After a long time in development, bbPress 2.0 stable has been given the green light. While new version releases are exciting, this particular one for bbPress is especially so as it is a total rethink of how bbPress runs, integrates, and functions as a forums plugin instead of stand-alone software. If you’re already using an established bbPress install, moving into the plugin version of bbPress is as simple as importing your content from one to the other. John James Jacoby describes the move as follows:
If you already have a previous version installed, updating to 2.0 is easy with the bbPress Importer. Move your bbPress 1.0 powered content into your new WordPress/bbPress installation and you’re ready to go. (There is already a migration plugin in the works for other forum software that promises to be pretty amazing, too!)
I’m particularly interested in seeing what the migration plugin will be like as I’m currently using vBulletin to handle the forum side of the Tavern. I really like what vBulletin offers out of the box and I’ve been pretty pleased with it since I began using it for the site. However, I’ve reached a point where I’d like to switch over just to see what it’s like while at the same time, offer me an opportunity to write about bbPress more often from an end user perspective. One of the best things about bbPress is the ease in which it takes to make it look similar if not exactly like the WordPress theme in use.
It’s encouraging to see that since the release of bbPress 2.0, there will be more work dedicated to the surrounding ecosystem such as the website, the addition of a bbPress focused Codex, and the official bbPress forum. While giving the 2.0 version a try, I noticed that you can’t browse the bbPress plugin repository and install plugins like you can with WordPress. I hope that at some point in the future, I can expect the same user experience out of bbPress that I currently get out of WordPress.
From first commit to release, bbPress took: 436 days or 1 year, 2 months, 9 days or 62 weeks (pick a format you like)
436 days for a WordPress plug-in that already had it’s functionality defined, and had a paid for full-time developer? Just to give us the same functionality that we already had, but slightly less scalability?!
I like the new plug-in for my smaller sites I’ll probably flip them over the the plug-in over the original forum in the next few months, and JJJ has done some truly great work on it, but I’m still somewhat amazed by how much Kool-Aid drinking went on in regard to this project.