used to it and ran on the legacy editor for over a year before I made the leap! 🙂

[@robin-w Moderator 1 year, 3 months ago]

so will you tube videos embed everytime on a post using blocks?

[@ibnat Participant 1 year, 3 months ago]

In wordpress new post or page the youtube embed works every time. In bbpress new topic or reply it works sometimes and sometimes not (mostly not)… I am actually starting to think its a browser issue rather than wp, tinymce or bbpress.