Search Results for 'buddypress'
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Search Results
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1.1.x (whatever it was) was great. I had an activity stream widget on the front page, so I could immediately see (well, once I’d deleted all the spam registrations) who’d been doing what and where, and I click to go and view the context and respond in the same place.
Now I get the feeling that BuddyPress is a platform for creating communities of BuddyPress users
Now there is no profile wire (I renamed it to ‘wall’ because nobody understood what a ‘wire’ is) – it was an absolutely fantastic way for me to greet new users and have a bit of open chat with them.
Now there is this @username nonsense which I don’t understand myself (I am not and never will be a twitter user) – where does that post go? It shows up as if it’s my (Facebook-style) status update. Someone can reply to it but I can’t reply to their reply. All continuity has been lost. I can see the advantage of AJAX replies in the activity stream, but not when it seems a random factor whether the post will appear only in the stream or whether it will appear at source..
The default theme is awful (1.1.x or whatever I had was beautiful, right out of the box) – It took me forever just to get the home page working with two widget columns (surely that wouldn’t have been hard to include in the release..?) but the profile page… ooooh no, it’s a disaster
In 1.1.x I had no problems tweaking the profile page to make it do what I want… with 1.2 it defaults to the awful activity stream and I have to click through to profile on every user to see if he comes from xgGT54GRerju and works at Ox8iHghuf34 before I delete him as a spammer.I started using BP because I needed to replace an ancient platform that I’d written myself ages ago, and I wanted something reliable and extensible because I just don’t have the free time to work on my site anymore. BP 1.1.x was exactly what I wanted (I tried Elgg and some other yucky, heaving nonsense before stumbling on the beautiful BP).
But now it’s just gone off on an utterly bizarre tangent and lost all its intuitive user- (and admin-)friendliness
I know it’s free and I know I’m moaning and not being productive but I really can’t write plugins or themes for BP (much as I would love to – I can’t even work out how to put the wire back) but I feel it’s very sad to see something so good (and so free) go so wrong
@Mike Pratt yes there is really a distinction to be made between blogs and forums, but deciding on which to use? If one disables forums in groups one is simply left with ‘updates’ there is no blog functionality per se (I’m ignoring plugins in the context of this thread) and I’m thinking that the nature of ‘Updates’ is tending to be confusing to users?
“BP tends to be better at constructing grown up environments that focus on quality content contributions” I would agree but not sure why. Quality content contributions are what I perceive as the core of a community or social network as designed using apps such as BP or Ning whereas I tend to view FB as somewhat ephemeral nonsense
(sorry not one of those that consider FB or Twitter as hugely vital) My biggest issue is that as things stand I’m struggling to see my way to a custom configuration based around default BP that does actually facilitate the quality content – this isn’t necessarily a BP ‘fault’ but there are issues that I feel need highlighting such as the confusion that tends to arise around the sitewide activity stream@lph2005 This is the sort of feedback that I felt would play a crucial part in this thread, so it would be interesting if you could explore this further and update the thread. As regards the static front page I’m guessing that this static page did not include the hubbub that is the Site Wide Activity Stream?
Slowly I am beginning to realize that Buddy press is not a straight-out-of-the-box solution. It is not like wordpress. In order to create a proper Buddypress community you really have to *develop* your community.
The negative with this is that the default install is confusing. Comments/updates in the activity stream, forum posts, comments on forum posts, comments on blog posts. Not only do you have different types of comments but you also have meta comments. No wonder things are confusing!
I am tempted to use an analogy of Linux vs Apple. You can do a lot with linux, but all the choices may lead to confusion and an unproductive environment. Apple on the other hand knows the importance of keeping things simple. The iPad is an example of this. It has less features than regular computers, and this makes it easier to use and less confusing. It does fewer things but it does them well.
So what has Apple and Linux got to do with Buddypress? I believe that Buddypress should have several options. (as it has today), but it should be easier to customize Buddypress in order to suit every individual communities` needs. You develop the site to suit you needs. Use what your community needs and remove everything else. Less noise and less confusion and more Apple like
As it is right now, in order to really customize the default install, you have to know PHP etc. This is good if you are a programmer, but unfortunately not all of us are. It seems to me like a lot of the BPusers are non-programmers who just want to add a social layer to their WP site. If Automattic wants to cater to these people, it will be necessary to make it easy to customize BP without having to dive into the code.
I suggest expanding on the options (toggles) in the Admin panel in order to customize the BP install more. That way you can really streamline your community experience.
Example:
– disable commenting for ALL activity-items at the homepage, or choose which one you want to disable. (forum/blogs etc)
– disable activity streams on groups (if admin wants to use forums instead.)
-Choose what is displayed in the activity feed. (Friend connections, blog posts etc)What is apparent, just by reading the previous posts are that we all have different needs:
“Built-in forums are increasingly clashing with commenting on blogs and wires and the social networking structure. There is no reason to have old-fashioned forums in a next generation social network.”
vs
“I think it’s best to strip out sitewide activity stream as well as the groups activity stream. Force users to post content in forums and use their own profile activity stream to post a message to a specific user.”
People want different things, so why not let them have a choice. The new Bp.org is proof that all these different features are useful. They all have their advantages.(although it could use some more improvements to streamline the experience)
I agree with RAYs view:
“For groups, you can either go one way – embrace the activity stream or embrace the forums. It’s not the best thing to try and have it both ways. But this is a decision the BP admin should make (which it is right now). At the end of the day, BP gives you free reign to customize your community all you want.”SUMMARY: My thoughts are that Buddypress needs an easier and more complete way of designing the community through the admin panel.
@Mike – naw – I wouldn’t tell the kids to interact – those were my words. If I told them to interact then the site would be a wasteland
My students are pretty open so I’ll ask for more details. They just finished re-writing the learning guides for next year’s students. This was their group responses to the most important parts:
http://www.thechembook.com/2010/04/30/chemistry-learning-guides-survey/
Since they were open to doing that survey then maybe I can get them to do a list for me about how to fix the BP layout. After all, my students have been building that site for 3 years. The wiki has over 500 articles written or edited by them.
But this year’s students have been very different – they are strongly opinionated. And when they don’t like something then they fold their arms. I call it their civil disobedience moments.
@lph2005 The student’s reaction and feedback will be, indeed, interesting. So far, what you have related is not inconsistent with other platform’s experiences. Students tend to avoid twitter for several reasons. It’s not a place for immature and “student-like” behavior given its democratic nature (why follow someone who just puts out useless drivel – see Sheep Throwing!) To really survive and thrive on Twitter you need to add value to someone’s world.
To get back on topic: BP tends to be better at constructing grown up environments that focus on quality content contributions. That could be why they don’t see much value in it. “Refusing to interact” is a strong characterization. Is that correct? It sounded like they were “told” to interact so it may not be a BP problem after all
Tell us what they “hated” about the default theme. Tell us why switching to a static page that did nothing made activity go up (not intuitive)
Looking forward to your feedback and how it could enhance UI design here.
