[Derek]

@DarrenMooney
Thanks for your post! I was really getting frustrated with the forums setup, but your post helped. Now my only concern is the forum posts etc. showing up in my activity stream. Right now they aren’t. Is anyone else experiencing this and is there a work around?

[Derek]

The single most import feature is that events have their own title structure. Previous event plugins have used the groups code as their base but the problem with that is that events don’t get titled in a very seo friendly way (if at all) AND often link directly back to the main blog’s latest post. This is an SEO killer Also if events could be included in the WP tagging structure that too would help. If I had to add one more feature it would be the addition of an rss feed.

[Derek]

It only works for me with everything else disabled. I believe it is indeed broken

[Derek]

Does anyone have a fully functioning version of this?

[Derek]

I am not able to contribute to the code or programming aspect of this discussion but i can and have tested as many things as I could. I am a user of the BuddyPress software and have been for a while now, where do we (users) fit in this puzzle? I would be willing to contribute some $$ if that would help in any way.

I have to add that at this point it would be awesome to keep underlying framework flexible and constant long enough so that each new release builds not breaks the previous one. That might not be sexy or exciting but it sure helps when running a site with many users to have it be functional at all times.

+1 on KISS

[Derek]

This is an interesting topic… If i had to answer the topic I would say YES! Since it’s very inception BP has continually shed plugin and theme developers. With all do respect to Andy, the software development has continually managed to break many useful plugins and themes forcing people to either stay or go with the project. I think it has been demoralizing for many developers and adopters like myself to worry about the “break” factor when upgrading. I know I am still using 1.1.3 and will most likely be there for a while if not permanently because there are just no good substitutes for many of the plugins I use. It’s good to be positive but at this point there has to be a good hard evaluation of the project and it’s progress.

[Derek]

I am pretty resigned to the fact that i am not going to be upgrading my BP sites any time soon if ever. I am really disappointed by this because until 1.2 things were going great with the platform. That would not be so bad except for the fact that the invite system on BP events never really worked so many of my users are just not using the events section at all which was a major hub of activity on my former Ning based sites. On that note I have to be honest and admit that i have told many soon to be Ex Ning folks that if Events functions are important to their site they will need to look elsewhere because at this time BuddyPress is not a good solution for them.

Yes i have looked at the “Eventpress” solution that is being worked on but unfortunately it uses the dDshboard to create and mange events which is entirely the wrong track IMHO. Unless someone is higher than a Subscriber to your site they really should never see the dashboard.

[Derek]

i would have to painfully agree that there are some serious usability issues that have popped up in the latest versions of BP. I think @finni3 hit the nail on the head that the changes since 1.1.X do not seem to have made sense in terms of ease of use or accessibility. What i am afraid is happening is that the entire project is/had become too much a programmer’s project and things like optimization have taken precedent over usability. This has been my number one fear all along that UI concepts (like the Wire)would get tossed aside to accommodate back-end efficiency. I (for one) am for slowing down the release cycle at this point and let’s get some more user centric testing in place BEFORE major version releases.

[Derek]

I am too however it will be August 23 at least before we see anything from GSOC. The problem is many of us using BP Events are still forced to use 1.1.3 so depending on were WP and BP are this is going to be one heck of a tricky upgrade. I am still using MU 2.8.6 because that was the last version of MU to play nice with Events. i am not looking forward to upgrading from where i am at now because I just know something will be broken or what not.

[Derek]

I have tried these and the problem with them is that they incorporate the admin dashboard to create events. If only the admin is creating events that’s fine but if you have users who need to create events the setup is way too confusing for them. In addition you would have to give everyone of the users who wanted to create events contributor or higher access. These are just not really BuddyPress friendly they need to work just like the other functions like groups or forums.

[Derek]

Somebody? Anybody? Come on guys/ gals this really stinks! If I knew PHP I would do it myself but I am just a BuddyPress user… Somebody has to know how to get this working?

[Derek]

I am taking another look at SocialEngine. It’s a more expensive solution for sure but it has a complete feature set. I will wait and see what their new release (V4) looks like.

http://www.socialengine.net

[Derek]

@Mike_Pratt I have been here as long as you have so you know that I am a fan of BuddyPress, however I cannot honestly say that my sites have not suffered due to some of the missing features that were standard on NIng. I had a ton of members that used the events system a lot and that was really one of the main hubs of activity on my sites. Let’s not be total fanboys here, this is a serious hole in the BuddyPress feature set. I think that in lieu of all the people looking to leave Ning that BuddyPress has to be on par with the basic community features offered on other platforms to snag those people who like I did abandoned that closed platform.

Profiles
Blog/Blogs
Groups
Forums
Events

These are ALL base features on any of the social networking software out there. I am willing to pay for plugins, Hell i bit the bullet and joined WPMU Dev for a few months last year and paid for (at that point) some of the few really good BuddyPress themes they had. I am not a deadbeat by any means, I will pay for a good working solution.

…I’m sorry for ranting. We need, Events bottom line.

[Derek]

I cannot express how frustrating this waiting has been. I just don’t know if BuddyPress is going to suit my needs moving into the future. Which is a bummer because there is so much potential here. I guess I will just stick with my 1.1.3 sites until I can move to another platform… Again. Uggh!

[Derek]

Update. OK after testing BP Events out there are a couple bugs. The avatar cropping does not work. There is no menu tab added. It did post messages to the activity stream though. This is still such good news though, forward progress!!!

[Derek]

WHOO HOOO!!!! Thank you! thank you! Thank you!!! Testing right now! BTW Did I say THANK YOU!!!!!!

[Derek]

Hello I just thought this one deserved a bump… Any news on this?

[Derek]

Well it’s hard for me not to be a little smug about this Ning stuff. I moved 2 of my Ning networks over to BP with cut and paste technology and in the process have lost most of my members. However it forced me to concentrate more on the content side of my site and not the whiz bang features and I needed to do that. Ning was and is a joke and people who thought they were gonna be able to stay and suck off the Tet of Ning for free were sadly misguided.

This is a great opportunity for the user base of BuddyPress to grow but to do so there HAS to be some real discussion and debate about CORE functionality. If we are to scoop up some of those disgruntled former Ning Network Creators then the base feature set should be comparable with what they could get with Ning.

[Derek]

One word of caution using Facebook and Twitter to promote your page. Make sure you have some sort of related posts or links to other content on your site very prominently displayed or else your bounce rate will be off the charts! People will click and sample, but to hook them you will have to be a bit more clever. Making some content hidden is a good idea but it has a tremendous downsides in terms of SEO.

The Facebook/Twitter connect options are vital for growth because as previously stated no one wants to sign up for yet another website.

[Derek]

@pc w3riter I am “being patient” but that doesn’t mean it’s not frustrating. I have said time and again in these very forums that I have total respect for Erwin and his work. I have even told him as much on more than one occasion. I have even suggested the features I would find most useful to others looking to create their own plugins. Excuse me but if you actually read my comment it is framed around CORE BuddyPress functions. I believe “events” is worthy of consideration to Core function just like others believe a picture album is too. That’s the point I am trying to make.

[Derek]

I like Erwin’s work but it is getting frustrating waiting for this ONE plugin before I can upgrade my sites. It’s just too important a function for me not to have it for my sites. I will stand by my contention that Events is easily just as important community building as Groups and should seriously be considered a core feature of BuddyPress. There have been way too many posts about the need for this functionality that it’s a shame it’s being ignored. At this point there should either be multiple Events plugins OR it should be core.

As always my two cents.

[Derek]

For any events plugin there needs to be a few standard features.

1. Custom avatar for event

2. Embeddable maps

3. upcoming events widget

4. An invitation and RSVP system

5. An automatic purging and deletion schedule.

6. I would add an upcoming events rss feed

[Derek]

Erwin it’s all good man! I think it’s a testament to the quality of your work that your plugin is so widely used. I will say again this feature is essential component of a community site and if we all depended on this feature perhaps adding it to BuddyPress core should be discussed at some point. Me personally I think it’s more important the a photo album. Just my 2 cents

[Derek]

@Mike Pratt and all I am so jazzed that you heard from Erwin! Whoo hoo! Like I said this is such an essential function of any community site! Way much more than say a photo gallery. In fact it would be awesome if this could be integrated into the core. Just my 2 cents.

[Derek]

I have to second this… the BP-events plugin works very well so if someone wants to fork it that would be better than a whole new solution. I was beginning to resign myself to the fact that I would be stuck with 1.1.3. Again if Erwin doesn’t post a new plug-in soon please someone fork it so all of us with existing BP Events (data tables etc.) don’t have to start from scratch. One of my communities has over 100 events and i would hat to lose the SEO for these.

If someone does work on this please, please, please add an rss feed for upcoming events.