It was announced yesterday that Health.com which is a WordPress.com VIP member now has a forum available which is powered by TalkPress.com. In fact, the TalkPress website itself now clearly explains what the service is all about.
Because of the nature of this program it is not open to the general public, it is intended for high-profile publishers, media companies, or startups that we have a good deal of confidence in.
Originally, I thought TalkPress would simply be a paid feature for WordPress.com users but I imagine the technical aspects of the system would not allow that to be feasible let alone affordable. So for those of you on WordPress.com who were looking forward to having a forum go along with your blog, looks like you’re out of luck.
What do you think about TalkPress being relegated to WordPress.com VIP members only?
It’s too bad that they couldn’t open it up to the average user. But if these high profile paid users means that they have more resources to devote to further improving bbPress, that would be great!
@JLeuze – Like Ian Stewart said on Twitter, I think this is the right way to go about it. I mean, if they opened up a forum hosting service to WordPress.com members or worst, the general public, I think their infrastructure would melt down or it would suck up money. So, I think this is a good way to start and perhaps somewhere down the line, the infrastructure will improve to the point where WordPress.com users will have a paid option to have a forum attached to their site.
@Jeffro – Yeah that’s a good point, if they can make VideoPress work well, they could probably offer TalkPress at a similar price point to WordPress.com users. I just hope they use what they learn and earn to make bbPress a real contender!