Word Press interactivity through Forum Software

[DanielGarneau]

I am looking for ways to develop some interactivity for my Word Press Web Site. Before I begin trying out with the WordPress bbPress Plug-in, I would like to know if anyone has any suggestions as to what would be a better way.

A while back I was involved in a discussion about this, where I vaguely remember someone saying that it would be better to use a separate forum software and to connect to WordPress through a bridge. What do you think of such approach?

Any suggestions would be appreciated...

 

[Willtor]

I can't advise on the overall question of technical integration, but I've used phpBB. I found it slightly headache-y to set up, but once it was running it was exactly what I wanted along with all the features I was looking for (and available plugins for more). It also isn't so hard to customize the look-and-feel if you want it to integrate visually with your Wordpress site.

 

[BelieverX]

I've used Wordpress with various forum plugins (including bbpress) but was never satisfied with the results. I ended up purchasing a software that has an option to install four main components (blog, filebase, forum and gallery) as a standalone application or combined.

The software I chose is called Burning Board made by Woltlab, a German company. I built my whole website using their platform...I won't ever go back to Wordpress again.

Another thing...after installing plugins Wordpress gets too buggy and resource hungry.