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Naked vs. Dressed Buddypress

J.H. Snider — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 19:31:02 +0000

In recent months the number of premium Buddypress themes has greatly expanded (e.g., see http://premium.wpmudev.org, http://www.woothemes.com, and http://buddydress.com). This turns naked Buddypress into a much more polished, integrated, and good looking platform–but only if you’re willing to spend extra money.

In the feature wars, however, Drupal Commons still appears to have the edge (see Sarah Gooding’s review, “Open Source Social Networking Matchup: BuddyPress vs. Drupal Commons” at http://wpmu.org/open-source-social-networking-matchup-buddypress-vs-drupal-commons). It seems to me that, in general, the WordPress platform is both evolving at a faster rate than the Drupal platform and gaining market share. But in the social platform space, the tables are reversed. Perhaps the premium Buddypress theme developers with a high level of plugin integration, notably wpmudev.org, are best positioned to stem the tide. But if Buddypress doesn’t pick up its rate of innovation, that may not be enough.

Re: Buddypress vs. Drupal Commons

Sarah Gooding — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 18:50:49 +0000

I recently did a quick writeup comparing BuddyPress and Drupal Commons – hope some people find this helpful when selecting between the two: http://wpmu.org/open-source-social-networking-matchup-buddypress-vs-drupal-commons/

Migrate from drupal 6.x to wordpress 3.x & buddypress 1.2.x

Ekine — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 18:06:57 +0000

Does anybody know the needed mysql queries in order to migrate from drupal 6.x to wordpress 3.x & buddypress 1.2x?

Re: Buddypress vs. Drupal Commons

Pisanojm — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 04:23:02 +0000

This is the one is gaining the most interest from me right now as an educator and teacher of educators: http://scholar.harvard.edu/
Known as “OpenScholar”. This could be a BuddyPress Killer for Educators… The integration of ScholarPress and and BuddyPress has serious merit as well: http://wpmu.org/daily-tip-interested-in-buddypress-and-scholarpress-integration-get-news-on-the-latest-projects/

I may be trying a version of OpenScholar very soon for a small research group I’m associated with. However, I’m hoping to try a hybrid-integration of ScholarPress/BuddyPress in the near future as well…. These types of software/Web 2.0 solutions are just now being tapped by progressive technology using educators… It will be interesting to see where “we” stand with these one year from now.

Re: Buddypress vs. Drupal Commons

J.H. Snider — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 04:14:12 +0000

On August 5, 2010 Acquia released Drupal Commons. So far, the reviews appear mixed. The product appears to be targeted to the business enterprise. Moreover, out-of-the-gate it appears to have some significant limitations, making it for now a niche community building application. My guess is that Buddypress, based on the WordPress platform, still has an edge in user friendliness, which is important for many markets without strong IT staff support. Here are a few useful websites.

Acquia Drupal Commons website:
http://acquia.com/products-services/drupal-commons

Reviews:
1) Dana Blankenhorn & Paula Rooney, “Drupal Commons targets the enterprise,” ZDNet, http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/drupal-commons-targets-the-enterprise/7039
2) Moshe Weitzman, “Quick peek into Drupal Commons,” Cyrve, http://cyrve.com/commons
3) Jim Storer, “Drupal Commons – Open Source Social Business?” The Community Roundtable, http://community-roundtable.com/2010/08/drupal-commons-open-source-social-business/
4) Dee-Ann Leblanc, “Drupal Commons Social Business Software Released,” CMSwire, http://www.cmswire.com/cms/web-cms/drupal-commons-social-business-software-released-008257.php

Re: Buddypress vs. Ning

John David Smith — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 19:27:41 +0000

Basically NIng has a “pull” model of interaction. Only designated people in a group can push announcements to the whole group. It looks like BuddyPress does allow everyone who is a member of a group to post something so that everyone who is subscribed will receive an announcement. (may be part of an extension, but it seems like an essential one that most grouops would not want to do without.

Re: Buddypress vs. Buddypress with proprietary extensions

J.H. Snider — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 17:25:02 +0000

I think the open source movement is largely based on the assumption that there is a free lunch. Most developers to core open source code don’t expect to be paid for their work and most users of open source code don’t expect to pay for use of the code itself. To the extent that useful WordPress/Buddypress themes and plugins become proprietary, I think there should be some concern, partly because it undercuts the argument for open source software. Lastly, I believe that open, public discussion of a platform’s strengths and weaknesses is the best way to move an open source platform forward.

Re: Buddypress vs. Buddypress with proprietary extensions

Mark — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 03:41:33 +0000

Seems to me that you’re subtly promoting paid services. I have no problem at all with paid services. just leary of the way you’re doing this right here in the BP forums. It might be better for you to write about all this “in your own living room” – e.g. your blog – since this really isn’t a place to compare platforms and pricing.

That said, what everyone gets with BuddyPress is TOTAL CONTROL. You can’t put a price on that because it is priceless.

For those that want a pro social networking, you’re gonna have to either spend money or spend time (assuming you have the skillsets)

There’s no such thing as as free lunch. If you think there is – then you’re lunch.

Buddypress vs. Buddypress with proprietary extensions

J.H. Snider — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 02:35:00 +0000

When the cost of sophisticated Buddypress themes is factored in, the cost of commercial community building websites seems much more competitive or even a bargain. This doesn’t mean there aren’t other reasons to use the WordPress/Buddypress platform. But cost–as in “free” or even “low cost”–may not currently be sound grounds for a choice. Of course, this could change if free Buddypress themes and plugins become more sophisticated and bug-free. But those currently looking for a powerful, good-looking multiuser WordPress (often supplemented by Buddypress) solution may be increasingly moving to proprietary solutions, which can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars per year just to subscribe to a theme.

Examples (may not yet support Buddpress):
Kapost: http://kapost.com/plans-pricing/. Its themes range from $29/month for up to 60 contributors, $79/month for up to 200 60 contributors, to $289/month for up to 500 60 contributors.
Buddydress: http://buddydress.com/pricing/. Its price for themes is $49 for the first month and then $9 for each month thereafter.
Woothemes: http://www.woothemes.com/pricing/. $15/month for standard package, more for developers.

Pros:
Good looks with lots of useful features in (presumably, I haven’t tried them) a bug-free package

Cons:
May be more expensive than proprietary platforms such as Ning

Re: Buddypress vs. Drupal Commons

J.H. Snider — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 03:56:18 +0000

Jay,

Thanks for the additional info / corrections.

It’s sometimes hard for me to keep track of all the various definitions of open and free. My impression from what you’ve said is that Drupal Commons is open and free to the same degree as Buddypress. It just has additional commercial options.

–Jim