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Yessssss! Thanks @andrewteg! I was seriously beginning to think I dreamed the whole thing up…not sure why I could not find this page, but that is EXACTLY where I was.
Now, since I have found what I was looking for, I’d really like to get some opinions of the plugin and see if this will actually do what I am planning for this site. I am open to all opinions and suggestions. My understanding of BuddyPress and bbPress is coming along and the site is starting to look like what I envisioned. You can see the preliminary site at http://accessories.ldjautobody.com.
First, let me explain what I have planned for this site and, like I said, I am open to all suggestions and comments. I would like to hear what the experts have to say. Good or bad, I need your opinions. You ALL have great ideas and I respect whatever you might have to say or add. 🙂
This blog and forum are dedicated to custom car and motorcycle enthusiasts everywhere. Car enthusiasts are passionate about their subject, and in addition to giving them a place to share their projects and discuss those among each other, I would also like to let them post some articles, hoping that the fresh content will keep the search engines hanging out on the site and help boost the rankings. I have never run a forum site or used BuddyPress or bbPress before and I’m not really sure how this all works in relation to SEO. I do, however, deal with car and motorcycle enthusiasts on a daily basis and I know that I can most likely count on them to get some very good discussions going among themselves and that is my hope for this site.
We will also be doing some affiliate marketing from this site, and my hope is that in a perfect World, the fresh content and activity level of the site will keep us ranking well in the search engines and bring some new customers to the site. Since we are an “auto body shop”, our normal advertising is concentrated in a very local area. The affiliate site, however, will have a much broader range and we will be advertising nationwide vs. the small local area that the body shop is limited to. So my hope is that the increased activity on the site will increase the number of people visiting and also help us reach out well beyond our local area. At least, that is our goal for now!
Thank you all again for all of your help. I am looking forward to hearing anything my experts have to add as we move forward with getting the site ready to launch. 🙂
Denise
Why not add the “BuddyBlog” plugin and give your members the opportunity to blog! It’s a great “free plugin”…I am going to add it to our own site shortly. We are in the process of creating a brand new site right now and it’s not ready to launch yet, but we are planning on including it in our site.
Since I have not used the plugin myself, I don’t have a lot to contribute on it’s function, but from what I have heard, the plugin works wonderfully and if that’s true, it should give you everything you need. I’m sure there are lots of members out here that do use the plugin that could give you more information, but from your description, it might give you all the functionality that you need. I was also reading the “BuddyBlog” info last night and in the support blog, there is someone who actually has the code that allows members to blog, but does NOT give them ANY access to the back-end…a great function that would ensure security along with giving members the ability to blog.
@marathifacebook and @mercime, just an FYI regarding the “Facebook” issue. If you Google that topic, you will see that “Facebook” is no longer required to “sue” you, they will simply have the domain taken down, similar to the lawsuit won by “Craig’s List” which also won the right to do the same. They will not even give consideration to “purchasing” your domain…they already own it by copyright and trademark law, and just ANY name that includes the actual spelling of “f-a-c-e-b-o-o-k” applies.
A friend of mine had a similar issue and it takes about 2 weeks after your site hits the search engines for them to find it and you will be notified by the domain registrar that you have infringed on the copyright and the domain will be taken. No lawsuit necessary due a precedence case already having been tried. You will, however, be given the option to “change” the name to something…more suitable…at least in the eyes of “Facebook” and “Craig’s List”. So, “good luck” with that one…
In reference to your question regarding public and private blog posts, try the Advance Post Privacy Plug-in…however, it has not been tested with v3.5.1, so check it out first, but I have used it before and it works quite nicely allowing you to make certain posts private or not. I don’t know how well it functions with BuddyPress, but I know it is compatible with S2 which is a great membership plugin that works great!
I had the exact same problem…if you are already logged in, the site redirects to the home page…or whatever page you have designated as the “home” page. It does this so that previously registered users do not get directed to the registration page. Pretty good idea actually! Anyway…log out and access the site and it will take you to the registration page!
I also just installed BuddyPress AND bbPress and I really like the functionality of the two sites together. It works wonderfully!
Ldjautobody (Denise)
Thanks @henrywright-1,
That makes sense too. Actually, it was not set to the homepage, but I WAS logged in already and that’s why it would not take me to registration. I tried logging out and going back to it and if you click on the Registration tab, it does take you to the registration page.
Thanks Henry and everyone for all your help! 🙂
Denise
Thanks @bphelp…that was the issue.:)
Denise (@ldjautobody)
@bphelp, Wow and thank you for the awesome tutorial. This is perfect! I was actually using the original site I put up as a tempsite until I had the whole Buddy Press and bbpress thing figured out. I am in the process now of building our new site which will up be and running shortly.
The information you sent me is great. The register and log-in pages are wonderful. I am probably going to have to make some changes to our WP theme as I found out just recently that they have published a bbpress child theme which works great with the original WP theme. In fact, I’ll even give them a little plug here…Mysitemyway.com has some awesome premium wordpress themes that are definitely work a “look see” by anyone that is light on WP coding and wants a truly beautiful theme! So there guys…there’s your “plug’o the day!” from LDJ! LOL
Since learning a bunch of new things playing with the old temp site, the new site is going to be formatted completely different. I owe it to everyone here for their help during this learning curve and thank you everybody for all your great advice.
I’ll put up the new url as soon as I get the stuff up and running and I know I’ll be back here to get more help as we move forward with our forum site.
Thanks again for all your help!
Denise (@ldjautobody) 🙂
@mercime Hi! Thanks for the link and the advice! It is certainly appreciated. I have been using WordPress now for about 2 years…but I’m no expert by any means, but in the last 2 years I’ve really learned a lot and I really enjoy working with WordPress. I’m sure that BuddyPress and bbpress will be just as challenging and just as much fun to learn.
As I was telling @ubernaut, the site we are going to be adding the forum and networking to has a lot of users that are very passionate about their interests. They are already very active in conversations so I believe the forum will be a welcome addition to the site. I will definitely want to activate the group forums as the site is already broken up into some groups just through association.
I am thankful that you guys are out here! LOL After looking at the link you sent me and looking over the bbpress documentation, I have a feeling that this might be a little bit of a challenge. But, I am up for it and I’m sure with all the expert help here, I’ll be just fine.
Thank you all for your help and encouragement! I’ll be sure to let you know how everything turns out and send a link to the site.
LDJAutoBody
I absolutely refuse to have it any other way! 🙂
@ubernaut Thanks for the encouragement! Part of the reason I am thinking that this will work for this particular site is that most of the users there are very engaged just through the comments. I think it is a great site for us to start with and get our feet wet with BuddyPress because of the amount of existing engagement. These guys are serious about their vehicles and I have a feeling that if I can get some groups started and get a few of the more experienced body guys to offer some advice to the newcomers we could have a really nice place for people to share and learn about something they are truly passionate about. I’m really looking forward to seeing how it takes off. Hopefully the installation will go relatively smoothly and we’ll have the opportunity to watch it grow. I’m waiting for some information from our theme developer now to see if there is anything there that we need to do and the next step will be to load the plugin!
Thanks again for all your help. It is always appreciated. I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes. Hopefully, I’ll have some good news to share and a good BuddyPress install to show off!
Have a great day and we’ll be in touch! 🙂
Thanks again @ubernaut. I think I read something similar awhile back stating that is was better to install bbpress using FTP. I can do it either way, but I’d prefer to do it through BuddyPress so I’ll try that first and see what happens. We’ve backed everything on the site up, so if something goes “awry”…we’ll be ready for it! LOL
I appreciate all your help and I’ll be sure to post here to let you know how it goes! Looking forward to getting up and running and seeing if we can get some of our regular blog commentors to register in the forum and networking areas. This is kind of an experiment for us at this point.
It will be interesting to see what kind of reaction we get here. It appears that most of our registered users are pretty computer friendly…something that’s not always true in the auto industry! LOL Lots of really good technicians out there that can’t answer an email due to lack of computer skills…so I’m hoping that we don’t come up a “bust” merely due to that. But, only time will tell…so, in an effort to waste a little less of “that”…I’ll get started and see what we can accomplish!
Thanks again for the help and we’ll be in touch!
LDJAutoBody 🙂
One more question! Sorry! It was an “afterthought”! LOL
Is there ANY order in which to install BuddyPress and bbpress? In other words, should we install one before the other? Right now, we have neither one installed and need both social networking AND forum capabilities.Again, thanks in advance for any help. This site and the support forums are great. Don’t know what we’d do without it. 🙂
LDJAutoBody
Thanks @ubernaut! That is the information that I wanted to hear. I appreciate the quick response too. Now…I actually have another question. I have heard that the new BuddyPress version is compatible with most WP themes whereas previously, it was not. Is it possible to use BuddyPress and BBpress together on an existing WP installation? Or will we have to “re-design” the site using a theme designed specifically for BuddyPress?
The WP theme that we are currently using “says” that it is compatible with BuddyPress, but I have not yet tried to install it. Just wondering what I might be up against when we intall the two new plugins… Again, thanks in advance for any help! 🙂
LDJAutoBody
