For the longest time I've tried to fit every WordPress site into my tiered network instance. I don't want to keep multiple repositories for different configurations, so I've endeavoured to pile them all up here (where this blog lives).
Recently I stumbled upon Commons In A Box, and it changed my mind. I really like the plugins it installs, I had no idea that BuddyPress had gotten some of those features in additional plugins, in part because not all of them are in the official repo. CBox itself doesn't really appeal to me, though I am glad it exists. While I can't get it installed properly, that it is based in an academic org means that they will support their common use case, and that appeals to me. It is the closest thing I've seen to a WordPress "distro", and I'd like to see more.
I am going to do some more testing, to make sure all my expectations are met, but if it works the way I think it does, I will be rolling out a few new sites in the coming months, based on ideas I've had for years now. This is exciting stuff, and I will documenting it heavily (one of my ideas is to finally get a site up for socially documenting the webcraft I do). Fun! ^_^