Did you ever feel frustrated with bulletin board or forum software that was bloated, slow and always got your server hacked? Forums are notorious for being hacked. Have you heard about the bbPress WordPress plugin? Do you want to know more about this plugin? Do you wish to know how to install and activate it? If your answer to all these questions is yes, then you must read on! This article discusses the bbPress WordPress plugin and its usefulness.
There are so many useful and beneficial plugins that have been introduced by WordPress. This is an awesome plugin that allows you to integrate a forum into your site without having to install a forum script. The developers have made this plugin insanely simplistic so there is virtually no learning curve. When you will go through the plugins directory of WordPress, you will surely find one or more add-on plugins that may prove to be of use for you. This plugin is tried and true and works flawlessly. These add-on features also tend to enhance the experience of the user and people visiting his or her blog and/or website. You can easily find the latest versions of these plugins for downloading. Just do a search for “bbPress” in your WordPress dashboard.
bbPress currently works with these web browsers FireFox, Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, Opera, Konqueror, and Seamonkey.
It is a forum software prepared the WordPress way. You might think that since its just a simple little plugin that you’re going to be limited on what you can do. Actually, you’re not limited at all. Here are just some of the features that it comes with:
- bbPress WordPress plugin is focused on enhancing ease of use, ease of integration, speed and web standards.
- Quick reply.
- Sticky Threads.
- SEO friendly URLs.
- Straight forward registration.
- Uses your Gravatar (user profiles) from WordPress settings.
- Integrated with Akismet (CAPTCHA).
- It does not delete any thread if there are no new replies.
- There is no limit on the number of categories, forums, posts or topics that bbPress can handle.
- We try to keep things as light and small as we possibly can while still allowing for brilliant add on features via extensive plugin system of Word Press.
- This simply means that bbPress is a lean and mean plugin ready to take on any job you may throw at it.
The process of installation of bbPress WordPress plugin is very easy. You just need to follow the enlisted steps:
First step is to place the bbPress folder in the /wp-content/plugins/ folder.
Next, you have to activate this plugin.
Then you have to visit Settings and then Forums to adjust your configurations. The settings with this plugin are pretty self explanatory so I am not going to explain them all to you. Support is really good and they actually answer questions if you ask them something.
One thing I really do like about bbPress is you can open and close threads, just like you would with any other forum software. You can create as many forum topics as you want. If you have multiple parts on your site that cover different areas of interest, you can put them in different categories. Don’t forget to assign topic tags to your forum post too. You can manage your replies to your forum post by clicking on replies from the WordPress dashboard (it’s right under topics).
Now you can create some forums and start interacting with people that visit your WordPress site. I have been considering using this plugin on tbwhs.com because I want to setup a forum for each web hosting company that I review. With bbPress I would be able to keep everything categorized nicely on each company I review.
You can also modify the CSS of your theme as you may require in making everything appear visually pleasing. Here is a link to a post that bbPress did that shows you how to edit the CSS for your plugin. bbPress has a ton of documentation with this plugin, as well. I really just get lost looking at all the documentation they have on their plugin.
The latest version of bbPress WordPress plugin available for download is 2.5.4. This version is compatible up to 4.1. Users are quite content with the utility of bbPress WordPress plugin; myself included. If you want a forum on your WordPress site this is the best way to do it. They have given praiseworthy feedback regarding it. In fact, according to the reviews, users have rated this WordPress plugin 4.3 out of 5. It is indeed a fairly good rating. According to the WordPress website’s daily, weekly and all time record, it has been downloaded over a million times. Download bbPress today and enjoy the positive change it brings along. Do you have any experience working with this plugin? I would like to hear about your experiences or thoughts on it.
Please check out the bbPress plugin in here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/bbpress/
Hey thanks a lot for writing an article on a WordPress plugin where you can make forums easily. I do love the plugin and have been using it for 3 months on my gaming blog. It’s really simple to integrate onto your website. However, I do have one problem with the bbPress plugin. It looks insanely generic. I want to be able to change different elements without having to get into the CSS. It’s really hard for me because I am not all that great with CSS. Is there anyway you know of that will make it easier to modify the look of bbPress?
Hey Dale,
Sure, I feel your pain. I am not the greatest with CSS either. In fact, if something is out of my technical realm I hire people to help me because code scares me. You are in luck, though. Check out https://wordpress.org/plugins/bbp-style-pack/ This is a plugin that allows you to change the styling elements. There are 13 elements you can change to fit your WordPress themes design. Pretty cool bbPress add-on plugin by Robin Wilson that I am sure you will enjoy.