I recently posted a rambling version of instructions about how to install BuddyPress 1.1.3 on FatCow:

Installing BuddyPress on a Webhost « Disparate.

BuddyPress 1.2 was just released, with some neat new features including the ability to run on a standard (non-WPµ) version of WordPress and a new way to handle templates. They now have three-step instructions on how to install BuddyPress. Here’s my somewhat more verbose take (but still reasonably straightforward and concise). A few things are FatCow-specific but everything should be easy to adapt for any decent webhost. (In fact, it’d likely be easier elsewhere.)

1. Create database in FatCow’s Manage MySQL
2. Download WP 2.9.2 from the download page.
3. Uncompress WP  using FatCow’s Archive Gateway
4. Rename “wordpress” to <name> (not necessary, but useful, I find; “community” or “commons” would make sense for <name>)
5. Go to <full domain>/<name> (say, “example.com/commons” if you used “commons” for <name> and your domain were “example.com”)
6. Click “Create a Configuration file”
7. Click “Let’s Go”
8. Enter database information from database created in MySQL
9. Change “localhost” to “<username>.fatcowmysql.com” (where <username> is your FatCow username)
10. Click “Submit”
11. Click “Run the Install”
12. Fill in blog title and email, decide on crawling
13. Click on “Install WordPress”
14. Copy generated password
15. Enter login details
16. Click “Log In”
17. Click “Yes, Take me to my profile page”
18. Add “New password” (twice)
19. Click “Update Profile”
20. Click “Plugins”
21. Click “Add New”
22. In the searchbox, type “BuddyPress”
23. Find BuddyPress 1.2 (created by “The BuddyPress Community”)
24. Click “Install”
25. Click “Install Now”
26. Click “Activate Plugin”
27. Click “update your permalink structure”
28. Choose an option (say, “Day and Name”)
29. Click “Save Changes”
30. Click “Appearance”
31. Click “Activate” under BuddyPress default

You now have a full BuddyPress installation. “Social Networking in a Box”

You can do a number of things, now. Including visiting your BuddyPress installation by clicking on the “Visit Site” link at the top of the page.

But there are several options in BuddyPress which should probably be set if you want to do anything with the site. For instance, you can setup forums through the bbPress installation which is included in BuddyPress. So, if you’re still in the WordPress dashboard, you can do the following:

1. Click “BuddyPress”
2. Click “Forum Setup”
3. Click “Set up a new bbPress installation”
4. Click “Complete Installation”

This way, any time you create a new group, you’ll be able to add a forum to it. To do so:

1. Click “Visit Site”
2. Click “Groups”
3. Click “Create a Group”
4. Fill in the group name and description.
5. Click “Create Group and Continue”
6. Select whether or not you want to enable the discussion forum, choose the privacy options, and click “Next Step”
7. Choose an avatar (or leave the default one) and click “Next Step”
8. Click “Finish”

You now have a fully functioning group, with discussion forum.

There’s a lot of things you can now do, including all sorts of neat plugins, change the theme, etc. But this installation is fully functional and fun. So I’d encourage you to play with it, especially if you already have a group of users. The way BuddyPress is set up, you can do all sorts of things on the site itself. So you can click “Visit Site” and start creating profiles, groups, etc.

One thing with the BuddyPress Default Theme, though, is that it doesn’t make it obvious how you can come back to the Dashboard. You can do so by going to “<full domain>/<name>/wp-admin/” (adding “/wp-admin/” to your BuddyPress address). Another way, which is less obvious, but also works is to go to a blog comment (there’s one added by defaul) and click on “Edit.”