I've been thinking for years that WordPress communities are a great niche yet to explore. Buddypress is way too over bloated, and so weird and complicated that it doesn't look like WordPress at all (I'm talking both front and back-end).

People want to build communities as much as they want to make blogs, and whatever else people do with WP. But, in my humble opinion, the Buddypress success as more to do with being the only option[1] than with been the best.

This is what you need to build a community on WordPress:

1) Move sign-ups, sing-ins, etc, to the front-end.
2) Move user profiles and profile edit pages to front-end.
3) Let people post within the front-end.
4) Optionally, let people follow each other.

There has been other plugins out there doing 1 and 2 for quite some time, but Ultimate Member is in another level. It's easy to use, works out of the box, and it has all the features most people would want.

But the last two items on the list are still a pending subject. If Ultimate Member wants to be a Buddypress alternative, as they have stated before, they should include that in the core plugin as soon as possible. Sadly, they'll probably make one or two extensions to cover that, making it half-core free, half-core paid.

Seriously, Calum, Ahmed, please include a front-end posting feature in the free core plugin so we can declare Buddypress dead already[2].

Anyway, those guys are doing an amazing job. I've been waiting for someone to take this path for years, and when I found UM a few weeks ago I get so exited. I'm already working on a project heavily based on it, with a few more in mind.

[1] I know there are a few alternatives, but if you have a problem with Buddypress you're gonna have a problem with those too. Non of them follow the WP clean and easy way of being.
[2] Ok, maybe not dead dead, but I'm sure most people would rather use a lither option if that option exist.