Back in 2006, the creator of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, decided that all of this was nice, but a simpler, cleaner, and above all, faster system was needed for users who just wanted a bare-bones forum – nothing more. His product: bbPress, aimed to be just that.

Since then, bbPress has grown, though it has barely scratched the surface of the number of sites powered by the other “big boys” previously mentioned. What’s kept users away? Some say they’re just too set in their ways to switch, others think development needs to be more consistent and more frequent (though bbPress has definitely improved there as of late) and even more say that they’d rather have a more complex system with all the features they want out-of-the-box, rather than having to install all sorts of plugins to get something beyond a simple support or one-to-two topic forum.

bbPress is standing strong to its’ roots in simplicity, however, and that’s actually won quite a few webmasters over. It’s also become known as one of the easiest ways to integrate a forum with a WordPress site, as its’ close development with the WordPress.org project has made it easy to link the two together. It powers the official WordPress support forums, in addition to various other sites, though it has barely scratched the surface of the number of sites powered by the other “big boys” previously mentioned.

Image courtesy of Simple:Press Forum

Apparently hoping to take advantage of the WordPress connection even more, a bbPress plugin, authored by Matt and the rest of the bbPress crew,  has appeared in the WordPress Plugin Repository. While users are warned:

Don’t download me yet. I’m in the beginning stages of development.

…it appears that the idea here is to turn bbPress into a Core Plugin, allowing users to simply install a plugin and get their forum up and running. Other plugins already exist that do this, including the Simple:Press forum by Andy Staines (right), which, in many ways, has more features out-of-the-box than non-plugin bbPress!

Will users switch, or will the fight between the two simply build up competitor plugins? Do you currently use bbPress for a forum project? If so, what are your thoughts on this plugin? Sound off in the comments or in the bbPress Plugin? thread of the WordCast forums.

Topics and links from this week’s show:

• Dave Moyer’s blog has a new design
• Andy Staines’ Website
• WordCamp UK
• Lorelle’s WordCamp Gallery
• Matt Mullenweg’s redesign
• Baltic Amber Admin Themes for WordPress 2.5
• WP 2.5 tooltips
• Plugin of the Week: Plugin Central by Vladimir Prelovac – Install plugins incredibly easily

Download this week’s podcast