BuddyPress.org

I’ve been watching this thread since @anointed ‘s first post and have been hesitant to jump in as most community members view moderators as part of the core team. So first let me state, as has been periodically stated in the past by other members and moderators, that I am not part of the core BuddyPress team.

The core BuddyPress team currently consists of three people: @apeatling, @johnjamesjacoby, and @MrMaz. Within that core team, only @apeatling is employed by Automattic. The other two volunteer their time and energy to the project.

My association with the BuddyPress project is as a volunteer–as a moderator on the BP.org site and as a independent BP plugin author. As a non-core volunteer and moderator, I do not have any special knowledge or an inside track to the discussions of the core team. Everyone has the same access as I do via the biweekly dev chats on IRC.

So what I post is just my personal assessment. This is not a proclamation about the project. These are solely my thoughts and observations based on informal discussions with others.

Any nascent project experiences bursts of intense activity, followed by lulls as excitement wanes for awhile and people catch their breath, preparing for the anticipated next big burst of activity. This is common at least for successful projects. BuddyPress is no exception. I have observed three or four of these bursts over the past 16 months or so. That is as long as I have been involved with the project and therefore my entire BuddyPress timeline. I would imagine that the project experienced one or two noticeable bursts farther back than 15 months.

Is the recent lull a sign of a slowly dying project? Does Andy’s apparent lack of activity in the project’s bleeding-edge version (aka Trunk) point to deeper issues concerning the future health of the project?

I can of course only speculate, using my previous experience with other Open Source projects as data points. But I will not venture a guess as some might surmise my thoughts to be the truth. Instead I will address this thread’s hypothesis with a few thoughts.

First, I will address my recent lack of activity on the BP.org site. It can be attributed to five factors:

1. I took some time off to attend a family reunion

2. When the new BP.org redesign was launched, it dramatically changed the way support topics where organized and managed. From a moderator’s standpoint, I believe it became more difficult to effectively moderator the conversations.

3. I have other projects that need my time. As I do not get paid to moderator and I have earned only $325 dollars from my BuddyPress activity (in the form of plugin donations), other projects have priority.

4. I needed a break from the community. Before the site’s redesign and relaunch, I was the moderator with the most activity and highest post count. That past history was lost (at least is not reported anymore) with the new design as the old external bbPress forum install gave way to the new internal, group-based bbPress forum install.

5. I’ve been working on the BuddyPress Privacy Component.

Now, on to more pertinent thoughts:

* I believe that the official project site of any Open Source project needs to have a strong showing (presence) by the core team members. It demonstrates the team’s commitment to the project and community. As it currently stands, there is little active involvement on BP.org by the core team members as evidenced by their forum post count.

* The community currently has a single person as project gatekeeper. Andy has ultimate control over the BP.org site, Trac, and the overall project codebase. It is difficult for an Open Source project to thrive in the long term when that is the case. Of course, this is Andy’s creation and he was hired by Automattic to continue the build out of BuddyPress. I’m not sure whether Automattic now owns the copyright to BuddyPress or in fact who owns the copyright. But, keep in mind, that BuddyPress is another Automattic project and Automattic is a for-profit corporation that has graciously provided Andy’s services to keep the project going. BuddyPress is not an Open Source project that is created by, run by, and owned by the community. It is not an Open Source project managed by a not-for-profit entity. What does this mean? Ultimately, it is up to Automattic, and not the community, to decide what happens to BuddyPress and the BuddyPress brand.

* BuddyPress needs to have more active, core developers with commit access.

* Andy needs to communicate with the community on a regular basis, responding to inquires in a more timely manner. Of course Andy deserves rest and time off from the project, especially since over the past two years (or more) he has put in yeoman’s duty. But proactive communication from him would go a long way as to keeping the community informed. It may help bring back the excitement that once seemed to permeate the overall community.

* Finally, we all owe Andy a great deal of gratitude for creating a wonderful alternative to the current social networking platform morass. He is responsible for the vast majority of the codebase and has been very open to feedback and new ideas. If he chooses to move on to another project or company (and I am not saying that is the case as I have absolutely zero inside knowledge), we should simply wish him good luck and thank him for his hard work on BuddyPress.

I will end with a link to an article I wrote on my website six months ago pertaining to project management and leadership. Whereas it is not an article about Open Source projects, there are a few key points that apply to projects of any type.

Are You a Successful Project Manager Or a Reluctant Leader?

@foralien: changing that one line totally did it! Thanks so much for the help!!

Many thanks Ray for your efforts !

Do you also have a clue on that one ?
https://buddypress.org/community/groups/how-to-and-troubleshooting/forum/topic/translate-wording-for-page-httpdomain-comwp-login-php/

1) Download your BP language files from:
https://i18n.svn.buddypress.org/

Make sure you grab the release that is specific to your BP version

And add them to /wp-content/bp-languages/

2) Add this to your /wp-content/plugins/bp-custom.php file:
define( 'BPLANG', 'YOURLOCALE' );
if ( file_exists( WP_CONTENT_DIR . '/bp-languages/buddypress-' . BPLANG . '.mo' ) ) {
load_textdomain( 'buddypress', WP_CONTENT_DIR . '/bp-languages/buddypress-' . BPLANG . '.mo' );
}
—
Just tested it, works for me.

That error only exists on the xprofile management screen.

Perhaps you’re doing something wrong when setting up your profile fields under “Buddypress > Profile Field Setup”?

Try this snippet in your theme’s stylesheet:
#wp-admin-bar {position:absolute !important;}

If you’re customizing the default BP theme, you’ll want to build a child theme so your changes will stay intact when you upgrade BP:
https://codex.buddypress.org/how-to-guides/building-a-buddypress-child-theme/

Thanks to Paul and Ray for keeping up with this forum and helping out !

While I do understand the logic of Automattic to get all their employed coders onto projects which generate the most money for Automattic, I would love to see Andy back dedicated 100% towards BuddyPress….

Some good points, but remember that each of us has the power to shape BuddyPress; that is what is great about the larger WordPress community. I agree with hnla’s points about community leaders; I have clients, lots of twitter messages and emails from all sorts of people who keep asking where Andy Peatling’s gone to.

Without being disrespectful towards Automattic, the consequence of them having Andy work on other projects, such as wordpress.com, is that Andy has less time to work on BuddyPress. As Andy is very much the project leader and is the man with the vision, our community has slowed to some extent. This has caused some concerns, which is why we have this thread. This wouldn’t affect the WordPress project in the same way, because it’s a significantly more mature project and has many more contributors.

It’s worth considering that the current user base of BuddyPress may have reached a plateau at the moment, and that the lack of new users isn’t a sign of weakness in the product; the last big driver for activity was when BuddyPress became compatible with regular WordPress.

Finally, regarding active contributors on these forums; it seems to me that the more “active” forum contributors now earn some sort of money from BuddyPress or WordPress work, and that there just aren’t enough hours in a day to devote to work, clients, our own themes/plugins as well as helping on the forums.
From the perspective of a forum moderator, I can say that the team do take notice of people who do contribute in some way in the forums, and we all are very appreciative of everyone’s contributions.

@Psyber yes you can, it can be done with CSS.

I think i’ve even done it before using just CSS and the table classes for those profile fields > tr.field_twitter, tr.field_facebook class and i didn’t even need the snippet above, I think i did that to put icons directly in the profile/public page and the snippet i used in the sidebar.

@rueschhoff The last part of the user registration is to upload a picture for their avatar.

@cnorris23

sorry… but I have this problem when I install buddypress in multiple sites like “site 2” with define ( ‘BP_ROOT_BLOG’, 2 ); in the wp_config.php file.
I have a different promlem in the same case of @Retroriff

@LOOOL
This is a thread about getting a blank site in WP 3. You don’t have a blank site, and in fact, you seem to have a completely different issue. Please start a new topic instead of hijacking @Retroriff‘s.

There is a preblem with wordpress 3 … every BuddyPress pages show the members list page… so I can’t view and update my profile..

Any suggestion?

Same issue too

You are correct. The two Trac tickets only fixed friend counts. The BP Followers plugin is a separate issue, and would require code change to that plugin. I would try posting in the plugin forum (https://buddypress.org/community/groups/buddypress-followers/forum/) to get that issue resolved, or to at least bring it to Andy’s attention.

@andy: I agree there is much more to life than code… but soccer? Seriously? You mean that “game” where guys run around for 2+ hours and never score a goal? Now if you’d said hockey or any other actual sport… I’d be right there with yah. LOL

Sorry. Just teasing (obviously). I’m fine with the pace by the way. No worries here. Enjoy your summer!!!

Keep BP going! The website http://students.expression.edu relies on BuddyPress!

I truly hope that bp is not dying a slow death. After fiddling with it earlier this year, briefly considering Drupal and Joomla!, exploring SocialEngine, and finally examining TikiWiki, I just FINALLY settled on BuddyPress and am hoping to become an active member of this community. My programming skills are dusty and outdated but I will work hard to give back to the community and help out in anyway that I can. @mikepratt: I just watched your video from a talk you gave in Texas (I found it somewhere on this site, I believe). I found it very informative. Thank you!

@myjive – Please post this as a defect on Trac.

Login with the same credentials as you use here on bp.org.

Note that changes need to occur in the bp_core_catch_no_access() function to be more cooperative with private access pages.

I would agree with @hnla. I accept all that @apeatling and @johnjamesjacoby are up to. The pace is absolutely no issue. The problem is that the BP dev community is langiushing. We need to accept that this is the current state. I’ll make this an open plea to Andy and John, et all to work with us to bring it back to it’s once fervent state. We are all willing to be community sub-leaders but would ask that guidance, feedback and participation come back. Too many messages go unnoticed and unanswered and communities disintegrate when that happens. The new BP.org has issues that need to be addressed (design and flow, not bugs – altho those are present as well).

@harounkola –

Closing topic. If you looked in the forums, you would have found a similar thread:
https://buddypress.org/community/groups/how-to-and-troubleshooting/forum/topic/wordpress-3-0-buddypress-1-2-4-1-and-activity-stream-as-front-page-possible-fix/

Is BuddyPress 1.2.4.1 compatible with WP3.0. I’m having the same problem with the activity stream.
Thanks