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I was able to create this robust setup using an off-the-shelf theme, the latest Wordpress, and a new forums plug-in in two hours flat: http://dobusinessinoregon.com/, and another where my rep has already started adding content: http://businessinthebayarea.com/:

Now the real work begins, customizing the templates, calls to action, the distribution of the feeds, the manual submission work, the regular posting and monitoring, the moderation of the forums, and the hardest part: getting people to participate.

The new WordPress has many of the coolest features we used to have to create with separate plug-ins already in widgets out-of-the-box: but installation and troubleshooting would still be difficult for non-developers if they did not have excellent aptitude and some knowledge of code and troubleshooting scripting installations.

Once everything is working though, these new features (the plug-in site for the Simple Forums is here: http://www.stuff.yellowswordfish.com/simple-forum/) make it much easier than it has been in the past: at least two hours of setup time is eliminated with the new Simple Forums plug-in, as apposed to using an integrated installation of BBPress like we have done in the past: (see http://seattlenetwork.net/)

This is the good, and bad thing about open-source software: it always gets better, always changes, has compatibility issues at times, and requires ongoing maintenance: but these new versions of WordPress and this new feature-rich set of plug-ins have cut down development time a lot, freeing my staff up for more ongoing off-site promotion, and more on-site customization.

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