In reply to KTS915.

I'd actually argue that this still belongs within a plugin because we're talking about a publicly-released product. Users should only expect the front end of their site to be changed when installing a theme. When installing a plugin, anything goes.

When I say this should be a plugin, what I really mean is that this should be a plugin + theme combo. One doesn't make sense without the other, so you definitely shouldn't be installing a theme plus a separate plugin. The theme should be packaged within the plugin. WP allows plugins to register their own theme directories. It's easy to do this from a plugin perspective because these things were built into WP when BuddyPress first came on the scene. The plugin could easily auto-activate its own theme.

This approach allows us to still follow some of the standards laid out by WordPress years ago while catering to such things as child themes for overwriting the main design. Plus, users are more apt to edit themes than plugins. That way lies danger.