I am so glad to have found this! You have located resources I need. Thank you for links to themes and anything about customizing - the codex. I've done searches and ended up all over.

My experience as a bbPress newbie:
I am not tech literate in WP - I can't create, but I can add/delete, copy/paste, code anywhere. I don't touch databases. bbPress is simple to use but tricky to fine tune. I have had no issues at all with function. The Forum people are great - very responsive. Documention is thorough and seems well written. I've read a lot. I don't have a basic grasp even to use it, so it has not been very helpful.

Great advice in this article. Do follow it. Stick to bbPress themes for example...unless you are adept with WP.

I am having a rough go. I do not know how bbPress is supposed to work, architecture and look, by default - so I can't tell what's right or wrong. I have spent a couple of months wrestling with bbPress to get it to look sane - legible font, layout, and to nav sanely - breadcrumb nav weirdness with blank page, crazy style blowouts on one page but not others, pages I can't access to edit, don't show up in the WP menu. Plus, click "Forums" in the breadcrumb to go to a generated page with the header "Archives". It's crazy. All of which seems to relate to, because they change completely with, themes.

Thanks again for the ground work.
Cheers