take a look at Mingle Forum plugin, which is nice, simple and did the job for me on a couple of sites. also bbPress looks promesing but its still in a beta stage like @Rarst pointed out. and last you have SimplePress which is by far the most feature rich forum plugin I’ve seen.
Use bbPress. It has a fully-built backend, and allows you to assign specific users to moderate the forum, and not access the rest of the website. It’s the quickest, easiest, and probably most secure solution.
You can hook to translation filters of WordPress to change any word or phrase. These filters are: gettext, ngettext and gettext_with_context: add_filter(‘gettext’, ‘change_bbpress_wording’, 10, 3); add_filter(‘ngettext’, ‘change_bbpress_wording’, 10, 3); add_filter(‘gettext_with_context’, ‘change_bbpress_wording’, 10, 3); function change_bbpress_wording ($translated, $untranslated, $domain) { if ($domain == ‘bbpress’) { $translated = str_ireplace(‘Forum’, ‘*desired word*’, $translated ); $translated = str_ireplace(‘Topic’, ‘*desired … Read more
How about trying the WP-United plugin? It seems to do what you want: User integration: including single sign-on, synchronised profiles and avatars, and user management. Works with external registration modules such as social login plugins. Users in phpBB get accounts in WordPress and vice versa. Completely controllable and customisable by setting permissions for who can … Read more
I have used http://simple-press.com/ on a few WordPress sites I have done and its been really good and I haven’t had any problems with it. Alot of options, quite robust yet easy to use, it would be the one I would suggest trying.
And, since I can’t (yet) post multiple links, here’s two more answers in short succession. For attachments, there’s: http://buddypress.org/community/groups/forum-attachments-for-buddypress/
I recently used http://wpeventticketing.com/ for WDC2011 in October, I didn’t look to far in to all the options but I think it can do everything you’re looking for. I’d suggest also using MailChimp for emailing attendees as it is far better than anything I’ve found to plugin to WordPress.
You could simply include the WordPress main file that it loads, wp-load.php or wp-blog-header.php at the very top of your forum’s header file. If I’m correct, that should allow you to use WordPress functions inside your forum theme. Example, at the top of your header, assuming the forum folder is in the root WP folder: … Read more
Have you beta-tested the bbPress Plugin? It should meet most of these needs.
[Edit – My original answer will only work in the upcoming BP 1.6] Versions of BuddyPress from 1.6 onwards function bbg_change_group_default_extension( $default ) { return ‘forum’; } add_filter( ‘bp_groups_default_extension’, ‘bbg_change_group_default_extension’ ); Versions of BuddyPress prior to 1.6 For the moment, you’ll have to use something like the following, which is a modified version of bp_core_new_nav_default() … Read more