Skip to:
Content
Pages
Categories
Search
Top
Bottom

P2: The New Prologue – a perfect default theme for BuddyPress

  • Avatar of Donnacha
    Donnacha
    Participant

    @donnacha

    4 years, 3 months ago

    Heather at Automattic has announced the release of P2: The New Prologue, a WordPress.com theme that, building upon last year’s release of the Prologue theme, presents the user’s blog in a form similar to Twitter, but without Twitter limits such as 240 characters.

    My initial impression is that this heavily ajaxified format would encourage the blog owner to post more frequently and also encourage visitors to leave more comments. This would be a good default theme to apply to users’ blogs when they first sign up because it would get them going and would add to the overall stream of activity through the BuddyPress site.

    Heather says that a self-hosted WordPress version will appear in the Themes Directory over the coming week.

    Does anyone else agree that this theme would be a good match for BuddyPress and should, perhaps, be considered as the default theme for users’ blogs?

    Heather’s announcement:

    P2: The New Prologue – http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/p2-the-new-prologue/

    Last year around this time, we introduced Prologue, a short-form blog theme that works like Twitter for a group. This year we bring you P2, the cooler, faster, sleeker, 2009 version of Prologue:

    Here’s what’s new:

    In-line editing for posts and comments.

    Tag suggestion.

    Collapsible comments.

    Real-time notifications when a new comment or update is posted. (If you have a Mac, you know what we mean when we say it’s Growl-like.)

    Keyboard shortcuts: c to compose a new post; j to go to the next item; k to go to the previous item; r to reply; e to edit; o to show and hide comments; t to go to the top; esc to cancel.

    Helvetica Neue for you modern font lovers.

    Plus more to come! Keep an eye on the news blog for updates.

    Just like other themes, you can find Prologue under Appearance > Themes in your dashboard. Those who are into the self-hosted version of WordPress can keep an eye out for P2 in the Themes Directory in the coming week.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • Avatar of John James Jacoby
    John James Jacoby
    Keymaster

    @johnjamesjacoby

    4 years, 3 months ago

    I think this using this as the default theme might confuse the purpose of the wire.

    It’s a good idea to have something similar to this, but I think new users would relate more to a photo gallery type of layout than a twitter layout. Anyone familiar with Twitter doesn’t need help becoming comfortable with what’s going on.

    Again, just my opinion.

    Avatar of Donnacha
    Donnacha
    Participant

    @donnacha

    4 years, 3 months ago

    @jjj

    Good points although I still think that if a user actually uses their blog, they will be aware of the difference between that and their wire. I mean, you have to consciously dip down into your blog, you are clearly no longer in the profile space.

    “Anyone familiar with Twitter doesn’t need help becoming comfortable with what’s going on.”

    Perhaps the comparison with Twitter is a little misleading, insofar as the visitor does not see the Twitter-style box, it is more a “QuickPress on steroids” for the blog owner.

    It is not so much a question of making the blog owner comfortable, rather it is about that box sitting there as a call to action, an inducement to “Just Do It”. We all need a little encouragement sometimes – not having to dive into the dashboard to post will inevitably result in more posts.

    “I think new users would relate more to a photo gallery type of layout than a twitter layout.”

    Photo gallery layouts have the disadvantage of looking like a deflated balloon until the user actually uploads some photos. I suspect that, six months down the road, we are all going to be struggling with the problem of encouraging users to even make their first post, nevermind getting them to upload photos.

    If getting people to use their blogs is going to be the problem, P2 could be the answer.

    Avatar of Jason Pelker
    Jason Pelker
    Participant

    @jpelker

    3 years, 11 months ago

    I completely agree with Donnacha.

    To integrate these two products would make a lot more sense than the products existing separately. P2 has little public use at the present and BuddyPress doesn’t encourage participation outside of forums. The current generation of BuddyPress themes do not do the technology justice, either.

    I firmly believe mingling the two extensions together will lead to a bigger and brighter future for the both.

    The question is, now, how do we go about coding these two together? I’m willing to work on this, but I’d really like a volunteer to partner with me for when I get stumped.

    Avatar of Gpo1
    gpo1
    Participant

    @gpo1

    3 years, 11 months ago

    Integrating P2 as a member theme is better cos it would seem like the New facebook Theme with a twitter feel if done using one column like the buddypress.org site!

    Avatar of Jason Pelker
    Jason Pelker
    Participant

    @jpelker

    3 years, 11 months ago

    The Post Haste WP plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/posthaste/ could replicate some of the functionality of P2, and it has the advantage of theme portability.

    It took me weeks to find it, but I think it’s pretty great, especially for buddypress themes.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

Topic Info

Topic Tags