Need suggestions to turn a WP blog into a community.

[Ryder911]

Hi,

I have been running my WP site primarily as a informational blog about addiction help, but now, if possible, I’d like to turn it into an actual community. Some of the features I’m considering adding are:

1. A searchable database directory of treatment centers.
My thoughts are that this would be a pretty easy script to build in PHP. However, it would be great if there also was a way to provide the different treatment centers listed in the directory with their own individual login pages as well so they could then update their own data, photos, etc… Is there such a plugin available? If not, I suppose it would be possible to build a form page for data submission.

2. A user forum.
If anyone has a suggestion for a specific forum plugin, please let me know. I am also concerned about getting bogged down with having to manually remove comment spam and the need for excessive moderating. If anyone is actively running a WP based forum, please let me know your thoughts about the actual work involved.

3. A Q&A help section that would allow a guest expert to answer visitor submitted questions.
It sounds fairly straightforward. Users submit anonymous questions and there is a section where the expert answers them. Any thoughts on how to best accomplish this? Maybe in the forum itself?

4. I’d like to invite experts to guest blog.
I know WP has this feature built into it, but if there are any plugins that make it easier to manage the process, please let me know.

I’d also love to hear your suggestions for additional features if I haven’t already mentioned them.

Thanks.

Ryder