Why does the Codex not have these details available to the user?
Unfortunately good coders tend to be rubbish documenters ! I’m just a user of the software I wrote a fair amount of the codex as I was building my first bbpress forum two years ago, when the codex was open for all to contribute. Unfortunately spammers put pay to that, and now only certain people have access.
but does that not indicate a design flaw within bbPress itself?
The authors had given a way to switch the code off, and a flaw depends on how you define it. Many themes work perfectly well without the need to create a bbpress.php, so putting it in the plugin is a more logical area – maybe? Anyway not my cause to argue, I just use the software !
If I ever get the time, I would be more than willing to write up what each template file does within the codex.
Would be fantastic of you would, send it to me via my website on http://www.rewweb.co.uk and I’ll happily add it to help others, and credit you !
Glad you got fixed in the end !