[dismas]

If you use vba's cmps for the main site, you could use the recent blogs module to pull info about the blogs onto the main page.

vBa also includes the ability to log into the forums from the main page since it uses the style of the forums. So you have the same header and footer templates being used. It makes the whole site look seamless. I really suggest that you take a look at the product descriptions as well as some of the sites that use vba's software.

And no, I haven't used wordpress.

Edit:forgot a link to their products: http://www.vbadvanced.com/products.php