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BuddyPress 1.5.3.1

January 10, 2012 in Community

Earlier today, we released BuddyPress 1.5.3, with a number of fixes related to WordPress 3.3+. Shortly after release, a number of users let us know that one of these fixes – related to users changing their passwords – had uncovered a more serious bug with the way settings are saved. BuddyPress 1.5.3.1, available immediately, fixes this bug.

One the one hand – boo to Boone for letting the bug through! On the other hand – many thanks to blindMoe, luccame, and johnjamesjacoby for their help isolating and fixing it in very short order.

BuddyPress.org Refresh

December 22, 2011 in Community, News

Today we’re exited to unveil a refresh to the BuddyPress.org site. It’s something we’ve been tinkering with for a while, and we think you’ll like some of the improvements we’ve made:

  1. Activity updates are turned off
    Over the course of using the previous design, there was always confusion whether to use the Support Forums or ping someone directly via their activity stream. The verdict is in, and the Support Forums won.
  2. Hidden Groups and Members Directories
    Since BuddyPress.org is used primarily to support the platform itself, we really wanted to show off everything it can do here. That proved to be more than we needed, so we’ve scaled it back a bit and hidden the links to the directories. They still exist, there’s just not really any reason to visit them anymore.
  3. Restyled Profile Pages
    We consolidated the user profile into the header area to better match the new WordPress.org profiles site. With the removal of the direct activity stream updates, we think this simplifies the whole profile browsing experience.
  4. Updated Plugins, Themes, and Showcase
    This is huge, and these areas have needed some attention for a while.
  5. Group Gravatar Changes
    In the past we’ve relied on Gravatar to serve up monsters for Plugin Groups. We’ve turned them off in most places honestly because it really didn’t make any sense; we’re using the primary plugin author’s Gravatar instead.
  6. Toolbar Integration
    We’ve updated BuddyPress.org to the latest versions of WordPress and BuddyPress to take advantage of the cool new toolbar introduced in WordPress 3.3.

A big thank you to everyone that’s been using BuddyPress.org so far. You’ve really helped us shape BuddyPress.org into something we’re happy and proud to be using. If you experience any weird issues with these new changes, please leave us some feedback and we’ll be sure to get things fixed.

BuddyPress 1.5.1

October 13, 2011 in Community

Come and get it! BuddyPress 1.5.1 is now available. This release fixes over 25 issues that have popped up since BuddyPress 1.5 “Lombardi” was rolled out in September.

BP 1.5.1 is a recommended upgrade for all sites currently running BuddyPress 1.5. Haven’t upgraded to BP 1.5 yet? Be sure to check out our 1.5 upgrade guide and some of the other resources suggested in the BuddyPress 1.5 release post.

As usual, this release couldn’t have happened without the fantastic BuddyPress community, valiantly manning (and womanning) our support forums and Trac. Special thanks to the following community members, whose code patches appear in BP 1.5.1: boonebgorges, djpaul, Grimbog, mind1, r-a-y, sushkov, techguytom, wdfee, wpmuguru.

Download BuddyPress 1.5.1 from WordPress Extend or BuddyPress.org.

BuddyPress 1.5 now available!

September 21, 2011 in Community, News

BuddyPress 1.5 “Lombardi” is here!

Version 1.5 is a major feature release for BuddyPress, encompassing hundreds of bug fixes, enhancements, and all-new features. BuddyPress 1.5 comes with a completely reworked Default theme, a brand-new installation and update wizard, integration with the WordPress navigation menus and Admin Bar, a rewritten interface for managing profile fields, and scores of smaller improvements. To see the complete list of BuddyPress 1.5′s fixes and features, check out the dedicated BuddyPress Codex 1.5 features and fixes page.

We’ve given BuddyPress 1.5 the codename “Lombardi”. The BuddyPress core development team is made up of pizza fanatics who thought it fitting to pay homage in this release to the first pizzeria in the United States. (As a bonus, two of our developers hail from the Badger State where the name “Lombardi” has a different but no less important connotation.)

Do you have an existing site that you want to upgrade to BuddyPress 1.5? We’ve worked our hardest to ensure that your upgrade will go off without a hitch. The most popular BuddyPress plugins have been updated for full BuddyPress 1.5 compatibility, and on standard installations most of your other plugins and themes will continue to work as well. There’s a page on the BuddyPress Codex devoted to the process of upgrading to BuddyPress 1.5 where you’ll find lots of helpful resources on making your upgrade as smooth as possible. Don’t forget that the Codex is a wiki – if you’ve got some words of wisdom to share with the community, don’t be afraid to jump in and edit (using your buddypress.org account)! As usual, you’re encouraged to run upgrades in test environments before upgrading your live site.

If you’ve never used BuddyPress before, there’s never been a better time to try it out. BuddyPress 1.5 is the most secure and stable version to date.

If you experience problems with your BP 1.5 installation or upgrade, the BuddyPress community has assembled a collection of resources for you. In addition to the fixes and features and upgrade pages, there are many other tutorials and guides available from the Codex home page. buddypress.org is also the home of a vibrant set of support and discussion forums where you can read, ask, and answer questions about 1.5 and BuddyPress in general. And if you find bugs in BuddyPress itself, our development community’s home is http://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org.

BuddyPress 1.5 is the result of thousands of hours of work by hundreds of community members, in the form of patches, design, and testing. The following folks contributed patches that ended up in the release: AaronCampbell, AD7six, aesqe, andrewteg, apeatling, Backie, balbert, BB_Othella, bizybee, boonebgorges, bowromir, calvin_42, chestnut_jp, cnorris23, davidtcarson, dchase, ddean, deadpan110, defunctlife, delayedinsanity, denis.ogun, Dennissmolek, dgwatkins, enderandrew, for, francescolaffi, Ghost_ufa, gian-ava, greuben, gzeidan, Harry, hnla, intimez, ipstenu, j.conti, jefferai, jessica120, jfarthing84, johnjamesjacoby, johnpbloch, jond, Jonnyauk, karmatosed, kunalb, LanceHudson, lpryor, luccame, lucianop, lunabyte, mareck, mdawaffe, mercime, mikekennedy, modemlooper, mrmaz, nacin, nerrad, nuprn1, Paul Gibbs, PedroMiguel, ptahdunbar, r-a-y, rebootnow, sboisvert, sbrajesh, SergeyBiryukov, slaFFik, slambert, smurkas, sorich87, stas, sushkov, swinton, to, TobiasBg, travel-junkie, wpmuguru.

Many thanks to them and to everyone who helped test during the entire 1.5 development cycle. Without the contributions of this awesome community, BuddyPress simply would not be possible.

Now that that’s out of the way, order yourself a pizza and download BuddyPress 1.5 today!

BuddyPress 1.5 Release Candidate 1 (and BuddyPress 1.2.10!)

September 11, 2011 in Community

Over the past few weeks, we’ve released three – count ‘em, three! – beta versions of BuddyPress 1.5. During that time, we’ve gotten some great feedback, and some great patches, from our user and developer community. With a clear mind (and a clear milestone), today we are releasing the BuddyPress 1.5 Release Candidate.

The “release candidate” label means that we think that the current codebase is rock solid, and this final stage in the release cycle gives users one more chance to find any remaining kinks before the stable release.

We’d like this RC period to be short – we’re as anxious for the 1.5 release as you are! – so please give the RC a go in your test environments, and try the latest code in a live testbed at testbp.org. As usual, we recommend that you don’t run pre-release code in mission-critical production environments.

You can download BuddyPress 1.5 RC 1 today, from the bottom of our Trac page.

In addition (it’s been quite a weekend): available immediately is BuddyPress 1.2.10. This minor update includes an important security fix, as well as fixes for a few deprecated function calls. It’s a recommended update for all BuddyPress installations. Upgrade through your WordPress Dashboard, or download BuddyPress 1.2.10 from WordPress Extend or BuddyPress.org.

Help test BuddyPress 1.5

September 4, 2011 in Community

With BuddyPress 1.5 due any day now, we’d like to invite you to take the next major release for a test drive. If you’d like to help us out or even if you’re just curious what’s coming in 1.5, check out the official test site at testbp.org. It’s always running the latest versions of BuddyPress and bbPress, has almost 30,000 members, and is the best way to help us make sure everything is ready for release while letting you be safely behind the driver’s seat.

As a general reminder, we’re keeping running list of API changes for 1.5 in our codex at codex.buddypress.org.

We are putting the finishing touches on the forums component now, and are aiming to release 1.5 as soon as this week. Keep an eye out!

Site Maintenance – Week of July 4, 2011

July 6, 2011 in Community

We’ll be doing some maintenance to BuddyPress.org this week, so don’t be alarmed if a few things aren’t working or go missing for a little while. We’ll try to make it as painless as possible, and we promise it will be worth it in the end. :)

Scheduled Maintenance – April 4

April 1, 2011 in Community

During the day of Monday, April 4, we will be taking BuddyPress.org down to perform some routine maintenance. This will effect profiles.wordpress.org as well. We’re not doing anything fancy yet, just updating some of the inner workings to pave the way for future updates and enhancements.

BuddyPress Support; introducing Boone and hnla

July 10, 2010 in Community

We’re proud to announce that Boone Gorges and hnla have joined the BuddyPress Support team. Their knowledge of BuddyPress, site deployment, theme design and plugin development complements the existing team and will expand the range of topics we are able to help you with.

Our support team, which also consists of Jeff Sayre, Paul Gibbs and Ray, frequently traffic the forums, help resolve problems, and share their advice and best practices. We’re all you’ve got, and we’re not so bad after we’ve had our coffee.

As a general reminder, if you have a support question please try to provide the information detailed in this post; it really does help us help you.

Activity breeds activity

July 8, 2010 in Community

Over the past few weeks we’ve released 3 bug fix versions of BuddyPress; more than we’ve released for the entire beginning of the year. What I noticed is that when development was slow, so were our support forums and so was the general buzz about the project. Since we’ve started patching bugs and cranking out bug fix releases again, things are picking back up which totally rocks.

I think this is a great example of how activity breeds activity, and it reminded me that social networks and niche communities are as susceptible to becoming stagnant as normal WordPress blogs can be. Most of us have probably had a great idea for a website, spent the $10 on the domain name, installed WordPress, made a fancy theme, posted 3 updates and then for whatever reason, just lost interest in it.

The same thing is totally possible with your social network, and when development slowed down here on the BuddyPress project in the past few months, the community felt that impact and over time there was some concern about what the future of BuddyPress was going to be.

Let me tell you that “the state of the word is strong.” – MM

We’ve recently added some really fancy functionality to BuddyPress.org that integrates any plugin in the WordPress repository that is tagged ‘buddypress’ and gives it a public discussion group. It passes over a plugins’ information like ratings and statistics, gives it its own dedicated support forum where you can assign administrators and moderators, and comes with a built in donate link so people can drop a few bucks in your pocket to show their appreciation. If you’re a plugin author, be sure to check it out!

In the coming months we have a lot of exciting things planned that will revitalize the BuddyPress.org website and help solidify BuddyPress as the ultimate social networking solution for your WordPress powered site. We’re looking at adding more core contributors, more forum moderators, redesigning the site with a completely custom template, improving the codex, and diving head first into some new features for 1.3.

For everyone that was worried about BuddyPress, you can breathe a sigh of relief. For everyone else, thanks for hanging out and staying interested while things were slow. We’re full steam ahead and you can count on seeing much more activity in our community in the coming weeks!