[eborg9]

I’m not trying to be rude or insulting to anyone. Maybe I stated my opinion a little too strongly.
The bottom line is, I’m not old, and I don’t have an eye site problem or have cheap monitors and this forum is very uncomfortable to read and I don’t think the choice of colors is very professional or understand why the text is so light.

It’s risky , yet forward thinking, I get that and I like the attitude behind it, but it is not applicable to everyone. And it’s very frustrating
I think if you are going to stay with the color scheme that you should make the text larger.

I didn’t graduate from any design school but even I know that combination of light colored text combined with it’s small size can give the appearance of letters jumbling together.
I just don’t think that you considered everyone, of all ages, all types of eyes (perfect vision, glasses, contacts, etc), all types of monitors , across all browsers.
When I look at other forums that I participate in, especially ones that are technical in nature, the lettering is clear,, the colors are solid and everything is easy to read without exception.

This seems to be a design experiment and I just don’t think it’s the proper platform for it. This is an authority site and it should present itself like one.

My statement was meant to be a comparison to a gaming forum…I should have just said that.
I’ll lay off of the witticisms until you get to know me better.

[eborg9]

I’ve looked at it on 3 different monitors and on different settings and light blue still doesn’t show up well against white, no matter how you slice it.
It never has.
Yes, it is slightly better on one monitor, but no so much so that I would risk that everyone will be able to see it that way.
They are great colors for a wedding, not so great for reading..

[eborg9]

Am I the only one having a problem with the widget?
Everything is on top of each other and smashed together. Is it just me, I can’t believe no one would have mentioned it.

Sorry, no link to show since I can’t exactly leave it on my live site like that.
Is this a bug? Are the images only supposed to be a certain size to display properly in the widget?
Did I mess a setting somewhere?

Any help is appreciated.

[eborg9]

Every other system does just fine with duplicate real names. There are many occasions where I had to use a middle initial, or other combination to have my name registered. It’s still much easier for others to find, than an obscure string of letters that only has meaning to me.

I’m not saying that the username system is not efficient for registrations, and log in…it’s just that using them in place of actual names for a “Social Networking” community defeats the purpose of what many communities intend.

I sign into Facebook, Linked in and other platforms with a username or email address, but when it comes to being listed, my actual name is displayed, not my username…that’s why they work.

[eborg9]

So, maybe it was intended to work “the right way” it’s just not functioning properly?

[eborg9]

Yes! Thank you. At least someone gets it!
In the real world people don’t communicate in usernames.

[eborg9]

You know what’s funny, is that everyone is acting like using real names is some weird out of the ordinary thing that no one in their right mind would want. In the real world, real names are actually the norm. Usernames are the exception or option.

Doesn’t it seem strange that I have to hire a developer so that my Social Networking Community (in a box) allows people to use their actual names?

[eborg9]

I agree that something so obvious shouldn’t be that hard. I have only been using BP/MU for 3 months and WordPress for over 3 years, and the first couple of sites that I built, the username thing didn’t bother me, I assumed it was a setting or something that I overlooked. it was only while attempting to build an actual real world community that I noticed the limitation…and then searching around saw that this wasn’t something I was doing wrong…it’s the way it’s designed and that was really surprising.

IF you just look at it’s basic description:
“BuddyPress.org: Social networking in a box. Build a social network for your company, school, sports team “

..those are all instances where you would need an accurate listing of people by their names. I naturally assumed that it was configured to be used as such. I never dreamed that it wasn’t. How would you use this for a company if you need to know the employees usernames to find them in the directory? That’s not very useful.

I guess I will have to find a developer so that I can use this in a real world application. I guess not enough people see this as a major flaw to do anything about.

It just seems so simple, and so obvious, I can’t believe it goes ignored.

[eborg9]

I don’t have a solution, I’m looking for one. And I’m not spouting paranoid conspiracy theories, I’m stating real world applications.

what I am looking for is a way to list members in the directory by their real names.

If I build one of these for a real company or organization, they don’t want their people listed in the members directory by the name they use to log in…they want them listed with the names on their business cards so that they can be found.
What good is an alphabetical listing or search function of fake names?

People aren’t blogging for fun, blogging is marketing. It’s the engine that drives online networking and having your activities and contributions hidden by a username, instead of your real name that you use for business, or at the very least your company name defeats the purpose.

I’d like to use this platform for real stuff, not just a group of people taking about beer, and that entails that people can be found in the directory in a way that people know to look for them. As long as there are limitations like usernames coded to display instead of actual names, then there will be limitations on how seriously people take it as a real solution.

Most people are savvy enough to know that you create user names and passwords to log into a system, but not marketing themselves or their business with that log in name. It’s juvenile and unprofessional.
If I join a niche community to Network, and promote myself and my business, I want people to see what my name is, not have to click through to my profile to find out who i really am.
I keep bringing up Facebook, but one of the things that appeals to people is that you can actually find people by their names, you don’t have to guess what the screen name is, or hunt down a photo ( that mayor may not be real) to see if you recognize them.

Web people think that everyone lives by screen names and avatars, and they don’t. Business people don’t network with their gaming name.
Taking away the possibility of simply using a real name is short sighted and limits the professionalism in which you can apply the platform.

I think believing that everyone who uses this platform and their users wants anonymity and a scree name to hide behind is short sighted. You can’t possibly make that decision for everyone and every possibility.
In the real world, screen names are the exception, not the other way around.
That’s all I’m saying.

You keep telling me that real names are used through out the installation and I am telling you that they are not. The members directory, one of the most important sections of this thing for any organization, list users by their username.. I have 3 of these built and they all list the members by username /so if indeed, real name are used everywhere else, but the directory doesn’t list real names…that’s even more confusing and screwed up.

[eborg9]

I’m not going to insult the decision to code it that way, and I love the software and appreciate the work, but a community of usernames works great for forums, Developers, and game geeks, but organizations of regular people, search directories for their colleagues names, not their WOW monikers.

Anyone that is blogging as a marketing tool, wants their real name, or company name associated with their blog and activities.
Usernames are for web people. Real People use real names.

If we are to apply Buddypress for real communities and organizations, then usernames is a bit juvenile and in many instances, unprofessional.
Limiting the option also limits how you can implement the platform.

I really would like to see BP mature so that we can apply it to any situation. Usernames or nicknames should be an option. You shouldn’t have to hack the core to allow regular people to use their real names.

[eborg9]

How is it possible? You can’t use caps or spaces when creating a username and Buddypress uses usernames..so how can I let me people use their real names. No usernames anywhere. I don’t want them to show anywhere on the site, only for log in purposes.

It’s over complicated. why not just use your name, however you want to write it? If you decide that you want to put a username in the name field then so be it, but why have so many different name options…username, real name, display name…I mean c’mon.

All I want is that when you go to the directory you see people’s real names. when you view the activity stream, you see peoples real names. No user names. Just plain old first and last name that they put in their profile info.

If someone registers and their name is “John Smith” I would like him to be referred to all over the site and listed as “John smith”. When you go to the Directory, I would like his name to be seen, “John Smith” not his username.
How do I make that happen?

[eborg9]

No I don’t have that installed ( never even heard of it).
Yes, I know that if you view the individual users profile, you wiil see their real name, but throughout the rest of the site, they are referred to by their user name.
They are listed by their username. They are referred to in the activity stream by their username.
When you click on to see the members directory, you don’t see real people, you see usernames.
https://buddypress.org/community/members/

[eborg9]

Where?
Everywhere. Across the whole site members are referred to by their username. You can only see their real name if you open their profile.
So everywhere where there is activity from that user, it refers to them by the username. It doesn’t say “John smith” just made a new post, it says “adfas9343 just made a new post”…seriously what good does that do anyone?

That’s great on a forum, but not for a community with real people that have names.
How do people find each other if it’s all usernames?
How are you promoting yourself if your activities and blog posts are hidden by a name that no one will recognize you by?
How can you have a community site for an organization if the people don’t know who is a member and who isn’t?

It seems that real names would be the default and usernames would be the option for a community site, not the other way around.
Can you imagine Facebook or Linked In if it were all usernames?

[eborg9]

I think the redesign is O.K., but the most noticeable issue is the light blue text on the white background. It is REALLY hard to read. Definitely not something I would do on my own sites.

[eborg9]

So let me get this right. These are a combination of Joomla, and WordPress?

Dude, you must be some kind of PHP Svengali.

They all look very nice. I couldn’t pick one over the other technically, but I like the first one the best.

Really good stuff man.

[eborg9]

You know, it’s about time someone just started an entire gaming blog community instead of all these little small gaming blogs all over the place.

Looks good, I really like it.

[eborg9]

You know maybe the problem is us lowly users. If we didn’t depend on plug in developers so much to keep their projects functioning then it wouldn’t be an issue.

I never saw this as an issue with Single user WP plug ins so this is all new to me.

What I don’t understand is, I always assumed that plug in developers had other services that were paid services and creating plug ins was a way to not only contribute to the platform, but to show their expertise and make their names known in the community.

If a plug in goes unfixed and crashes a users or a company’s website, and support for it goes unanswered..how does that help you as a professional ?

And when you do release a premium paid plug in in the future, why would I take a chance that you won’t go missing in action again when it comes to support?

And why would I contribute to a plugin that doesn’t work and hasn’t been updated or answered support questions since late 2009?

Unfortunately some of what could have been/would have been some of the most used plug ins are on that list with no sign of the original developer updating them.

So now, instead of contributing to that developer for their hard work, I have to hire someone else to make it function correctly or build me a new one.

That really sucks.

I’m with Magganpice. I’d be more than happy to make a contribution to Buddypress Registration Options and Ahjira Recent Sitewide Articles, if they would just update them so they actually work.

[eborg9]

Well guys, it appears that we may be on our own. The plug in designer doesn’t even have a way to contact her on her blog…maybe she has just washed her hands of it.

I found out that it’s not working with the latest version of BP because this function:

bp_blogs_get_latest_posts()

…is not used anymore.

I still don’t know what it needs to be replaced with to make the plug in function correctly, but if you remove line 41, at least the error goes away, but the plug in doesn’t pull any posts.

At least that points us in the right direction, maybe someone else will have something else to add to help us get it working again.

[eborg9]

Having the same issue. i really want this plug in to work, are you still answering questions or helping with this ?