More functionality without plugins and options to change certain aesthetics would be, in my opinion, pretty routine for a forum codex.
Now I realize that these options are all viable in bbpress, however, not everyone has the time necessary to learn how to implement these things themselves. Many of these things I already have in my forums, but now without extensive research in addition to plugins designed to enable such desired functionality. The thing is, though, should I really need a plugin to allow for signatures or post count?
If you’re interested, this is a list I would recommend for bbpress to be more competitive out of the box and more user friendly:
Out-of-the-Box Recommendations:
Functionality:
- Ability to Rename bbpress specific vernacular (IE “Last Post” in place of “Freshness”)
- Posts Count & Join Date Under Username
- Ability to Change Default Titles & Permissions for Usernames
- Icons for Subcategories that help to differentiate between subcategories & also dictate if there are “new” or “unread” posts in certain categories
- “New” icons for new posts
- “Sticky” icons for stickied posts
- “Poll” icons for posts containing polls
- “Hot” icons for posts that are popular
- Sort Forum by Recently Updated, Most Replies, Most Viewed, Etc.
- Attachments
- Private Responses
- “Like” button
- Signatures
- Ability to “Quote” users
- Basic editor for responses including format help
- “Report” Option
Aesthetic:
- Different color names or title icons for easy recognition between staff & general members
- Option to change colors of backgrounds to differentiate between posts or headers and posts
- Format Categories vs SubCategories in Traditional Forum Style
I also completely understand this may not be within the parameters that the bbpress developers have in mind for this product. They may only be interested in providing the foundation for such things, though without these features, this product is not a feasible option for a comprehensive community forum project for a layman such as myself.