On my quest to start my own forum, i found that buddypress is just as similar. Please guide me: 1.How is BuddyPress different from regular forums? 2.Why should i use it? 3.What about SEO for BuddyPress? 4.In what ways is BuddyPress administration different from regular forums? 5.Is it difficult to administer? As of now i can remember only these questions More later ..as you capable users unfold it.
Glad to hear that you are looking to create your own forum. I will love to help you for that concern. BuddyPress plugin do more than an average plugin. Actually BuddyPress is not just a forum plugin. It is often called as niche social network plugin. Forum is meant to just ask questions and get answers and that discussion board is arranged in systematic order. If you just need this kind of plugin, you can use bbpress BuddyPress is more than that. It has features like groups, friends, private messaging, blogs etc. If you want more features on buddypress, additionally you can install buddypress based plugins. for e.g. In default, BuddyPress does not allow multimedia files sharing (pictures,music,videos). So if you want that feature also on your buddypress site you can install BuddyPress Media, a plugin that support multimedia file sharing on buddypress site. And about SEO: I don't think that is nice question Simple answer is no. But there would be more problem. First, currently not every WordPress themes are supporting BuddyPress. You should use a Buddpress supporting theme. BuddyPress is created by Automattic team, company behind WordPress. So there is no administer hassle. Hope this answered your question.
1.Buddy press is a wordpress plugins, by which you can incorporate a forums to your blog or site, or can converted a whole WordPress blog into a forum site or rather a social networking site. 2. You need to use buddy-press if you posses a WordPress blog which you wanted to convert into a social networking site or a forum site. 3. Your 3rd question is not quite clear to me, since it is a wordpress plugins, and I don't understand why you are trying to relate this with SEO? SEO is Search engine optimization, you have to work hard to optimize your website from On Page and Off Page perspective and it has nothing to do with what plugins you have intended to install for your site. 4. BuddyPress forums are designed to allow groups to create and manage their own forums; it doesn’t provide a discussion forum for the entire network. However, members can easily search all public forum topics using the BuddyPress Forums page. Any member can post reply to a forum post or start a forum topic in any public group, even if they aren’t a group member — adding a post or replying will auto join them to that group. Forum topics don’t displayed on the Forum page until a group has been created and a forum post has been added to the group
thanxx both Pls tell me what hosting service should i use initially? i mean shared, VPS or dedicated? one more question...y forums rank more than buddypress powered sites?
Really nice question.. Initially you can start with shared hosting. But if you are doing it more professionally, you should definitely go with VPS at least. As members and activity increase you can switch over to VPS or dedicated. Did you have real plan to start a niche social network with BuddyPress? Let me know, I am one of the guys who is working on BuddyPress related stuff.
Yes i am! Actually i wanted to start a forum on some topic(not revealing ), so i was searching about it....came across BuddyPress! I was confused y people dont use BP instead of regular forums. Also sites built thru BP rank less which means less people interested in such sites. However, till now i am BP far more useful than what regular forums offer. Plus the BP sites offer much beautiful and interactive designs and templates. Is BP out of date? Shud i use regular forums?
@Vipsy, It is big misunderstanding. 2 things 1. BP is completely free and other related plugins of Buddypress are also free. 2. BP is very very easy to set up on WordPress comparing to any other plugin or software. due to this many people are starting out to create a social network using BP. Anyone can easily start a blog on Blogger.com and WordPress.com so you can find many useless blogs there. But it doesn't mean that they are bad in SEO. I can show you a whole list of professional sites that are using BuddyPress. It doesn't mean that you should necessarily use BP but obviously it is the best. If you want to start just a forum try bbPress (not BuddyPress). For forum, bbPress is the best.