Wordpress and dedicated forum (IPS, Vb or XF)?

[Wendell]

wpForo is nice but last time I used it took a bit to get it set-up. is it more out-of-the-box now?

It was pretty easy to setup and that was over a year ago, so it's likely better now.

Also, your registration page for your site is beautiful.

Thank you! But I can't take credit for it. That is standard wpForo with the custom profile fields addon installed.

 

[Regs]

BuddyBoss looks absolutely incredible. Did it get revamped recently? Also, what type of support do you have for various other wordpress plugins?

I think this spring would be coming up on 1 year since launch of the platform and theme. By support, can you clarify what you mean? most plugins should work fine, some better than others as expected in the wp world

 

[gConverter]

I use wpForo with my community website that gets between 50k and 100k uniques per month (depends on the season, but we're on the lower end at the moment). Have a look, if you are interested in seeing wpForo in action: https://rplstoday.com/community/

My congrats!
Very nice forum. We've already migrated more than a hundred forums to wpForo. And I think wpForo forum plugin allows WordPress to compete with IPS, Vb or XF. The main reason of those migrations were these:

1. Free but with all pro features | It's a free software, but it's being developed and made as a real pro forum software.
2. Thousands of plugins | They can use thousands of WordPress plugins and themes with wpForo forum plugin
3. Brand-new feature in forum world called Hybrid Forum | wpForo has very nice, modern and unique designs. It allows forum admins to display forum with different forum layouts at the same time (hybrid forum). I see it on your website too. You use two nice layouts.
4. Easy but powerful | Very easy to manage and use but you still get the full pro features of forum software. Even more wpForo comes with many unique features.
5. Active development and support | This guys work very hard and update the forum actively. The support is also outstanding.

 

[cheat_master30]

As someone who's tried to integrate XenForo with WordPress, I'd probably say using WpForo is likely the best bet here. Better to have one system responsible for both the website and forum rather than trying to integrate two of them, since the latter always feels kinda... off. Integrations just never work perfectly, and they're almost always a pain to manage.

Not sure about Buddyboss though. It looks promising, but the way they don't seem to use it on their own website doesn't seem to inspire confidence. Would need to see a demo that's open to the public to view to really know what to say about it.

 

[Alpha1]

Yes, that irked me as well about BuddyBoss: they should have a demo. Their website says its coming though. But its easy to get the free version up and running.

 

[gConverter]

Not sure about Buddyboss though. It looks promising, but the way they don't seem to use it on their own website doesn't seem to inspire confidence. Would need to see a demo that's open to the public to view to really know what to say about it.

Buddyboss is just a WordPress theme based on BuddyPress profile builder plugin. And they are profile systems with social network features. They are not forums. However, they can be used with bbPress and wpForo forum plugins. bbPress doesn't have profile system so it requires BuddyPress, but wpForo has own rich profile system with account settings. But the wpForo User Profile system can also be easily extended by BuddyPress or by native wpForo User Custom Fields addon. Here are some good screenshots:

 

[Alpha1]

BuddyBoss is a theme and a platform. More information here about the functionality:

Build Your Own Community Website on WordPress • BuddyBoss

BuddyBoss for Online Communities is the most advanced solution when it comes to creating a community-based website with WordPress. Check it out, and build an online community website.

www.buddyboss.com

There are also some plugins by BuddyBoss:

WordPress/BuddyPress Plugins • BuddyBoss

Provide your members with a great experience with one of these BuddyPress WordPress plugins. All plugins are made as simple as possible to help users easily build a functional website.

www.buddyboss.com

 

[DanielGarneau]

I migrated from phpbb to wpForo just recently. The most convincing argument that led me to make this move was the successful and easy migration of my Phpbb forum data into the wpForo format through uploading a plugin called Go2wpForo. I did this first in a testing environment, then, to my live site, where you can see it now by clicking on the link in my signature below that leads to the forum.

A couple of other things I did were important to me. The first was to install and activate the Redirection plugin unto my WordPress site. I wanted people who had linked to any single one of the threads on my forum to be redirected to the newer forum. Up to that time I had done redirecting manually using the ".htaccess" file. But with 340 threads, I was going to need help. This process worked fine, as I tested it afterwards. The ideal situation might have been to redirect not only the 340 threads, but also the 730 posting beneath those threads. This I did not do.

The second very important thing I did was to ensure the new forum was truly able to display every interface element in French. My site was alrreay relying on Polylang and Loco Translate to enforce French and Spanish into the non English pages. It was a breeze to carry this over to wpForo.

So I am quite happy with the results I have obtained so far through this set of tools: Go2wpForo, wpForo, Redirect, Polylang, and Loco Translate. Please note that I am currently in the process of taking full control of this forum as admin, process about which I will be reading-up and posting.