Using WordPress as a Forum

[showbiz999]

Greetings. I have hosting with godaddy.com and by their direction downloaded and installed WordPress. Now I’m not sure that this was the best use of your software . . .

I am trying to create a forum site where people can post stories and comment on others. I know that WordPress is the ultimate venue for blogging, but I cannot see anyway to make it work as a pure forum. Am I correct? Is there something I am missing, maybe a theme that will help me to do this?

If WordPress is not the right tool, can you recommend something else?

Thanks in advance for any/all help you can offer.

Marty

[Christi Nickerson]

Hi showbiz999

bbPress is a forum plugin for WordPress:

http://ww.wp.xz.cn/extend/plugins/bbpress/

You may also want to consider using BuddyPress (which also includes bbpress):

http://ww.wp.xz.cn/extend/plugins/buddypress/

Hope this helps!

[showbiz999]

I took your advice and installed BuddyPress . . . getting a lot closer. However, I am getting the error: “The forums component has not been set up yet” When I open up BuddyPress -> Pages -> Forums -> View Page from the side menu in the dashboard. I’ve been trying to find the fix for this but can’t. Can you help? Thanks!

[MickeyRoush]

In your Dashboard go to:

BuddyPress > Components

is “Discussion Forums” checked?

It sounds like you have gone through the process of setting up the forums.

Just remember, that BuddyPress is more than just forums.

If you’re just wanting forums, bbpress, mingle forums, or simple press may be the way to.

[showbiz999]

Discussion Forums is checked. The functionality I need on my site is pure forums . . . post a story, people comment on it. Am I using the wrong tool? I want to avoid the dashboard and such, and have this act much more like a forum than a blog site.

[MickeyRoush]

Am I using the wrong tool?

BuddyPress turns your WordPress site into a community site like Facebook. Is that what you want?

BuddyPress has bbPress which is a forum utility. If you just want simple forums then just try the bbPress plugin by itself. If you’re looking for something more robust, try Mingle Forum or Simple Press.

bbPress:
http://ww.wp.xz.cn/extend/plugins/bbpress/

Mingle Forum:
http://ww.wp.xz.cn/extend/plugins/mingle-forum/

Simple:Press:
http://simple-press.com/

I don’t use Simple:Press because it’s just too slow for my needs. But I read that it’s had speed improvements in the latest version.

[Rev. Voodoo]

I used to use simple:press, it’s great really, I just didn’t like it

Without doing a fair bit of customizing, it often looks ‘shoehorned’ in

No fault of the devs, its impossible to accomodate every theme possibility

I ended up switching to bbPress plugin, I love it for it’s simplicity and for how lightweight it is

[MickeyRoush]

I agree with Voodoo. bbPress is an awesome plugin. Very light weight and developers are starting to create plugins that provide those little extras if you want them.

I actually used their stand alone version in the past and was happy with it’s speed and simplicity.