Free bbPress Forums with Slug Based Permalinks

bbPress is free forum software from the makers of Wordpress. A new version was released that promises some new features and fixes that make the plain and simple forum software more powerful.

bbPress 0.8.2 was recently launched closely followed by bbpress 0.8.2.1 security release within 24 hours. A major new feature is Hierarchical Forums i.e. forums can now be grouped hierarchically (forums can have “children”). Another cool feature which SEO experts will like is the option to create “Slug” based permalinks.

So a previous url which looked like
http://example.com/topic/14/

with slug based permalinks will look like
http://example.com/topic/bbpress-rules/

And when you change the permalink structure, all your old links will still work! (check the upgrade instructions). That is a big SEO plus.

Plugins can now be activated and deactivated with a click from the bbPress’ admin panels, though all plugins now require a “plugin header” that includes at least the plugin’s name. Plugins whose file name begins with an underscore do not need to be activated!

Some small features are Moderators and Admins are considered “trusted” and will never have their posts marked as spam, Admins can change other user’s passwords and there is more faster database and many more.

Wordpress bloggers looking to integrate a basic forum (vbulletin and phpBB are much more advanced), might like its integration with wordpress blogs. Installation, plugins and themes feels so much like Wordpress…