BuddyPress.org

Hey Matt,

there is a related ticket on trac (https://trac.buddypress.org/ticket/1498) and a free plugin called “Invite Anyone” by Boone Gorges (https://buddypress.org/forums/topic/invite-anyone)

I haven’t tested it yet, but probably gonna do it soon, because i agree with you on this issue.

This is my big pet peeve with Buddypress; there is no consistent built-in way to store fullname (as firstname + lastname). Profile synching only happens when members update their profile using the WP backend.

This is by design. BP’s lead developer Andy Peatling believes firstname/lastname would not work for international users.

My ugly workaround is here. Also see this one. I use the Javascript trick to generate a username from the fullname, so at least those are easier to recognize.

I found a fix here: https://buddypress.org/forums/topic/more-privacy-options-private-blogs-and-activity-streams. Worked for me.

I don’t mind subscription services and believe that they should be compensated, but $79 a month is a bit high. I paid for $30 for buddydev for 3 months and think that’s worth it.

If I could buy outright the magazine theme to try and the calendar plugin and receive updates, I’d pay $79 for them right now, even if I just got updates for 6 months or so.I just don’t want to commit to that much per month with bp 1.2 pending, wpmu 2.9 pending, etc.

on wpmudev, i also cancelled my subs after the first month… ok, at first i was sure it was a monthly payment, not a subscription, so i did not care… but the day the paypal sent me a notice about the renewal, i was shocked.. lol i requested a refund, they refused. and worst, i requested a refund and instead of it, my account was cancelled … on day one of the second month subs… come on… what, 80$…

on my site, people pay 2 kinds of subscriptions… half price if you do not require support… 25$ for a complete month without limit… that’s good.. lol. and all the tools on my site are bringing profits on a site, so it’s a low price. but wpmu, they do not worth 80$/m…

we can’t point out their technique, i was the one who registered first, they did not force me to, so i can’t blame them… but as i donate to all the coders that i use the codes from, that was a big 2 months donation.. lol

that’s one of the faces of GPL… someone can subscribe to a site like this, steal the whole work, recode the tools and re-release them for free or even paid… nobody will be able to say a word, because that’s why the GPL was built…

the situation you described above is exactly why I cancelled my subscription.. I’ve downloaded almost every plugin that might come in handy I prayed that they keep on working on WPMU/BP because you will not receive support after a cancellation of your subscription. They have some good plugins but I also noticed their work is not always as good as it seems to be features and support wise.

Not saying it’s bad or anything, absolutely not. But they seem to have much on their plates workwise and that means that fixes/new features are not added as fast as you would like. Just my opinion and I do like their support and service they offer

I’m with you David. I just posted a comment on that plugin to ask about changes to their subscription model. $79 is a small price to pay for something that powerful but unlike other software, you NEED to be able to get updates with how often bp/wp updates come out. The difference is that unlike other software that means you just don’t get new features, this plugin will probably BREAK when the new version comes out. Think about having to keep buying a game for your xbox every time xbox live gets updated or having to rebuy software every time microsoft updates windows with patches.

I propose that for subscription models like them, that it would be good if they offered free upgrades to software THAT YOU HAD ACCESS TO WHEN YOUR SUBSCRIPTION WAS LIVE. I can understand not giving you acess to new software/plugins but if they just offered you updates for something like 6 months, that would be sufficient. or else, if they just sold the plugin by itself and you received updates for free, that would work too.

For instance, i register and download theme A and plugin A and cancel my subscription. Next month plugin b comes out and BP 1.2 comes out. I can understand not getting plugin B but if plugin A breaks with 1.2, that means that I paid $79 for it to work for a month and then will need to buy it again.

Am I crazy in thinking this? I’m sure like me this project has a very limited budget and $80 a month just to make sure that my site will continue to function is a bit out of range.

@David: I have the exact same problem. A demo site with all plugins would be great. My site is a non-profit site, but i wouldn’t mind pay for it. I really think events should be a core component, because 90% of all communities would benefit from such a feature. Same is valid for an album component. But on the other hand buddypress is driven by only 2 guys and they are doing an absolute awesome job, so i do understand that not every wish come true.

@DJPaul: I’m really happy that you are going to develop your own component. May i ask if you have any plans to provide it for free and if its also focused on groups? I know ur Achievements plugin and i really like it. It doesn’t fit my target audience, but you could count me in for testing an events component if u need any help.

Code should be free under the GPL, but support has value. Unfortunately it’s difficult to charge people for your time through a website, which is why developers tend to charge for code or put up a paywall.

Someone make a BuddyPress site where your paypal is part of registration, and every time someone in the developer group marks a forum topic as resolved, it invoices paypal for $1 from the topic starter.

That, would be the best way to make money as a dev without freelancing or consulting, in my opinion.

@21cdb Wow. Good catch! Why did I not know about this plugin?! Maybe I looked at it months ago and discounted it because of the fee and the fact that bp-events was looking good at the time. I’d be more than happy to pay if it’s a decent plugin. I wish they had demo pages of their plugins so you could try before you buy. But it looks good based on the description. Directory listings. Groups and Profile integration. Calendar views. And even Google Maps integration (probably a simple feature to add… but still cool).

The only thing is… I would not mind paying. $79 is a small price to pay. But I’d hate to join just for that one plugin and then drop my membership and miss out on any and all future updates. Hmm. And there’s no way I can afford $79/mo. on an ongoing basis.

I also just posted asking if it will work with 1.2.

I guess that’s a pretty good answer joseph! Two other possibilities already. One paid and one perhaps just starting out… but nevertheless. I’m sure there will be options. Too bad about the slow progress of bp-events. Maybe Erwin is just taking a well deserved break.

As a side note… I find it humorous and ironic that in a thread that started with “this thing is taking forever” there’s a response above written just three short months ago saying “once 1.1 drops (looking forward to tomorrow, Andy!)”.

Don’t know but I’m working on my own events component fwiw

Some of those strings aren’t localised. Please report a bug on http://trac.buddypress.org — for the 1.2 milestone — using your username and password from this site.

I’ll be reworking the schema in 1.2, interested to hear your ideas.

Could LDAP standards be a useful guideline?

BuddyPress doesn’t touch user authentication. Whatever works with WP/WPMU will work with BuddyPress. I know http://bit.ly/17TEbD works. Someone like Boone Gorges might be able to comment if they use a LDAP plugin/which one.

Has anyone tried “BuddyPress calendar and event plugin” from wpmu.org? I would like to see it somewhere live and there is no demo available. It looks pretty good – Events are tied to groups, same as forums.

I just asked them if it will be work with BP 1.2 and if there are any plans on offering a free feature less version.

http://wpmu.org/buddypress-calendar-and-event-plugin/

We were discussing displaying single xprofile fields here.

Someone gave me this function:

function custom_xprofile( $field ) {

echo bp_custom_get_member_list_xprofile_data( $field );

}

function bp_custom_get_member_list_xprofile_data( $field ) {

global $site_members_template;

return xprofile_get_field_data( $field, $site_members_template->member->id );

}

So you can use this in the members index.php:

<p><?php custom_xprofile('Company') ?></p>

But it only works in members_template. I’d like to have a function for xprofile fields that works anywhere…

Haven’t had time to try variations on this one. Suggestions very welcome!

@Anton Koekemoer, I’m pretty sure the key would be in replacing $site_members_template in the function, but I wouldn’t know with what.

EDIT2: Here’s the thread where I originally got the function, from John James Jacoby.

Hard to say Joseph. But it’s safe to say that events is a component that a lot of people will want. So I can’t imagine a future where there wouldn’t be some kind of solution. The demand is there. How patient we mere mortals (non-programmers) have to be is another story.