On your forum.php template page add the following code:

//
	if ( bb_forums($forum_id) )
	{
		while ( bb_forum() )
		{

			/*
			//	Copy and paste your forum output code here
			//
			//	If you're unsure of what that is,
			//	just copy it directly from the Kakumei theme at
			//	bb-templates/kakumei/front-page.php lies: 47-84.
			*/

		}
	}
//

One of the great things about bbPress is that when it works, it blows away other forums. It doesn’t get many things right, but I feel with this plugin you’ll see a huge difference in your site’s SEO. It has almost all of the features of it’s WordPress counterparts and many more. Definately it’s something I’m very proud of, and it’s seeing great results in the beta tests. In the past 6 months, I’ve come to regard this bbPress Plugin as a must have – something that rarely happens as an overly critical developer.

bbPress KJG SEO supports both bbPress0.9 and bbPress1.0 as standard; though there are now 2 versions. One version is free (Ad or link supported) and the other is Premium. Neither are fully GPL compatible at this time, though the free version will probably have it’s licenced changed to GPL at some stage.

This will be my first Premium plugin for bbPress. It’s not something I’m totally comfortable with, but given the sheer amount of support I’ve had to give out recently (even when things have Yes/No options) I really want to focus on the people who need a better service as well as offering them their own support forum. There will always be a free version of my plugins, and I will attempt to keep the two as similar as posible, but the time has come to realise I cannot give give give to those who don’t apprecaite it.

Hopefully you’ll see some great results from the plugin, as the bbPress KJG SEO plugin is excellent and benefitial in both formats.

You can download the plugin from www.bbPress-support.com in the next few days.

EDIT: Apparently that website isn’t going to be released for another week, and I’ve jumped the gun a little. So you can download it from this location until then.

My name is Kevinjohn Gallagher, and I’m one of the people to who contribute to bbPress. I’ve mentioned this before, but after the announcement by Jane Well on the Official WordPress blog, and by Andrew Nacin on the WordPress development blog, I thought I’d take one last shot at a bit of sanity:

Please, stop calling the new WordPress forum plugin the “bbPress plugin”.

• It has nothing to do with bbPress.
• It does not plug-in to bbPress in any way.
• It does not plug bbPress into WordPress.
• It is not, by it’s own very definition, a bbPress plug-in.
• It is a Forum plug-in for WordPress, completely separate from bbPress in every way.

So maybe, just maybe, we should call it… the “WordPress Forum Plug-in”. Or an equivolent name. Anything with separates it from the naming quagmire we currently find ourselves in; because one should really be asking Automattic why they are (intentionally?) confusing their user-base?

We currently have :

• bbPress0.9
• bbPress1.0
• backPress
• buddyPress
• bbPress for buddyPress
• and now you want to add in a bbPress Plug-in that doesn’t have anything to so with any of the above?

We already have bbpress0.9 which is different and unique from bbPress1.0 (which uses BackPress, which itself is shortened to bPress or BP). 2 versions of the same software released/updated at the same time and both in-compatible. We refer to them both as bbPress, but really one of them is “bbPress” and the other “bbpress with bPress”.

We have the bbPress plugin for BuddyPress (which itself is shortened to bPress or BP – cunningly the exact same as BackPress is shortened to) and that is effectively bbPress1.0 (the one build on BackPress) but without BackPress.

So to clarify for those who are confused:

bbPress for BP is bbPress with bPress without bPress.
But that’s not the same as just bbPress, the bbPress plugin, BP, bPress, BuddyPress nor BackPress.

Is it any wonder, honestly, that people get confused?

I’ve been developing for and with bbPress since bbPress 0.8 and I’m confused by the above sentence. On top of this you want to throw in another completely new, unique, different and separate project and call it the exact same name? Have you lost your marbles? Are we honestly, and truly, wanting to have 7 products from the same company all with the same abbreviation, all starting with “b” and ending in “Press” and expect 0 supoprt questions to arise from this?

I have been vocal about how both Matt specifically and Automattic on the whole have dropped the ball with bbPress on numerous occasions. Those mistakes and indeed the catalogue of errors that were made, will simply dwindle in comparison to the amount of confusion caused by this decision.  The initial damage has been done, the amount of support requests and uncertainty has already affected bbPress and it’s community a ridiculous amount, but there is a chance to be brave and sort it out once and for all.

I strongly suggest and hope that sensible heads prevail.

http://bbpdevel.wordpress.com and http://bbdevel.wordpress.com

Nope, can’t see anyone getting cofused about that. Here’s hoping no-one makes a typo and helps the wrong project!

My name is Kevinjohn Gallagher, and I’m one of the people to who contribute to bbPress.

That is the standalone forum software available at bbpress.org, and not the BuddyPress plug-in called bbPress, nor the bbPress plug-in in the WordPress plug-in directory.

It is sometimes confusing as they all use the same name, so I find it’s best to be upfront about which one of the 3 pieces of software I am trying to help (even if I do sometimes feel like I’m saying that I’m the “People’s front of Judea” rather than the “Judean’s People’s Front” ).

With bbPress utterly reliant on BackPress for it’s next release, I am wondering if I could have 5 minutes of your time to discuss/asnwer the following questions:

• Who is the BackPress project lead?
• Who is the best person to contact when the lines of communication break down between BackPress and it’s dependants?
• What is the best communication method when this happens?
  • given that BacKPress has no forum
  • it’s Mailling List has had 3 emails in 4 months, none of them from any core developers or team members
  • Trac updates have met with no respsonse
  • the Link to the Trac Update List from the BackPress website results in a 404
• I was wondering what the current/proposed release schedule is for BackPress?
• Are more tickets going to be added to the current Milestone?
• Could we suggest/promote/prod/beg/bribe for 2 tickets to be added to the current Milestone?
• Realistically, is there a ballpark time/date when we think the current Milestone will be released?

I realise that some or all of these questions might not be any one person’s to answer, or that I might not be the person to whom these answers should be directed, but I would greatly appreciate any insight you can give me.

Basically, we’re somewhat screwed waiting on BackPress.

We have 2 blocker bugs which are causing all sorts of havoc right now.

• http://backpress.automattic.com/ticket/18

Opened 6 months ago, this is blocking us from releasing bbPress1.0.3.

More realistically, it’s stopping us from releasing it out for testing. bbP1.0.3 has over a year of bug fixes and code patches, and there will be an awful lot of bugs, and we can’t roll it out for testing until this has been cleared. It appears to me that it’s a very simple fix (apologies if I’ve gotten that wrong). I suppose I’m concerned as it’s had no response from the BackPress team, even after Sam Bauers updated it in May.

• http://backpress.automattic.com/ticket/25

This one is a biggie.
BackPress currently refuses to parse any ampersand fronted code.

Every single HTML tag, or PHP class notation on the bbPress website is currently un-usable and un-readable.
Not only does it make the site look like it’s broken (and it is after a half-baked patchy theme release), but it also makes giving support and code near impossible.

This is also blocking bbPress1.0.3; but this one has had a patch in the BackPress track for over 2 weeks.

Help Us, Help Ourselves

I understand completely that with WordPress3.0 just out the door that working on BackPress in order to fix bbPress isn’t seen as the highest priority. That is a very reasonable viewpoint. From our point of view though, the difficulty is the lack of communication. We have NO idea what is going on, and have reached out to BackPress and WordPress contributors on this subject in an attempt to garnish some form of information, only to have recieved no response or no descernable information from the communicae.

I ask, from one person trying to help an open source project to another, to shed whatever light you can on BackPress for us. We can plan and advise against whatever information we’re given, but it’s the unknown that is daunting. We can’t answer support questions, we cant answer planning questions, code contributors can’t test their code, plugin authors can’t test their plugins – we’re in a holding pattern, just looping over and over – but shedding key contributors in the process.

Knowing what’s going on with BackPress will allow us to better communicate and plan bbPress; and we’d apprecaite any help you could give us in this matter.

“Once men are caught up in an event, they cease to be afraid.
Only the unknown frightens them.”
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900-1944)

Thank you for your time,

Kevinjohn Gallagher

EDIT: 2nd July 2010 @ 3pm

I’d like to offer my public thanks to Westi for not only fixing our outstanding tickets but also sending me a lonely reply by email. There is no doubt that the BackPress project is far from a priority at Automattic right now, but having cleared up the lines of communication and thrown himself into the bbPress mix so quickly, I’m sure we’ll see good things happen soon.

First pint in Manchester is on me!!

Heriot-Watt are migrating their online information repository as part of the larger SAS Project, and today signed off on our pitch to create the web app on the WordPress platform. This will be the first time that Heriot-Watt have used WordPress for an externally facing website, and we’re very pleased that they have continued the trend of Scotland’s Top Universities (Edinburgh and Napier universities are previous clients) in choosing Kevinjohn Gallagher and PureWebBrilliant.com.

Our initial project together will be released in August 2010, and will utilise our custom K.I.T.T framework for faster prototyping and deployment as well as enoying the use of our Media Library plugin for WordPress.

From a purely personal viewpoint, this is a great little project which will keep us very busy until and during the  Edinburgh Fringe festival (something else I’ve build a website for this year). After that I’ll take in a few shows, and maybe enjoy a small week break.

So the question I want to ask is, where now for bbPress? Here are my thoughts…

bbPress is dead.

The next release of bbPress (1.0.3 / 1.1) will include some long request features for wordpress.org/.com’s support forums; and then it’s off to the elephant graveyard.

Matt has left the project, and decreed bbPress at this year’s WordCamp even going so far as to suggest to people to use different software. Matt also informed us (though no blog post or official announcement, he just threw it into an IRC chat at 11pm one night) that bbPress will not continue to be a standalone and will be a wordpress plugin. Open-Source software cannot die, but the bbPress project we’ve supported for years is ending.

I believe that after the next release, that bbPress should be forked with a dedicated team in place, in a structured tiered format.

• The new project should clearly define the Roles and Responsibilities of it’s members and contributors.
• The new project’s members should also be listed on the project website.
• The new project’s members should not participate in the original bbPress project.
• The new project should be defined before any coding.
• The new project should have a visible feature list.
• The new project should have a fully working website.
• The new project should do what it says on the tin.
• The new project should prioritise communication.
• The new project should separate moderators and developers.
• The new project should accept criticism.
• The new project should strive to understand it’s user base.
• The new project should be strict on support queries.
• The new project should maintain a clear grasp on reality.
• The new project should focus on the website owner/administrator; rather than end user.

EDIT: Re-reading this list has made me chuckle a little, because I think that most of the items I’ve included are what makes WordPress stand out from the crowd. If only they were both written by the same people…

http://bbpress.org/forums/topic/whats-happening-with-bbpress/page/5#post-64410

I don’t think I’ve ever been so shocked at an adult I respected’s childishness.

Basic.

• Features needed to make the software function at a base level.

Standard

• Features automatically considered to be included by users, usually based on market perception.

These are very key differences, and need to be explained and used to manage expectations of your user-base. The more features that people expect as standard, the more you have to detail where the line in the sand exists. Good project management, planning, scoping, documentation and communication make this job a lot easier. Without it, users can start to judge your product based on their own perception of expectations rather than the groundwork you have laid out.

Take WordPress as an example:

• WordPress’ basic functionality is to add/edit/delete/show blog posts, allow comments from users.
• WordPress’ standard functionality these days would be smilies, a WYSIWYG editor and Avatars.

Note the difference. Your blog would work as described without the standard functionality, but would not without the basic functionality. It’s a key key difference that people miss out on, and it very quickly leads to scope creep.

AutoMattic set an amazing precedent with WordPress, if not all of their home grown products. They decided that anything that wasn’t purely basic functionality would be developed as a plugin, and adapted into the core of their product if and only if the basic/standard divide had moved considerably. Almost 30 releases of WordPress and 6 years later we’re dealing with a much larger beast than before, and I’m afraid many people that are new to WordPress or Automattic products in the last 2 years will have missed out on this key component in its development.

Its another great example where being able to don the Project Management and Business Analyst roles would make a big difference to an open source project; but this sort of mental scope creep is something we should all be aware of and shoot it down whenever possible.

It is with sadness and regret that BBprogress.com is closed effective immediately from 1st December 2009.

BBpress has lurched forward this past year like a headless chicken. As much as I personally like the software and as much as we have tried to embrace it; the project has effectively died. I urge you all to not look to BBpress for forum software unless it absolutely fits all your needs (and they had better be really basic).

Lack of communication, lack of leadership, lack of code, lack of project management in addition to an abundance of wrong and misleading information has weighed BBpress down for over a year. Almost all attempts to help were met with hostility or silence, which we now see as a result of dealing with people who were on borrowed time on BBpress and nothing personal in nature.

BBpress needs now, what it has always needed, a Project Manager…. someone to take the project from A to B to C in full visibility of the community. With Sam’s removal from BBpress some 3 months ago and no replacement being instated one must ask what is going on with BBpress and who is making the decisions.

What code that made it onto the BBpress.org website will stay there as long as is needed, and I openly invite others to edit and reuse any of the code this community has created.

We hope that the following plugins were useful to you:

Forum Nesting
Essential Hooks
CDN loading of Javascript
WYSIWYG editor
BBcode handler
BBcode toolbar
Better tag control
Post Validation
Live preview
Quote
Lightbox
Signatures
Allow Images
Private Message v1
Reputation
Rate post
Allow attachments
Dynamic Corners
Error Handling
Human testing
Authentication
Instant password.
Autocomplete for tags.
Admin block posts based on keywords
Sin Bin functionality.
Black mark functionality.
Check registrar against spammer database.

Where now for BBpress?

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.

In addition, bbShowcase had only six donations in 2009,
which indicated to me there was no interest in my work.

My code will remain on bbpress.org as open source GPL
for those that wish to use it, however I caution you to
consider bbPress’s lack of leadership before continuing to use it.

_ck_ and I clashed a  great number of times on the BBpress website, but i never lost any respect for her coding abilities. Sadly, her reasons for quitting the project are very valid and indeed the very reason we clashed so much in the last year. BBpress has had a lack of leadership for far too long, a lack of project management to be more precise, and sadly the time has arrived where _ck_ has started to see both the woods and trees.

BBpress 1.02 is 50% slower than BBpress0.9, and a large large chunk of plugins for 0.9 don’t work for it. It’s lead developers have left, the promised updates have never materialised, and frankly, it’s time too look start looking at alternatives.