Having run sites with WordPress, bbPress and Joomla, I have had less security issues with WordPress and never one with bbPress. bbPress is certainly less used, so it’s less of a target (like Apple for viruses, for example.) WordPress security releases seem to be fixed fairly quickly. There was an update this week to 2.8.6 for example, to fix some security issues.
I’ve done 3 sites with Joomla and about 40 sites with WordPress, and 3 bbPress forums. I would never recommend Joomla to anyone either.
Drupal had too steep a learning curve for me, and with 2.9 WordPress is adding custom post types, which was a strong point for Drupal in the past.
10 Things You Need to Know About WordPress 2.9
I would use WordPress. But before you install bbPress, define what you want in your forum installation, and post that here. Integration is not a strong point with bbPress and WordPress right now. If you desire integrated logins between WordPress and bbPress, you might want to consider a WordPress forum plugin instead of bbPress.
thank you chrishajer.
Right now on the forums, I have major categories like tacky lamps, tacky decorations, tacky parties, etc. The members can post comments and photos. In Joomla, I’ve also linked the users with photogalleries they can create using Coppermine. I have set up moderation to approve people before they can join because they spammers were atrocious.
I’ve used Community Builder to coordinate user registration, postings, and their galleries. I used Fireboard as the forum plugin and it integrates with Community Builder.
A couple of problems I noted is that there was no way for the community to report bad posts or spam, which made more work for the moderator (me) having to approve posts until I got to know the people.
What I’d like to have is a self policing community, spammer protection, and some automated filters for bad language and the like, with the ability to report abuse to the moderators. Then I’d like the members to be free to create as they like.
So, I’m hoping to duplicate these features in a WP environment…
Aside from that, there would be articles and news by editors that would be normal WP stuff.
Maybe I should wait for WP 2.9?
Jeff
I have used wordpress, muwordpress, drupal and joomla and proprietary CMS extensively, for any kind of website. I’m about to start testing bbpress but I have to say that I’m a bit sceptical.
One thing is that the best communities I have ever seen are based on forum specialized software (not going to mention these here, you know them). So in order to establish a well performing online community I suggest that you use one of these software (bbpress seems to be one of these).
The other thing is that the community will help protect the community, so unless you build it and it grows, you won’t be able to keep it clean and tidy all by yourself.
I suppose that the ideal for me would be a bridge between bbpress (or anything else) and drupal (or anything else). Just pick the best (for you) specialized software for all different parts of your website and integrate them (as seamlessly as possible).