1. Download, extract and place the simple-press folder in the “wp-content -> Plugins” folder. In the dashboard, go to the Plugins section and activate the simple-press plugin.

2. Once you have activated the plugin, go to the Forum section and click “Perform Installation”.

The installation will create a “sp-resources” folder under the “wp-content” directory. This is the forum-specific folder and all the configurations files, custom plugins and themes will be placed in this folder. It will also create the necessary database table to hold the forum data. Lastly, it will create a “Forum” page where you can view all the forum activities. Once it is installed, you can go to http://yousite.com/forum and view the forum in action. This is how it looks like with the twentyeleven theme:

3. On the Forum section, there are tons of things you can configure, from Groups, SEO settings, Moderators, Users, Users permission, Maintenance to install custom plugins and themes. If you have experience in administering a forum, you will not have problems handling these options. For those who have never handle a forum, there are also “Help” buttons on each section so you can easily click to view the instructions for configuring the options.

4. The forum has a “default” theme. You can download new themes from the SimplePress site (only 3 basic themes are free). To install the theme, first place the theme in the “wp-content -> sp-resources -> forum-themes” folder. Next, in the WordPress dashboard, go to “Forum -> Themes” and select the new theme.

Conclusion

As can be seen above, it is very easy to integrate a forum into your WordPress site. With a few clicks, you can get a forum up and running. I have tried bbPress previously and found that it requires more configuration than SimplePress. For that, I really appreciate what SimplePress has done to make the whole setting up process a breeze. On the other hand, bbPress has better support and there are tons of plugins (free and useful) that you can use. And if you are a developer, it is much easier to modify bbPress code than SimplePress since it is more similar to the WordPress structure. SimplePress is free to download and use, but there is absolutely no support for the public. You will need to sign up as a member (with a subscription fee) to receive support, access the documentation and download custom plugins and themes. One thing though, you won’t be able to view what custom plugins and themes they have until you have signed up as a member. I am not sure how many of you will sign up for a membership before you know what they have to offer, but for sure, they won’t get my business based on the non-existent information on their site.

What do you think?

SimplePress

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MakeTechEasier Forum

The forum is powered by bbPress, which in my opinion, the best software to integrate with a WordPress blog. It does not come with some of the bulky features found in most established forum software, but it is definitely fully functional and you won’t have to waste your time and bandwidth loading those stuffs that you likely don’t have any use for. One thing for sure, it is light on the server and loads very fast.

The aim of this forum is to provide a resource hub for anyone to ask questions and receive answers for their technical woes. Our moderators will be there to provide the technical support. It also serves as a place for us to provide technical support to our tutorials that were published in the blog. I have already ported some of our popular articles over for further discussion. You can find them at:

Turn your Ubuntu Intrepid into Mac OS X

Turn your Ubuntu Hardy into Mac OS X

As an unregistered visitors, you can view any of the topics or threads, but if you want to post a problem, you’ll need to register a free MTE account. This account is integrated with the blog, which means you can use this account to post comment on the blog too.

Be sure to read the Forum FAQs and Rules. We want to provide a conducive environment for everyone to participate, and we certainly need your help in achieving that.

The forums itself is still far from perfect. I will be doing some tweaking here and there. If you see any odd behavior here and there, it’s probably me making some changes in the backend.

Also, we are always doing our best to improve the forums. If you have any constructive suggestion to improve the forums, feel free to contact me at forums-moderators [at] maketecheasier.com or contact me via the Contact form.

Have fun!

Take me to the forum now.

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