Automattic launches talkpress.com

I was just working on re-launching my forum in preparation of the new theme I am going to release sometime this week. And while in the bbPress admin section I noticed some spammers had registered, a little over two hundred fifty to be exact.

While I was looking at the bbPress site, I came across this article: TalkPress and bbPress. It talked about a new VIP service that Automattic is working on for forum integrations, like WordPress.com.

So what might this mean? Well I think after many verbal attacks to Matt Mullenweg by many attendees of the last few WordCamp’s, the first official stable release of bbPress could be close to launch!

TalkPress itself is not open for public signup at this stage. Currently we are bringing on a few “VIP” partners so that we can run-in the platform in a more controlled way. The pioneers on the service are Time Inc. who are incorporating a TalkPress forum into their Health.com website. I’m happy to report back to the bbPress community that TalkPress (and thus bbPress) withstood their rigorous security testing with flying colours. This testing incorporated, amongst other things, comprehensive XSS and SQL injection tests.

As for bbPress, some movement has occurred in the priorities leading up to a final 1.0 release. Some of the more fundamental changes that were planned are being put on the back-burner so that these aims can be achieved:

1. Full compatability with both WordPress 2.7 and 2.8
2. Easier integration steps for WordPress MU
3. Retaining compatibility with the existing catalogue of current plugins

Sam Bauers