[wp-hackers] Wordpress as a Forum - Power of Themes and Plugins

[Jeff Minard]

So, I'm setting in on my next big WP project.

I've been running a forum now for a little bit and, to say the least, 
have been annoyed at the difficulty with which it takes to update/modify 
this hunker (and punbb isn't even that heavy).

This got me thinking, "gosh, I wish this had the Wordpress API -- it's 
totally awesome for simple patches and fixes." This, in turn, got me to 
thinking, "well, gee, couldn't I just turn WP _into_ a forum?"

I've been pondering this for a few weeks now and have started on 
development[1], but here's my aim:

"Utilizing Themes and Plugins, transform Wordpress into forum software."

I thought I might hit up the list for suggestions or ideas. I did some 
googling to see if this had been tried (outside of bbPress) but only 
found things like merging user tables, or including forum software as a 
plugin.

I figure, Wordpress (2.0, that is) has most of what is needed and the 
rest is just a matter of formatting (themes) and some functionality 
(plugins):

  - Topics == Posts
  - Replies == Comments
  - Users == Er, users
  - Profiles == Author Pages

And plugins could provide optional "on top" functionality like
  - Subscribe to forum/thread via email
  - Avatar support
  - More User Meta
  - Image Upload (sorta already built in)
  - Signatures
  - Polls
  - ... and other things - a lot of which already has some sort of WP 
Plugin made!


Anywho, just looking for some input about the idea.


  [1] http://wpforum.jrm.cc/ (Nowhere near ready)

Thanks!

Jeff Minard