This is the challenge with open source and most plugins. This is also why many people choose not to release the plugins they write. Most people totally appreciate the hard work, the lack of compensation and the endless “how do I’s?”
But invariably, there’s some impatient someone who thinks the developers world should revolve around their needs (whether they’re willing to pay or not) and that spoils it for everyone.
I do think it courteous that those who release plugins let us know their plans. They don’t owe us, but I think it’s courteous. Of course, plans change and given that free plugins are not often the priority, plans will change often. The sooner most realize that, probably the more plugins they’ll write themselves and the more people will be willing to release what they’ve already written.
I’m glad Andy and crew are getting paid now, but this all started as a free donation and I am extremely appreciative of that. Every bit of code here is testament to the extreme generosity of this community in a “me-first” world.
It would seem possible to have forums separate from groups, but have the group be able to create a “category” of forum posts that could be displayed within the group and separately. Not sure if bbPress supports this, but when I messed around with PHPBB it would. Simply about filtering and display.
Frankly, that’s what I thought was in BP until I did some digging.
Thanks for the response. After digging a bit in the bp core code, I can see the similarities/differences with the component. I’ll play around with making the component more like the groups component (best fits my needs) and see if that works.
There seems to be a consistent structure to each of the BP components. It would be good if someone banged out a one-pager that explains that structure and how it works to generate/display content. I’m sure someone else out there has figured it out (that’s you plugin developers) who could enlighten us noobs.
This a problem of target market in my opinion. Themes can readily be seen and demoed by end users (clients). They are pretty straightforward in what they offer (from a client point-of-view) and they arguably “complete” the website or at least for its base. As the client (I’m not a developer), it’s easier to understand the value proposition of a theme and its role of “completing” the site. I think that’s inaccurate in reality, but I could easily see clients operating that way.
Plugins are clearly components and as a client, you could see components as a way to nickle and dime away all my money. I could spend days (and have) combing the repository and if it was even mostly premium plugins, I would quickly be overwhelmed with the potential cost.
For me personally, because I’m developing my own site, I see both themes and plugins as TIME. For that reason, I’ll pay for either based on the savings of time that they represent. That will differ by plugin/theme, but also by the importance in my project and needed customization time. The problem with charging developers is these are the same people that are contributing as well. They are giving as well as taking.
I don’t know how to solve this conundrum, but I don’t mind the premium structures that have a different rate for developers and end users. I think that’s a start. But, if you charge for a plugin, make sure it’s likely the base or a significant function for a site (and its end user) before doing more than donations (IMHO).
I’ve donated or will donate to every plugin that I use as an end user, but that donation will be influenced by time saved.
OK, now I know what’s possible. Given the NUMEROUS topics on this issue, it seems there is sufficient demand for the capability/convenience of an easy way to set this up. Probably plugin territory, someone who knows bbpress well could really help the BP community.
I would start with GF “paid” help. I’m working with them on similar questions, so check the forums there. Ultimately, it will be a matter of creating a function that inserts the results of a bp function in the value of a form field.
Gotcha. Smart Idea. I haven’t added any BP specific functions yet, but I’ll keep that in mind. Keeping form and function separate is a serious hassle that’ll hopefully pay dividends.
I’ve used Gravity Forms for front end user posting, but no integrated WYSIWYG, but there is a third party solution. I’ll check post haste. Also, I don’t want more than one blog, but it should be easy to auto-tag “member” posts and assign them a location based on custom taxonomy.
There’s a default in WP admin screens to set the default role for new members. However, if you want different roles for different groups, that’ll be tougher. Search around these parts for “user types” or similar to find the answer to that one.
I’m putting everything specific in the Hybrid Child Theme. Are you using some form of bp-custom file for custom functions? You’re further along than me. I’m building a few plugins and components before I screw around with design too much. I just wanted to get everything functioning to test.
OK, those screenshots must be new. Thanks for the demo Michael. Now to hook this to the ajax for groups and list them separately by type. The hard work has been done.
As you’ve found, the CSS for BP can conflict with your WP theme. Looks like the width of your containers are conflicting forcing content to roll over and down. I’d look there first.
What I did was add BP to my WP theme and then start commenting out lines in the BP CSS files. I found a few of the same id’s were used and width, background, container and other properties needed modifying. It’s tedious, but necessary.
Thanks. As you know, I’ve been waiting for this. Let us know when you get the slug and/or ajax stuff figured out. I only have a few categories of groups and I’m going to try to let users use this functionality to choose their category on group creation.
Would love to see an online implementation of this if anybody has got the plugin working somewhere.
