WordCast

Revitalizing bbPress Development

By Lorelle VanFossen, posted Jan 19 2010 at 10:00 am | 2 Comments ยป

Each year, enthusiasm for grows and Matt Mullenweg commits to update the powerful open source forum project, and each year it seems to take a back seat to other WordPress-related projects. This year, Matt and the bbPress volunteer team have started a series of meetups to get bbPress updated and active again.

WordCast reported on news of an Official bbPress WordPress Plugin (forum discussion), and the latest meetup January 13, 2010, generated a good list of major bugs that need attention, as well as the need for a bbPress Theme Directory and documentation, general documentation, and assignment of tasks. More news and meetup information is posted on the bbPress Blog and bbPress Support Forums.

bbPress has its own Wikipedia page, noting that bbPress was the first forum software to support CSS-based layout and Themes, breaking the table design barrier and allowing designers to develop forums beyond the grid look and feel.

bbPress runs the vast and WordPress.com Forums as well as huge community forums around the world. Recent improvements and feature updates by Michael D. Adams and Sam Bauer included the bbPress Integration WordPress Plugin. There is also a new bbPress Admin WordPress Plugin which creates a bbPress Administration Panel in WordPress, improving administration and management of the forum.

The WordPress forums have proven that bbPress is solid and can withstand dramatic pressure loads, but what of the future of this powerful forum program?

The Future of bbPress

While bbPress continues to be the forum of choice for many WordPress users, the lack of community support and development caused many to turn to other options. The popular bbPress Showcase Forums, which featured many bbPress Plugins, tips, tutorials, and great examples of what is possible with bbPress, closed recently leaving the site with the following announcement:

The bbPress Showcase has been discontinued.

The removal of Sam Bauers and the halting of bbPress.org 2.0 was a clear and final sign that there is no interest in allowing bbPress to become a mature, robust program and community.

By now bbPress 1.5 could have been in alpha but instead bbPress development has been deliberately stagnated, which should be a very alarming warning to everyone…

While the loss of two of its core developers and supporters hurts, everyone is concerned with the future of bbPress, including Matt Mullenweg, its developer. In bbPress Lives by , Jeff Chandler explained that bbPress will become a registered trademark product under the WordPress Foundation, and that a team has been developed to tackle dusting off bbPress and revitalizing it.

An example of the continued development and commitment to bbPress can be found in the bbPress Plugin Directory, with creative Plugins like:

  • After the Deadline adds a proofread link above the textbox to check for spelling, style, and grammar errors.
  • Automated Forum Moderation blocks human-generated spam automatically.
  • Bavatars integrates Gravatar into bbPress forums.
  • bbPress Topic Icons replaces “sticky posts” and “closed” posts with small icons to visually alert visitors to the status of these posts.
  • Topic Freshness Filter filters topics to only allow the most recently “posted” forum topics to show the “freshest” activity on the forum.
  • bbPM allows private messaging on a bbPress forum.
  • Burning Tags displays topics posted in the last 30 days and topics with the most forum posts to highlight what’s hot on the forum.
  • Improved Spoiler allows user to hide text from plain sight, visible with a hover, hiding “spoiler” information.
  • Role Manager creates custom permission levels for user roles in bbPress.
  • Temporary Ban puts a temporary ban on troublemakers for a specific amount of time.

Many continue to write tips and tutorials on using bbPress, including:

It is critical that this powerful open source forum software and its community of enthusiastic developers feel the appreciation and support of the WordPress and forum communities. Development is ongoing, so get into the forums and let your voice be heard.

2 Responses to “Revitalizing bbPress Development”

  1. Paul Hawke says:
    Feb 9 2010 at 12:49 pm

    As a plugin writer, theme designer and host of a small online community for writers, I am very excited about bbPress as a platform and for its future.

    Thanks for the article – great reading – I am glad to see bbPress getting the positive press that it deserves.

    Reply
  2. Kieran Bowler says:
    Feb 18 2010 at 3:52 am

    Me too. I’ve just finished porting a PHPBB forum over to BBPress. It wasn’t completely painless but for the most part it’s been a success.

    I’m really enjoying customising the theme, and playing with the plugins available. I hope it gains a bit more momentum, it’s a great platform!

    Oh, the new bbpress site is at http://forum.cubeownersclub.co.uk

    Reply

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