BuddyPress.org

My error log (I deleted info that I believe to be private.

File does not exist: public_html/robots.txt

File does not exist: public_html/feed

File does not exist: public_html/wp-content/themes/unplugged/_inc/css/reset.css, referer: http://geekoftodd.com/

File does not exist: public_html/members, referer: http://geekoftodd.com/members/

File does not exist: public_html/favicon.ico, referer: http://geekoftodd.com/

File does not exist: public_html/activity, referer: http://geekoftodd.com/

I’m guessing that I need to move some buddypress files so hostgator can find them or is this like in certain programs where I have to locate them manually for them to be recognized? Thanks any help would be great.

PART 2 – DEFEATING SPAMMERS

In the last post I covered why and how spammers attack BP installations. This post will cover how I propose to counter them.

Fast Attacks -vs- Slow Attacks

There are two basic kinds of spam attacks that get run on social networks: “fast” or “flood” attacks, and “slow” attacks.

In a fast attack, the spammer signs up for an account on the site, then sends thousands of messages as quickly as possible.

Obviously, the site admin will be deluged with complaints about the spam user and quickly delete their account …but in the hours (or days) it takes the admin to respond, hundreds and hundreds of people will read the spam messages. Then the spammer signs up for another account, and repeats the process.

In a “slow” attack, the spammer signs up for *hundreds* of accounts on the system, often over a period of many months, and only sends out spam messages one at a time …often days, weeks, or months apart.

“Slow” attacks are very difficult to counter using automation …at least without annoying legitimate users.

The best way people have come up with so far is just a “report spam” button which, when clicked, reports the member to an admin so they can investigate it and if necessary delete the account. This will be implemented as part of @francescolaffi ‘s BP content moderation plugin in a couple of months.

Unfortunately, a “report spam” button doesn’t work well against “fast” attacks.

This is because:

a) There is a delay while the admin responds to manually submitted spam reports, or,
b) When a consensus scheme is used (if X users report a member their account gets suspended), there is a delay while enough votes are accumulated to flag the member as a spammer.

During that time, people are reading the spam messages and the spammer is winning.

Goals of Proposed BP Core Anti-Spam Mods

The goal of the proposed core modifications is to counter “fast” attacks by the following means:

1) To make it difficult for a spammer to create large numbers of member accounts using automated means.

2) To make it difficult for a spammer that already has a member account to use automated means to:
a) send large volumes of PM’s
b) send large numbers of friend requests
c) create large numbers of groups
d) create large numbers of group posts
e) post large numbers of comments
f) post large numbers of status updates

3) To accomplish 1) and 2) without being annoying to legitimate users.

4) To make the system configurable, so it can be adapted to the needs of the site …for example: visually impaired users, or display on mobile phones.

5) To make the system “on by default” and “secure by default”

How We Can Accomplish This

1) New User Sign-up

a) Add a captcha on the new account sign-up screen.
b) If the “user” gets the captcha wrong on the first try, require *TWO* captchas to be solved before they can proceed. (If the odds of a bot solving ONE captcha with OCR are 1 in 100, the odds of the bot solving TWO captchas with OCR are 1 in 10,000. This is a technique Gmail uses.)

…set X to be a random number on each installation between 3 and 7…

c) If the user gets X captchas wrong in a row, block their IP for a random amount of time (15 minutes to 2 hours). (This is what Craigslist does)
d) If the user fails X captchas *again* after being blocked, permanently ban their IP and post it to akismet.
e) If a locally banned IP tries to sign-up, don’t throw an “error page”. Completely ignore the request and don’t send anything.
f) If an akismet banned IP tries to sign up, require *TWO* captchas to be solved on the first try, and if they get X captchas wrong in a row, permanently ban their IP and repost it to akismet.
g) Add an option field to the admin menu that limits the number of accounts that can be created per IP address. By default, set it at 2.

2) Existing User Sign-In

a) Use a “normal” password box on first sign-in attempt.
b) If the member gets their password wrong on the first try, require them to solve a captcha on the second try. Offer password recovery option.
c) If the member gets their password wrong on the second try, require *TWO* captchas to be solved before they can proceed. Offer password recovery option.

…set X to be a random number on each installation between 3 and 7…

d) If the user gets X logins / captchas wrong in a row, block the visitor’s IP for a random amount of time (15 minutes to 2 hours).

3) Private Messages

a) Add a field to the user table that allows PM limiting to be bypassed or set to a unique value on a user-per-user basis.
b) Add three option fields on the admin menu: allow “X” messages to be sent every 24 hours, averaged over the past “Y” hours with “Z” hysteresis
…when BP is installed, randomly set X, Y, and Z to allow a daily maximum of between 18 and 24 messages, averaged over between 2 and 24 hours, +/- 3 messages.
c) If the maximum is exceeded, require the member to solve a captcha before they can send another PM.
d) If they get the first captcha wrong, require them to solve two captchas before they can send another PM.

…set R to be a random number on each installation between 3 and 7…

e) If the user gets R captchas wrong in a row, block their IP for a random amount of time (15 minutes to 2 hours). (This is what Craigslist does)
f) If the user fails R captchas *again* after being blocked, permanently ban their IP and post it to akismet.
g) If a locally banned IP tries to visit the site, don’t throw an “error page”. Completely ignore the request and don’t send anything.

Consider how difficult the algorithm above makes it to send automated messages. A spammer can’t just send “12 messages a day” or “1 message an hour” and avoid triggering the system. Every BP installation will have a unique combination that will cause it to trip. Yet for a “normal” user, the system will hardly ever trip, and if it does, it takes all of 5 seconds to enter a captcha and continue. And the system can be bypassed entirely for edge cases, like paid advertisers or site news.

3) Friend Requests

a) Create a config option in BuddyPress that allows the admin to remove the member’s directory with one click. Disable the member directory by “default” on new installs. In my experience, the only people that use the member’s directory (in its default state, on a socially oriented site) are Spammers, Marketers, and Competitors. There’s a reason Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Twitter do not have “global” member directories.
b) Implement same scheme as private messages.

4) Group Creation

a) Add a field to the user table that allows Group limiting to be bypassed or set to a unique value on a user-per-user basis.
b) Add an option field on the admin menu that sets a maximum number of groups that can be created by a user. By default, set it at 5.

5) Group Posts

a) Add a field to the user table that allows group post limiting to be bypassed or set to a unique value on a user-per-user basis.
b) Create a “whitelist” field on the admin page that allows “trusted” media sharing URL’s like YouTube, Revver, Flickr, etc to be bypassed in spam protection.
c) Create an option that automatically “scrubs” URL’s and email addresses from group posts if they are not on the whitelist. Not just “nofollow” …complete removal. This will stop 90% of abuse dead in its tracks, because most spammers are just trying to get traffic to a site or replies to an email.
d) If the system detects a URL or email address embedded in a message, and it’s not on the whitelist, require a captcha to be solved before allowing the post.
e) If they get the first captcha wrong, require them to solve two captchas before approving the post.

…set R to be a random number on each installation between 3 and 7…

f) If the user gets R captchas wrong in a row, block their IP for a random amount of time (15 minutes to 2 hours).
g) If the user fails R captchas *again* after being blocked, permanently ban their IP and post it to akismet.
h) If a locally banned IP tries to visit the site, don’t throw an “error page”. Completely ignore the request and don’t send anything.

i) For posts that do not contain a URL or email address, run the post through akismet. If it passes, approve the post. If it fails, require a captcha to be solved before allowing the post.
j) If they get the first captcha wrong, require them to solve two captchas before approving the post.
k) If the user gets R captchas wrong in a row, block their IP for a random amount of time (15 minutes to 2 hours).
l) If the user fails R captchas *again* after being blocked, permanently ban their IP and post it to akismet.
m) If a locally banned IP tries to visit the site, don’t throw an “error page”. Completely ignore the request and don’t send anything.

6) Comments

a) Create an admin option that only allows users to comment on their *friend’s* items. Activate it by default on new BP installations.

7) Status Updates

a) Add a field to the user table that allows status update limiting to be bypassed or set to a unique value on a user-per-user basis.
b) Create a “whitelist” field on the admin page that allows “trusted” media sharing URL’s like YouTube, Revver, Flickr, etc to be bypassed in spam protection.
c) Create an option that automatically “scrubs” URL’s and email addresses from status updates if they are not on the whitelist. Not just “nofollow” …complete removal. This will stop 90% of abuse dead in its tracks, because most spammers are just trying to get traffic to a site or replies to an email.
d) If the system detects a URL or email address embedded in a message, and it’s not on the whitelist, require a captcha to be solved before allowing the activity stream post.
e) If they get the first captcha wrong, require them to solve two captchas before approving the activity stream post.

…set R to be a random number on each installation between 3 and 7…

f) If the user gets R captchas wrong in a row, block their IP for a random amount of time (15 minutes to 2 hours).
g) If the user fails R captchas *again* after being blocked, permanently ban their IP and post it to akismet.
h) If a locally banned IP tries to visit the site, don’t throw an “error page”. Completely ignore the request and don’t send anything.

i) For activity stream posts that do not contain a URL or email address, run the post through akismet. If it passes, approve the post. If it fails, require a captcha to be solved before allowing the post.
j) If they get the first captcha wrong, require them to solve two captchas before approving the post.
k) If the user gets R captchas wrong in a row, block their IP for a random amount of time (15 minutes to 2 hours).
l) If the user fails R captchas *again* after being blocked, permanently ban their IP and post it to akismet.
m) If a locally banned IP tries to visit the site, don’t throw an “error page”. Completely ignore the request and don’t send anything.

8 ) In All Cases

a) When a member account is banned, or repeatedly triggers spam protection measures, send an alert to the site administrator.
b) Allow admin alerts to be disabled if necessary, example: DDOS attack against the site.

9) CONCLUSION

While the list of modifications above may look incredibly complicated, really, it’s not.

I’d say “worst case” it’s about a week of work to research and make these modifications. Then we can push it out into beta testing with all the other new code to give it a proper shakedown.

I’m sure there are plenty of ways the algorithms above could be improved, so please go ahead and post your feedback!

Thanks!

^F^

From our mailbox…

Not a big deal as this is a dev env but I thought I’d show you something I am observing in case it happens to others.

bp-album v 0.1.9, bp v 1.2.3, wpmu 2.9.2

You can see it in action at http://[redacted]

You’ll notice my test user ‘Sam Witwicky’ uploaded a pic yesterday (note time since) but somehow the action grabbed a reply from last week. If the streams got crossed and I have a corrupt activity table that’s fine. It keeps happening as I load test images though. Happy to delete entries in tables but i can’t figure out why this is occurring. Just started with 0.1.9.

Also notice that the urls for the images and title in the activity stream are wrong.

for ex http://[redacted]/members/test19/photos/single-media/7/ instead of

http://[redacted]/members/test19/photos/single-album/3/single-media/7/O/

so clicking does a redirect back to the root

I’m guessing it’s all related.

On a side note, I really appreciate your work on this and willingness to work with everyone. I’m pretty much ready to release my site to prod once bp-album is ready for prime time. I have held off doing any major styling to bp-album areas until you give the go ahead that core html tags and arrangements are all set.

===========================

You are experiencing two known defects in the BP Album+ 0.1.9.2 beta.

The first problem is happening because the “Album Item” and the “Media Item” classes do not yet generate globally unique ID’s for activity stream posts, so occasionally they collide, causing the plugin to retrieve the wrong media item.

The second problem is happening because we haven’t finished updating the URL generation code that creates the thumbnail link to activity stream items. WordPress then catches the resulting 404 error and throws the browser back to the home page.

Fear not!

All of this will be fixed in the next beta. We thought it was more important to demonstrate albums capability than to have everything working perfectly. You should NEVER install one of these “community feedback” betas on a live site. They are only intended to get the community’s feedback on how we are implementing features.

Thanks!

^F^

Thanks for giving it a look guys…it is so helpful to get another set of eyes on there as I was looking at completely different things. Here goes:

@avi-m

will the tags show up on the main page tags widget?

On the blog pages they show in relation to the blogs’ tags. For the main page you would need a sitewide tags widget. Look here: http://wpmututorials.com/plugins/sitewide-tags-0-4/

@Bowe

The magazine theme layout looks cool, but I feel it’s bit overwhelming for certain users. especially on lower resolutions I feels a bit crammed

I agree, it needs some testing and wiggling. I noticed the colums are not behaving how I want them to as well. I like your comp, it is in between a Microblog and Magazine layout. I might just include that unless there are other suggestions.

To avoid confusion I would probably rename Status Update in the groupblog to something like News Update or Blog Update, so that it does not get mixed up with a status/activity update in BuddyPress.

Yes, it seems posting updates is not needed and we should encourage users to post media from this point. I think Ideally the update form from buddypress would exist in a top screen dropdown (not sure how you call those web 2.0 things). So you could post updates at any time and doesn’t take away real estate.

Maybe allow the user to switch to a full markup mode or tiny editor to have more control over longer posts.

This functionality would have to be born at the P2 theme. We just use there functionality. Whatever they develop, we inherit. I already hacked the main P2 a tiny bit to include the allowed categories and ajax feedback. Since it is a theme created by Automattic I think it is a safe horse to bet on.

@Anointed

preview blog post before posting it

Yes, I was surprissed to by this when using P2 the first time. I didn’t expect img code in the post form, but it makes sense. A preview screen would be very nice. Again, this is something that would needed to be developed by the P2 theme. Unless anybody can supply some code we code integrate.

ability to edit the post after it’s posted.

There are actually a bunch of P2 features I omissed. Like keyboard shortcuts and inline editing. I’m going through the P2 theme and comb through what is still missing, inline editing is one of them. Thanks for mentioning that.

@pcwriter

preview and edit functions are musts

As mentioned previous Basicly inline editing is a core feature so no problem. The preview of posts I’m not sure. I wonder if there’s a feature request section for the P2 developer crew.

clicking any category tag displays the archive for that tag on a page that has no group header.

You are absolutely right. I’m only including the group header in single, but this is something I can add in with a few lines. Just didn’t get to it yet, but was already to excited to share what the development was.

@R-A-Y

if you have ”Disable activity stream commenting on blog and forum posts?” set to ”Yes” in the BP admin area, I’m guessing this wouldn’t work

Ha, yes you are right. I want prioritize buddypress activity comments since they are more sitewide than individual blog comments. This helps prevent forking of discussions and the discussion can take place at multiple stages. We could do an easy conditional to check if activity comments are disabled and then include the regular comment form instead.

I guess for backward compatibility for old blog comments we should show those on the blog posts as well.

Agree with Bowe about blog status updates.

yes…

I must be daft, but I couldn’t find the alternate layout options screen

Currently this is controlled by the site-admin. So one layout rules them all. We quickly realized that it would be much better for the site-admin to allow group creators to choose a layout. This way you can have diverse groupblog expressions. We just did not get around coding that yet.

There is still a bunch of stuff we need to add and fix. Pitfalls also include group admins to change the theme of their blog (I just of that) as well as we need to see if we can omit the featured category from the backend for group members who are not admin or mod. An many other stuff.

So it is a bold task to include P2 support and does add some dependency, but at the end I do think it adds to the overall value. We just need to smooth out what and who the plugin is used. Your feedback help us with that.

Come WP3.0 I hope P2 changes to post-types rather than categories, but we will see.

@Andy Peatling – Thanks for joining the discussion!

Here’s our feedback on your requests:

1) – Allow the creation of albums, add/move/delete photos in albums and albums themselves.

Most of this functionality will be included in the 0.1.7 Monday release. The only feature that may or may not be in this release is to re-order images within an album.

An important thing to understand is that our data model is fully tag-based. So in the database, both images and albums are essentially the same data type. To assign an image to an album we just add a tag to the image, and to create a new album we just say to the database “find me all the images with @tag”. This allows a single image file instance to be shared amongst thousands of albums if desired, saving tremendous amounts of disk space.

2) – Allow commenting on photos or albums (use the activity stream commenting system so it ties back to the stream and visa-versa).

We currently have this functionality working 100% in the current release.

3) – Add single photo uploads to the activity stream. If a batch has been uploaded or a new album created, show a gallery of thumbnails on one activity stream entry.

Single photo to activity stream works 100% in current release. Album post to activity stream will show the album’s lead photo. We cannot post multiple thumbs to the activity stream because BP’s activity stream format only supports a single image attachment, and we think generating a composite JPG or PNG of multiple uploads would seem strange to users.

4) – Add meta data to an image – title, description, date, geo? – perhaps just read the exif data too.

Meta data is added to the image using “System Tags” as described in our 0.1.7 features update. This means that not only does the image object contain all the standard data, template and plugin developers can add any other fields they want.

The function in pseudocode (not final version, we are still deciding on syntax) works like this: bp_album_add_system_tag(‘image_id’, ‘tag_name’, ‘tag_value’);

And then to read it back: $string_variable = bp_album_get_system_tag(‘image_id’, ‘EXIF_shutter_speed’);

*I will add EXIF data capability today, as two core developers have now requested it*

5) – Upload one or multiple images in one go.

We will try this out using the built-in WP flash uploader, but solving this problem properly for “photo sharing” communities is going to require considerable coding muscle. We need a “fault tolerant” uploader that can handle all sorts of network problems and ideally resize images on the *user’s* computer *before* sending them to the site.

6) – Tag members in a photo – add a “tagged in” sub tab to the albums tab that lists all the photos the user has been tagged in.

The function in pseudocode (not final version, we are still deciding on syntax) works like this:

bp_album_get_user_tagged(‘user_name’, ‘order_by’, ‘number_to_return’)

while (has tagged photos, the photo)

paginator, photo object data

(end loop)

7) – Allow photo attachments on activity stream posts – extend the activity stream posting interface.

This is the only one we don’t know how to do yet…

Thanks again Andy for giving your feedback on the plugin!

^F^

I’ve read the instructions and done what step three has told me yet nothing works. I’ve copied and pasted until my lil fingers bled.

Here is my page.php file ;

<?php get_header(); ?>

<div id=”content”>

<div id=”contentleft”>

<div class=”postarea”>

<?php include(TEMPLATEPATH . ‘/includes/breadcrumb.php’);?>

<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

<h1><?php the_title(); ?></h1>

<?php the_content(__(‘Read more’, ‘studiopress’));?>

<div class=”clear”></div>

<?php edit_post_link(‘(‘.__(‘Edit’, ‘studiopress’).’)’, ”, ”); ?>

<?php endwhile; else: ?>

<?php require(TEMPLATEPATH . ‘/includes/post-nav-block.php’); ?>

<?php endif; ?>

</div>

</div>

<?php include(TEMPLATEPATH.”/sidebar.php”);?>

</div>

<?php get_footer(); ?>

and here is the activity index.php;

<?php get_header() ?>

<div id=”container”>

<div id=”content”>

<?php if ( !is_user_logged_in() ) : ?>

<h3><?php _e( ‘Site Activity’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?></h3>

<?php endif; ?>

<?php do_action( ‘bp_before_directory_activity_content’ ) ?>

<?php if ( is_user_logged_in() ) : ?>

<?php locate_template( array( ‘activity/post-form.php’), true ) ?>

<?php endif; ?>

<?php do_action( ‘template_notices’ ) ?>

<div class=”item-list-tabs activity-type-tabs”>

<?php do_action( ‘bp_before_activity_type_tab_all’ ) ?>

<li class=”selected” id=”activity-all”>” title=”<?php _e( ‘The public activity for everyone on this site.’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?>”><?php printf( __( ‘All Members (%s)’, ‘buddypress’ ), bp_get_total_site_member_count() ) ?>

<?php if ( is_user_logged_in() ) : ?>

<?php do_action( ‘bp_before_activity_type_tab_friends’ ) ?>

<?php if ( function_exists( ‘bp_get_total_friend_count’ ) ) : ?>

<?php if ( bp_get_total_friend_count( bp_loggedin_user_id() ) ) : ?>

<li id=”activity-friends”>” title=”<?php _e( ‘The activity of my friends only.’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?>”><?php printf( __( ‘My Friends (%s)’, ‘buddypress’ ), bp_get_total_friend_count( bp_loggedin_user_id() ) ) ?>

<?php endif; ?>

<?php endif; ?>

<?php do_action( ‘bp_before_activity_type_tab_groups’ ) ?>

<?php if ( function_exists( ‘bp_get_total_group_count_for_user’ ) ) : ?>

<?php if ( bp_get_total_group_count_for_user( bp_loggedin_user_id() ) ) : ?>

<li id=”activity-groups”>” title=”<?php _e( ‘The activity of groups I am a member of.’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?>”><?php printf( __( ‘My Groups (%s)’, ‘buddypress’ ), bp_get_total_group_count_for_user( bp_loggedin_user_id() ) ) ?>

<?php endif; ?>

<?php endif; ?>

<?php do_action( ‘bp_before_activity_type_tab_favorites’ ) ?>

<?php if ( bp_get_total_favorite_count_for_user( bp_loggedin_user_id() ) ) : ?>

<li id=”activity-favorites”>” title=”<?php _e( “The activity I’ve marked as a favorite.”, ‘buddypress’ ) ?>”><?php printf( __( ‘My Favorites (<span>%s</span>)’, ‘buddypress’ ), bp_get_total_favorite_count_for_user( bp_loggedin_user_id() ) ) ?>

<?php endif; ?>

<?php do_action( ‘bp_before_activity_type_tab_mentions’ ) ?>

<li id=”activity-mentions”>” title=”<?php _e( ‘Activity that I have been mentioned in.’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?>”><?php printf( __( ‘@%s Mentions’, ‘buddypress’ ), bp_get_loggedin_user_username() ) ?><?php if ( bp_get_total_mention_count_for_user( bp_loggedin_user_id() ) ) : ?> <?php printf( __( ‘(%s new)’, ‘buddypress’ ), bp_get_total_mention_count_for_user( bp_loggedin_user_id() ) ) ?><?php endif; ?>

<?php endif; ?>

<?php do_action( ‘bp_activity_type_tabs’ ) ?>

</div><!– .item-list-tabs –>

<div class=”item-list-tabs no-ajax” id=”subnav”>

<li class=”feed”>” title=”RSS Feed”><?php _e( ‘RSS’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?>

<?php do_action( ‘bp_activity_syndication_options’ ) ?>

<li id=”activity-filter-select” class=”last”>

<select>

<option value=”-1″><?php _e( ‘No Filter’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?></option>

<option value=”activity_update”><?php _e( ‘Show Updates’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?></option>

<option value=”new_blog_post”><?php _e( ‘Show Blog Posts’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?></option>

<option value=”new_blog_comment”><?php _e( ‘Show Blog Comments’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?></option>

<?php if ( bp_is_active( ‘forums’ ) ) : ?>

<option value=”new_forum_topic”><?php _e( ‘Show New Forum Topics’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?></option>

<option value=”new_forum_post”><?php _e( ‘Show Forum Replies’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?></option>

<?php endif; ?>

<?php if ( bp_is_active( ‘groups’ ) ) : ?>

<option value=”created_group”><?php _e( ‘Show New Groups’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?></option>

<option value=”joined_group”><?php _e( ‘Show New Group Memberships’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?></option>

<?php endif; ?>

<?php if ( bp_is_active( ‘friends’ ) ) : ?>

<option value=”friendship_accepted,friendship_created”><?php _e( ‘Show Friendship Connections’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?></option>

<?php endif; ?>

<option value=”new_member”><?php _e( ‘Show New Members’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?></option>

<?php do_action( ‘bp_activity_filter_options’ ) ?>

</select>

</div><!– .item-list-tabs –>

<div class=”activity”>

<?php locate_template( array( ‘activity/activity-loop.php’ ), true ) ?>

</div><!– .activity –>

<?php do_action( ‘bp_after_directory_activity_content’ ) ?>

</div><!– #content –>

</div><!– #container –>

<?php locate_template( array( ‘sidebar.php’ ), true ) ?>

<?php get_footer() ?>

To the best of my knowledge I have tried every possible placement I could think of but nothing is working. Am I missing something ?

I’ve read the instructions and done what step three has told me yet nothing works. I’ve copied and pasted until my lil fingers bled.

Here is my page.php file ;

<?php get_header(); ?>

<div id=”content”>

<div id=”contentleft”>

<div class=”postarea”>

<?php include(TEMPLATEPATH . ‘/includes/breadcrumb.php’);?>

<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

<h1><?php the_title(); ?></h1>

<?php the_content(__(‘Read more’, ‘studiopress’));?>

<div class=”clear”></div>

<?php edit_post_link(‘(‘.__(‘Edit’, ‘studiopress’).’)’, ”, ”); ?>

<?php endwhile; else: ?>

<?php require(TEMPLATEPATH . ‘/includes/post-nav-block.php’); ?>

<?php endif; ?>

</div>

</div>

<?php include(TEMPLATEPATH.”/sidebar.php”);?>

</div>

<?php get_footer(); ?>

and here is the activity index.php;

<?php get_header() ?>

<div id=”container”>

<div id=”content”>

<?php if ( !is_user_logged_in() ) : ?>

<h3><?php _e( ‘Site Activity’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?></h3>

<?php endif; ?>

<?php do_action( ‘bp_before_directory_activity_content’ ) ?>

<?php if ( is_user_logged_in() ) : ?>

<?php locate_template( array( ‘activity/post-form.php’), true ) ?>

<?php endif; ?>

<?php do_action( ‘template_notices’ ) ?>

<div class=”item-list-tabs activity-type-tabs”>

<?php do_action( ‘bp_before_activity_type_tab_all’ ) ?>

<li class=”selected” id=”activity-all”>” title=”<?php _e( ‘The public activity for everyone on this site.’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?>”><?php printf( __( ‘All Members (%s)’, ‘buddypress’ ), bp_get_total_site_member_count() ) ?>

<?php if ( is_user_logged_in() ) : ?>

<?php do_action( ‘bp_before_activity_type_tab_friends’ ) ?>

<?php if ( function_exists( ‘bp_get_total_friend_count’ ) ) : ?>

<?php if ( bp_get_total_friend_count( bp_loggedin_user_id() ) ) : ?>

<li id=”activity-friends”>” title=”<?php _e( ‘The activity of my friends only.’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?>”><?php printf( __( ‘My Friends (%s)’, ‘buddypress’ ), bp_get_total_friend_count( bp_loggedin_user_id() ) ) ?>

<?php endif; ?>

<?php endif; ?>

<?php do_action( ‘bp_before_activity_type_tab_groups’ ) ?>

<?php if ( function_exists( ‘bp_get_total_group_count_for_user’ ) ) : ?>

<?php if ( bp_get_total_group_count_for_user( bp_loggedin_user_id() ) ) : ?>

<li id=”activity-groups”>” title=”<?php _e( ‘The activity of groups I am a member of.’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?>”><?php printf( __( ‘My Groups (%s)’, ‘buddypress’ ), bp_get_total_group_count_for_user( bp_loggedin_user_id() ) ) ?>

<?php endif; ?>

<?php endif; ?>

<?php do_action( ‘bp_before_activity_type_tab_favorites’ ) ?>

<?php if ( bp_get_total_favorite_count_for_user( bp_loggedin_user_id() ) ) : ?>

<li id=”activity-favorites”>” title=”<?php _e( “The activity I’ve marked as a favorite.”, ‘buddypress’ ) ?>”><?php printf( __( ‘My Favorites (<span>%s</span>)’, ‘buddypress’ ), bp_get_total_favorite_count_for_user( bp_loggedin_user_id() ) ) ?>

<?php endif; ?>

<?php do_action( ‘bp_before_activity_type_tab_mentions’ ) ?>

<li id=”activity-mentions”>” title=”<?php _e( ‘Activity that I have been mentioned in.’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?>”><?php printf( __( ‘@%s Mentions’, ‘buddypress’ ), bp_get_loggedin_user_username() ) ?><?php if ( bp_get_total_mention_count_for_user( bp_loggedin_user_id() ) ) : ?> <?php printf( __( ‘(%s new)’, ‘buddypress’ ), bp_get_total_mention_count_for_user( bp_loggedin_user_id() ) ) ?><?php endif; ?>

<?php endif; ?>

<?php do_action( ‘bp_activity_type_tabs’ ) ?>

</div><!– .item-list-tabs –>

<div class=”item-list-tabs no-ajax” id=”subnav”>

<li class=”feed”>” title=”RSS Feed”><?php _e( ‘RSS’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?>

<?php do_action( ‘bp_activity_syndication_options’ ) ?>

<li id=”activity-filter-select” class=”last”>

<select>

<option value=”-1″><?php _e( ‘No Filter’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?></option>

<option value=”activity_update”><?php _e( ‘Show Updates’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?></option>

<option value=”new_blog_post”><?php _e( ‘Show Blog Posts’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?></option>

<option value=”new_blog_comment”><?php _e( ‘Show Blog Comments’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?></option>

<?php if ( bp_is_active( ‘forums’ ) ) : ?>

<option value=”new_forum_topic”><?php _e( ‘Show New Forum Topics’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?></option>

<option value=”new_forum_post”><?php _e( ‘Show Forum Replies’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?></option>

<?php endif; ?>

<?php if ( bp_is_active( ‘groups’ ) ) : ?>

<option value=”created_group”><?php _e( ‘Show New Groups’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?></option>

<option value=”joined_group”><?php _e( ‘Show New Group Memberships’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?></option>

<?php endif; ?>

<?php if ( bp_is_active( ‘friends’ ) ) : ?>

<option value=”friendship_accepted,friendship_created”><?php _e( ‘Show Friendship Connections’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?></option>

<?php endif; ?>

<option value=”new_member”><?php _e( ‘Show New Members’, ‘buddypress’ ) ?></option>

<?php do_action( ‘bp_activity_filter_options’ ) ?>

</select>

</div><!– .item-list-tabs –>

<div class=”activity”>

<?php locate_template( array( ‘activity/activity-loop.php’ ), true ) ?>

</div><!– .activity –>

<?php do_action( ‘bp_after_directory_activity_content’ ) ?>

</div><!– #content –>

</div><!– #container –>

<?php locate_template( array( ‘sidebar.php’ ), true ) ?>

<?php get_footer() ?>

To the best of my knowledge I have tried every possible placement I could think of but nothing is working. Am I missing something ?