Thanks Jeff, just took the survey. Although not sure what if any difference it will make. The previous survey certainly didn't result in any real change.

Unfortunately, as with all open source projects, any criticism runs the risk of making the author of it sound like an ungrateful jerk. The truth is that without sincere feedback no such endeavors can ever hope to flourish. And yes, at times such feedback includes constructive criticism which may not be welcome by the dev team.

It is clear that bbPress has fallen way way behind other forum solutions. The developers have to be the first to recognize this and to rally the whole wordpress community behind them to remedy this. That requires them to listen to feedback (ie more than just a token survey done each year and then completely ignored immediately thereafter).

Users and the wider community can't take the lead unfortunately, they can and are willing to consult and collaborate. The process needs to start with those who have been given leadership roles by accepting the reality that a major change is needed and then having the humility to actually listen to users and be responsive to the community.