Simple:Press Forum Plugin for WordPress – Simply Brilliant

Forums and IRC are where I started, many moons ago in 1995, so I always have a spot in my heart for good, solid forum systems.  Simple Machines Forum (SMF) has been my favourite for many years, since it started in fact in 2003/2004, and I became a SMF developer in 2005.

However, my work changed and I started to work with WordPress more and more and would manually bridge (integrate) SMF to WordPress to marry the two applications together.

Then BBPress came along and allowed a very simple basic forum to be installed directly into WordPress using the WordPress system, and whilst I have used this countless times, I always felt that BBPress was lacking in the features and stability that SMF had.

Then I discovered Simple:Press and I have not looked back since!  It is a features rich forum system that plugs in directly through WordPress, sharing the same WordPress membership database and you end up with an incredibly powerful forum right within your WordPress install.

The Simple:Press features include:

• Fully integrated with WordPress user registrations and logins
• Creates ‘pretty/SEO friendly’ permalinks
• Underpinned by a powerful user and permission system
• Can create private forums
• Forums can be ‘Members Only’ or can allow for Guests
• Private Messaging system
• Admins can allow for post moderation (approval)
• Built in Search tool
• Fully customisable skins and icons
• Most rendering functions are ‘pluggable’
• Member Profile updating – users can change own passwords
• Choice of Editors (RTE, HTML, bbCODE)
• Options Signatures, Signature Image, Avatars, and Rankings
• A variety of Template Tags – recent posts etc
• Progammable Hooks for user extension
• Optional Spam Prevention tools
• Optional Cookies to track Guests and Members
• Fully Localised for language support
• Optional and various RSS feeds and email subscription to topics
• Various display options to suit your needs and theme
• An Admin  tool set to perform many tasks from within the forum itself
• Blog Posts and Forum Topics can be linked
• Support for the Democracy Polls plugin
• Support for the Gravatars 2 plugin
• Forum Statistics – including who is online
• Complete uninstall/removal option
• Support for the All In One SEO Pack Plugin (Browser title bar)
• View Admins New Post Queue from ALL views with ‘Quick Reply’
• Right-to-left language support in the TinyMCE editor
• Topic Status Tracking
• Custom Smileys
• RTE Toolbar Customisation
• Pre-registration Policy display option
• Post Ratings
• Add Custom Profile data items
• ‘Watched’ topics
• Multiple forum Admins
• Members List

and many more.

It is easy to install, easy to customise and with the private messaging system inbuilt it can turn your WordPress install into a community.

I have had the pleasure to use Simple:Press a lot just recently and I have to say, even I am finding myself saying…”SMF..who?” ;)