@Andy Peatling -

BuddyPress is really aimed at the niche social networking market. Sports teams, newspaper sites, company and product sites, intranets. Building community around a specific topic or interest.

And that happens to be exactly the kind of site I'm building - a niche social networking site around a very specific demographic. For this purpose, BuddyPress is the perfect tool and framework. It allows the users a place to meet, get to know, and support one another: friends, groups, forums, activity streams, etc.