How to Add a Forum to Your WordPress Site Using bbPress Plugin
bbPress is a WordPress forum plugin, and one of the most popular plugins of its kind. Its development team includes Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress. Building a community is one of the greatest ways you can invite your audience to interact with your site more often.
It’s also an easy way to provide support if you find it difficult to keep up with requests as a forum allows members of your community to help each other. Forum plugins like these make it simple for you to add a forum to your WordPress site without having to develop one from scratch.
Importing Your Current Forums into bbPress
bbPress allows you to import forums from over 20 different forum software, including:
MyBB
Vanilla
vBulletin
phpBB
FluxBB
Visit the Import Forums section of the plugin’s documentation if your site already has forums and you’d prefer to transfer them over rather than start from scratch. Once you’re ready, go to your WordPress dashboard.
After you install the plugin, you’ll see a new selection called Forums when you hover over Tools. Select the Import Forums tab, and follow the documentation, from bbPress and your individual forum software, to import your forums.
Creating a Main Forum Page
Creating a main page where users can access your forums should be your first step after installing bbPress. There are two ways you can do this. Method one would be to create a parent forum called Forums, or your preferred forum name, and add that forum to your main menu structure.
Method two would be to create a new page and insert a shortcode that will add your forum’s main index to the page. I’ll show you how to do both so you can decide for yourself which method you’d like to use.
Method 1: Creating a Parent Forum
You’ll see three new selections in your WordPress admin area after you install the plugin:
Forums
Topics
Replies
Go to Forums, and select New Forum.
Enter Forums, or your preferred forum name, as a title. You can add a short description in the text editor.
Change the Status to Closed over in the Forum Attributes section. This ensures no one can post a new topic to your main forum as this forum is merely a directory for the various sections of your forum.
Click Publish to create your main forum.
Method 2: Creating a Forum Index Page
Create a new page, and name it Forums or your preferred forum name. You can add anything you want to the page, but make sure you insert this shortcode somewhere in the text editor:
[bbp-forum-index]
Click Publish once you’re finished.
Adding Your Forum to Your Site’s Menu Structure
Go to Menu under Appearances, and open your site’s primary menu. bbPress creates a new menu item called Forums.
If you used method one to create your main forum page, add your main forum to your menu structure. If you used method two, add the Forums page to your menu structure.
Save your menu.
Creating Forums with bbPress
Now that we have a main forum page, we can start creating forums. Feel free to get as specific as you want with your forums.
For example, if I created a sports forum, I could create a separate forum for each individual sport. I could then create child forums for each of these forums and assign each of those child forums to a parent forum. The parent forum Football might have child forums called La Liga, Premier League and FIFA.
Alternatively, you can choose Category as a Type in the Forum Attributes section for your parent forums and group the child forums under that category.
Let’s talk about the other selections in the Forum Attributes section for a moment.
Status:
Open – Allows users to view and post new topics to the forum.
Closed – Allows users to view the forum, but they cannot post new topics to it.
Visibility:
Public – Allows anyone, including unregistered users, to view the forum.
Private – Allows only registered and logged in users to view the forum.
Hidden – Allows only administrators and keymasters to view the forum.
Order:
Determines the order in which a particular forum will appear on your main forum page. The order starts at 0 and can go as high as you want it to. If I made Football 0, Cricket 1, Boxing/MMA 2 and Tennis 3, my main forum page would like the image below.
Topics
Topics are new discussions you and your users can start on your forums. There are three different types of topics:
Normal – Normal topics that have no priority when it comes to where they are placed in the list of topics in a forum.
Sticky – A topic that stays at the top of the forum it was posted in regardless of how many topics are posted after it.
Super Sticky – A topic that stays at the top of every forum.
There are also Topic Tags you can create to organize topics and make it easier for users to find topics. An example of a tag would be a specific sports team or athlete.
User Registration, Lost Password & WordPress Login Pages for bbPress
Your users need a way to register for your site so they can log in and post topics and replies in your forums. They may also need a place where they can retrieve their passwords in the event they forget them.
bbPress comes with many shortcodes. Among them are shortcodes for registration, lost password and login pages.
Creating a Registration Page
Create a page called Register, and add this shortcode to it:
[bbp-register]
You can either place text on your main forum page that says, “You need an account to post in the forums. Click here to register one,” and link to your Register page in that text, or you can add the Register page to your menu structure.
bbPress User Roles
Your users, including yourself, can have various roles, which are:
Keymaster – This is the bbPress equivalent of a WordPress administrator. This user can create and edit any topic, even the topics of other users. He can also manage tags, create new forums and access global settings.
Moderator – This user has nearly all of the capabilities of a keymaster. He cannot, however, delete other users’ forums, nor can he access global settings.
Participant – This user can create new topics and reply to existing topics.
Spectator – This user can view topics but cannot create new topics or reply to them.
Blocked – This user is banned from posting and replying to topics.
Creating a WordPress Login Page for bbPress
Create a new page called Login, and add this shortcode to the text editor:
[bbp-login]
Creating a Lost Password Page
Create a new page called Lost Password, and add this shortcode to the text editor:
[bbp-lost-pass]
Customizing a bbPress Forum
There are many ways you can customize a bbPress forum to make it your own. The first way is through your own forum’s settings, which allow you to change the way users interact with your board. The second and third ways are through style and functionality.
Configuring Your Forum’s Settings
The Settings page for bbPress is where you can configure the way users interact with your forum. You can learn more about what each setting means from the plugin’s documentation.
The most important setting is this:
Auto Role – Allows you to choose which user role new users have when they register.
The other settings are self-explanatory, but they basically allow you to change the way users use your forum, such as allowing them to mark topics as favorites.
Another key setting is under the Forum Root Slug section. If you use the [bbp-forum-index] shortcode, this setting allows you to choose between having that page display your forum index or having it display your forum’s most recent topics.
Widgets
bbPress comes with seven widgets if you’d like to display certain elements related to your forum in your sidebar or footer.
Here are the widgets that come with this plugin:
Login Widget – Displays a login form while also giving you the option to display links to your register and lost password pages.
Forum Search – A simple search bar that lets users search through your forum rather than your blog posts.
Forum List – Displays a list of your forums.
Recent Topics – Displays your forum’s latest topics.
Recent Replies – Displays your forum’s latest replies.
Topic Views List – Displays your forum’s most viewed topics.
Statistics – Displays a list of your forum’s statistics.
Shortcodes
bbPress has several shortcodes users can insert in their pages and posts. You can view a full list of them in the plugin’s documentation, but here are a few useful ones:
[bbp-topic-index] – Display 15 of your forum’s most recent topics.
[bbp-topic-tags] – Displays a cloud of your forum’s topic tags.
[bbp-search] – Displays a search bar for your forum.
[bbp-single-view] – Displays topics that have a specific attribute, such as the [bbp-single-view id=’popular’] shortcode, which displays the most popular topics in your forum.
Final Thoughts
This tutorial is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to setting up bbPress. There are plenty of additional ways you can change your forum’s style and functionality, and they’re all explained in the plugin’s documentation.
If you’d like to learn additional ways to keep your audience engaged with your site, check out our list of the Top 9 List Building Plugins for WordPress or our guide on Best Contact Form Plugins for WordPress.
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Where can I find a list (not a search field) of plug-ins that are current and available for BB Press forums? I can’t even seem to easily find a plug-in that enables quoting a previous post in your reply to it. This is frustrating.
That again was no use: he but got another smile and a friendly look of the sort he no longer wanted. I said I thought I could gallop if Harry could, and in a few minutes we were up with the ambulance. It had stopped. There were several men about it, including Sergeant Jim and Kendall, which two had come from Quinn, and having just been in the ambulance, at Ferry's side, were now remounting, both of them openly in tears. "Hello, Kendall." We have this great advantage in dealing with Plato—that his philosophical writings have come down to us entire, while the thinkers who preceded him are known only through fragments and second-hand reports. Nor is the difference merely accidental. Plato was the creator of speculative literature, properly so called: he was the first and also the greatest artist that ever clothed abstract thought in language of appropriate majesty and splendour; and it is probably to their beauty of form that we owe the preservation of his writings. Rather unfortunately, however, along with the genuine works of the master, a certain number of pieces have been handed down to us under his name, of which some are almost universally admitted to be spurious, while the authenticity of others is a question on which the best scholars are still divided. In the absence of any very cogent external evidence, an immense amount of industry and learning has been expended on this subject, and the arguments employed on both sides sometimes make us doubt whether the reasoning powers of philologists are better developed than, according to Plato, were those of mathematicians in his time. The176 two extreme positions are occupied by Grote, who accepts the whole Alexandrian canon, and Krohn, who admits nothing but the Republic;115 while much more serious critics, such as Schaarschmidt, reject along with a mass of worthless compositions several Dialogues almost equal in interest and importance to those whose authenticity has never been doubted. The great historian of Greece seems to have been rather undiscriminating both in his scepticism and in his belief; and the exclusive importance which he attributed to contemporary testimony, or to what passed for such with him, may have unduly biassed his judgment in both directions. As it happens, the authority of the canon is much weaker than Grote imagined; but even granting his extreme contention, our view of Plato’s philosophy would not be seriously affected by it, for the pieces which are rejected by all other critics have no speculative importance whatever. The case would be far different were we to agree with those who impugn the genuineness of the Parmenides, the Sophist, the Statesman, the Philêbus, and the Laws; for these compositions mark a new departure in Platonism amounting to a complete transformation of its fundamental principles, which indeed is one of the reasons why their authenticity has been denied. Apart, however, from the numerous evidences of Platonic authorship furnished by the Dialogues themselves, as well as by the indirect references to them in Aristotle’s writings, it seems utterly incredible that a thinker scarcely, if at all, inferior to the master himself—as the supposed imitator must assuredly have been—should have consented to let his reasonings pass current under a false name, and that, too, the name of one whose teaching he in some respects controverted; while there is a further difficulty in assuming that his existence could pass unnoticed at a period marked by intense literary and philosophical activity. Readers who177 wish for fuller information on the subject will find in Zeller’s pages a careful and lucid digest of the whole controversy leading to a moderately conservative conclusion. Others will doubtless be content to accept Prof. Jowett’s verdict, that ‘on the whole not a sixteenth part of the writings which pass under the name of Plato, if we exclude the works rejected by the ancients themselves, can be fairly doubted by those who are willing to allow that a considerable change and growth may have taken place in his philosophy.’116 To which we may add that the Platonic dialogues, whether the work of one or more hands, and however widely differing among themselves, together represent a single phase of thought, and are appropriately studied as a connected series. Before entering on our task, one more difficulty remains to be noticed. Plato, although the greatest master of prose composition that ever lived, and for his time a remarkably voluminous author, cherished a strong dislike for books, and even affected to regret that the art of writing had ever been invented. A man, he said, might amuse himself by putting down his ideas on paper, and might even find written178 memoranda useful for private reference, but the only instruction worth speaking of was conveyed by oral communication, which made it possible for objections unforeseen by the teacher to be freely urged and answered.117 Such had been the method of Socrates, and such was doubtless the practice of Plato himself whenever it was possible for him to set forth his philosophy by word of mouth. It has been supposed, for this reason, that the great writer did not take his own books in earnest, and wished them to be regarded as no more than the elegant recreations of a leisure hour, while his deeper and more serious thoughts were reserved for lectures and conversations, of which, beyond a few allusions in Aristotle, every record has perished. That such, however, was not the case, may be easily shown. In the first place it is evident, from the extreme pains taken by Plato to throw his philosophical expositions into conversational form, that he did not despair of providing a literary substitute for spoken dialogue. Secondly, it is a strong confirmation of this theory that Aristotle, a personal friend and pupil of Plato during many years, should so frequently refer to the Dialogues as authoritative evidences of his master’s opinions on the most important topics. And, lastly, if it can be shown that the documents in question do actually embody a comprehensive and connected view of life and of the world, we shall feel satisfied that the oral teaching of Plato, had it been preserved, would not modify in any material degree the impression conveyed by his written compositions. breakfast in the kitchen by candle-light, and then drove the five The bargaining was interminable, something in this manner:— Then follows a long discussion in Hindi with the bystanders, who always escort a foreigner in a mob, ending in the question— There was a bright I. D. blanket spread on the ground a little way back from the fire, and she threw herself down upon it. All that was picturesque in his memories of history flashed back to Cairness, as he took his place beside Landor on the log and looked at her. Boadicea might have sat so in the depths of the Icenean forests, in the light of the torches of the Druids. 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Unfortunately, Charles listened to this foolish reasoning, and the fatal die was cast. "They said they were going for our breakfast," said Harry. "And I hope it's true, for I'm hungrier'n a rip-saw. But I could put off breakfast for awhile, if they'd only bring us our guns. I hope they'll be nice Springfield rifles that'll kill a man at a mile." "Dod durn it," blubbered Pete, "I ain't cryin' bekase Pm skeered. I'm cryin' bekase I'm afeared you'll lose me. I know durned well you'll lose me yit, with all this foolin' around." He came nearly every night. If she was not at the gate he would whistle a few bars of "Rio Bay," and she would steal out as soon as she could do so without rousing suspicion. Boarzell became theirs, their accomplice in some subtle, beautiful way. There was a little hollow on the western slope where they would crouch together and sniff the apricot scent of the gorse, which was ever afterwards to be the remembrancer of their love, and watch the farmhouse lights at Castweasel gleam and gutter beside Ramstile woods. "Yes, De Boteler," continued the lady, "I will write to him, and try to soothe his humour. You think it a humiliation—I would humble myself to the meanest serf that tills your land, could I learn the fate of my child. The abbot may have power to draw from this monk what he would conceal from us; I will at least make the experiment." The lady then, though much against De Boteler's wish, penned an epistle to the abbot, in which concession and apologies were made, and a strong invitation conveyed, that he would honour Sudley castle by his presence. The parchment was then folded, and dispatched to the abbot. "A very pretty method, truly! You know not the miners and forgers of Dean Forest!—why I would stake a noble to a silver-penny, that if you had discovered he was hidden there, and legally demanded him, he would be popped down in a bucket, to the bottom of some mine, where, even the art of Master Calverley could not have dragged him to the light of day until the Forest was clear of the pack:—but, however, to speak to the point," perceiving that the steward's patience was well nigh exhausted—"I saw Stephen Holgrave yesterday, in the Forest." HoME欧美一级 片a高清
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Where can I find a list (not a search field) of plug-ins that are current and available for BB Press forums? I can’t even seem to easily find a plug-in that enables quoting a previous post in your reply to it. This is frustrating.