bbpress Review – How to install forum in wordpress

Many a times I have been approached by friend’s that wants a forum or discussion board section alongside their blog running on the wordpress platform.

This is something I can’t see being any difficult but some have already resorted to using a separate bulletin board script software like the smf, vbulletin, phbb, punbb, mybb and the rest of them for their forum section.

Frankly, I myself being a lover of Simple Machines Forum (smf) open source work also used their script for our forum section styling it to have a look similar to that of the blog.

Now this guide and tutorial is to guide you towards choosing a better and customizable bulletin board option for your wordpress powered blog or website.

Must Read : How I added 4 Footer Widget Area to my Smf Forum

There are many possible ways you can add a forum to a wordpress powered blog depending on what you are used too, the end result should be to be able to give your users a better user experience  and also to prevent them from having to register separately as a member of your forum and separately as a member of your wordpress blog / site.

How to install a discussion forum to your wordpress powered site Migrating from another

If you are already used to popular forum software like; vbulletin, smf, phbb and the rest of them and have now decided to move them over or integrate it with a wordpress site,  awesome plugins like; vBSSO, SMF2WP and WP-United can help you to quickly integrate your vbulletin, smf and phbb bulletin board respectively with the  wordpress platform so as to allow a single username and password for both the forum section  and the blog or news section.

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The three plugins listed above will be so useful if you plan continuing on your favorite forum platform while still retaining your wordpress powered blog or website and without tampering with their various databases and users’ info.

How to install a discussion forum to your wordpress powered site without Migrating from another

Frankly, this is the major focus of today’s tutorial, that is; how to add a forum to wordpress from scratch (haven’t previously used another forum platform)  as well as tips and useful plugins for managing your wordpress powered forum.

For the sake of perfection, popular opinion, general acceptance, age and ease of support, we are going to introduce the bbpress plugin as our favorite player when it comes to creating a discussion forum in wordpress.

Must Read : Modification (mods) : Tweaks and Basic Guide to Smf Customization

Installation Guide, Configuration and Basic Customization for the bbpress “WordPress Forum Plugin”

Having a discussion board, question and answer board, topic suggestion board  or even a full forum section in any wordpress powered blog or website has been very easy since the introduction of the bbpress plugin, as all you will need to have your forum live is just to install the damn plugin the way you will normally install others and start enjoying a lively forum.

how to install a forum on wordpress

—> Log in to your wordpress admin dashboard

—> Hover over plugins from the left and choose “add new”

—> In the search box, enter “bbPress” and hit the “search plugins” button as seen in the screenshot above

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—> Hit the “install now”  and “activate plugin” buttons respectively.

Your forum is now installed and activated, all you will need do now is to start configuring it, with those initial setup guide and options.

how to install a forum in wordpress—> From the left bar again hover over forums and choose “new forum”

From the next window, you will have an editing panel that looks exactly like the one you will normally see when creating a new post, from there you can decide what kinda board you really want.

Taking from the image below -;

setting up a forum on wordpressYou can clearly see that all we wanted was just a single discussion board with only a single category which can differ depending on what you want.

—> You can have as many category as possible under a single forum eg. Technology board or forum can have categories such as; Internet, Phone, Computer ect. under it while Entertainment can have; Sports, Celebrities, Fashion shows etc. under it.

—> You need choose “forum” from label 1 above if what you need is another discussion board entirely different from the other one

—> Only set public from label 2 above when you want the board to go live.

—> Hit the publish button to have your forum go live

Bonus Tips:

#1

Install the “bbPress Genesis Extend” plugin to have bbpress work fully well with your genesis framework

#2

Try the “Better bbPress Signature” plugin to have a better signature area for your wordpress forum users

#3

You can make use of many available shortcodes and css to further style your template or forum look, one of the most common practice is to create a new page titled “Join or registration” and adding the shortcode 

[bbp-register]

in it, providing a link to it in your site's frontend to allow easy registration. The use of widget is also recommended as the plugins comes along with many useful widget that can be found from the widget section of your theme. 

Also see : If you want traffic; don’t use fonts, Use TypeFonts

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Concluding Lines

You have learn how to create or add a forum to a wordpress powered blog or website right? you can ask me questions on any area I wasn’t very clear enough or drop your useful suggestions as well as sharing this tutorial with your friends, hopping that it will make things a lot easier for them .

I also do hope that this will encourage you to install a forum on your wordpress blog without having to go through the process of using a sub-domain or installing another smf software  in a new domain entirely.

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Obasi Miracle
Obasi Miracle is one of the brains behind 3rd Planet Techies. A webdesign afficionado and IT Support brain-box, he flourishes and revel in helping many-a-techies in their aspiration to become the best they can.

33 COMMENTS

  1. Hello Obasi,
    This is indeed a nice and lovely tutorial if i must say :).
    You know, when i started blogging new, a static html and a forum was the first site i opened. Back then, i use SMF because they was one of the best then and they are way more simple compared to the rest forum platform, but after i got suspended by the adsense team twice, i closed down that site and opened a blog.

    Forum is a good place to get interaction and it is good for bloggers to have one as well.
    Nice article i am sure a lot of people are going to love it :)

    • Thanks Babanature for dropping by to comment on my little tutorial, Honestly I love the personal experiences you have shared.
      It is easier to get your adsence account limited when your forum isn’t moderated as many users will be posting illegal stuff being unguided.
      As for smf being simpler than other open source bulletin board software out there I just gotta agree with you as it is always very easy to customize and they do have a very active support site too.

      Do have a great week bro

  2. Hi, Obasi,
    Indeed very informative post and tutorial.
    I love the representation of the tutorial. I hope no get any problem in installing the plugin after reading your post on it.
    Discussion forum is very useful. Integrating all forum is a cool idea at one place. Lovely.
    Thank you very much for sharing such a beautiful informative post. :)

    • Thank Kumar for checking out this post, certainly you aren’t gonna have issues installing the plugin, that is even one of the reasons we made this tutorial so easy to comprehend and in simple English too.

      Do have a nice weekend bro

  3. Hey Obasi
    Idea of a forum for discussion alongside a blog seems an excellent !!!
    And thanks for the installation guide of bbPress plugin. It is really helpful and will definitely try it out.
    Thanks for sharing the post!!

    • Thanks Debasmita,
      We thought that will be very helpful for some kinda blog and sites using the wordpress platform as many will be more comfortable creating shorter articles than long ones, it can also give every of your users the sense of belonging as they contribute passionately from time to time.
      Hope you do have a splendid day ahead of you bro

  4. Nice informative Article searching for this. New to your blog & really like what you have shared here. Thanks for sharing

    • Thanks for visiting my blog today Gautam, hope to see more of your feedback from time to time

  5. Bubble Wrap Los Angeles Bubble Wrap Los Angeles

    Nicely explained article. I am going to start a forum soon , I was planing to use Simple Press but after reading your post I changed my mind to bbpress.

    • Simpress is not overly a bad idea, I kinda feel that it solely depends on what really works for you, I am also glad that you found my tutorials very useful

  6. Hi! Obasi
    Its an Amazing and informative post.
    Thanks for the amazing post. Would love to read more from you. Keep up the good work

    • Thanks for dropping by buddy, hope to see more of your feedback here

  7. Hey Obasi
    Thanks for the awesome informative post. I am new to blogging and these types of post will help me learning new things.
    Thanks once again. Keep up the good work .
    Have a great weekend

    • Sure Shristhi, learning new tips is part of the logging exercise itself, hope to get more of your valuable feedback on our young tech blog

  8. Hi Obasi,

    Nice Article. This just explains it all. I’m planning to launch a Forum for my blog soon and I think this tutorial would go a long way in helping me.

    • Thanks for dropping by Ugee,
      It is awesome knowing that my little tutorial will aid you work on having a discussion board in your blog. I will also like to get more of your feedback from time to time .

      Thanks for dropping by and do have a splendid day ahead of you bro

  9. Hi brother !
    I have installed Simple Machines forum on my blog .. I think , forums should be there on all blogs as it gives an advantage that members would be active in the forums (if there are a lot of registered members ) . Anyways , thanks for sharing the information .

    -Pramod

    • Wow! Pramod, you made a very brilliant decision but needs note that managing a forum isn’t like the easiest thing out there as you ‘ve got to deal with spammers and link builders too

  10. i would like to try this out,but before then what effect will it have on your disk space?

    • Thanks for dropping by Ebima. frankly speaking, this will have little or no impact at all on your disk storage except you are going to be uploading too many videos, images and files

      • Ok sir,thanks for your prompt reply to my query

  11. A very nice article bro, although i didn’t fancy having a forum on my wordpress, i think its an extra buden

    • Hey Kingtappa, it’s always great having a unique stand on anything you consider appropriate. but bbpress plugin isn’t creating another database altogether and as such will have very little or no additional load on your server resources, except many users become very engaging on the site

  12. Well, that works for low traffic website and besides that you won’t have full customization.

    • Thanks for dropping by to leave such a valuable comment David, Frankly I can’t fathom what you mean by only low traffic sites using it, you can really do a lot of customization on any bbpress powered wordpress discussion forum by playing around with your css. Hope you do trow more light as to what you really mean with that part bro

  13. wow ! what a great post you write here, I once asked you about this before but you didn’t explain like this.thanks for sharing.

    • Thanks for dropping by bro, I love the fact you love my tips, just hope to get more of your feedback from time to time

  14. Nice blog tutorial for forum hosting using the wordpress platform, Kinda love your tips too :)

    • Thanks for loving my little tips Aniruddha, hope to see more of your contribution too

  15. Hello buddy,

    Another lovely piece from you, but I am wondering why you didn’t use Simple:Press; that was my automatic pick when I decided to try a forum integration some couple of years ago. I quickly ran a search on it and I can see that there alot of improvements.

    But since you love the bbpress :D, it’s not a bad choice either. Your tutorials are always spot on, allowing anyone without programing languages idea to perform effectively immediately.

    • Thanks for reminding of simplepress once again Nosa, I am very much happy you came here already to leave such a valuable comment.
      Frankly, I have had many a great record of success with the bbpress plugin, hence recommending it as my topmost choice when it comes to adding a forum or discussion board to any wordpress powered site at all.
      I also do wish my readers finds my tutorials useful, just the way you have described it to be. Do have a great day ahead of you bro

      • I never tried bbpress but I heard lots of great stories about it, your verdict on it means the stories I have heard are equally valid.

        Lol. Sure your readers are definitely loving your tutorials, I especially loved that WP Security Video tutorial, my only problem was that you made me spend 3-hrs on the internet surfing for the best configuration the previous day before the post was published here. And I am pretty sure you know what 3-hrs means to my bank account and you are going to provide that. hehe :)

        Nice one friend, have a great day!

        • Sure bro, I will provide you a bottle of malt for all your troubles, hope that will aid with alienating the already past stress my delay might have caused you?

          It’s always wonderful getting valuable feedback from you

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