Yes, the current group functionality is fairly limited. All you can really do is post comments and participate in forums. There’s no ability to create group content (posts, pages, videos, etc.) and very limited notification options. There used to be an option to post a wire update and notify all members of the post by email. Even this has now been removed in 1.2-bleeding… perhaps a casualty of the merging of the wire and update features. Hopefully it will come back. And hopefully bp-events will progress as well. It’s been very quiet lately.
That said, there is a good foundation in place that I’m sure will be built upon over time by the core team and by plugin developers.
As for the group blog plugin… I tried it but it didn’t do much for me since it doesn’t really integrate very deeply with the group. It’s basically a standalone blog that doesn’t live within the group context.
does the installation actually create “members”, “groups”, etc blogs
No, those are simply slugs that are appended to the URI.
To help us better troubleshoot your issue, please answer these questions.
Is there anyone who likes to hack LifeStream or Simplelife /Complexlife for BP 1.2?
perhaps the problem is that I had “create accounts” locked when I installed buddypress — does the installation actually create “members”, “groups”, etc blogs (and couldn’t, so that’s why it can’t find them)?
The buddypress themes should be place in the normal WP theme folder:
wp-content/themes
Upload bp-sn-parent and bp-default to the theme folder and activate the bp-default theme 
I think the problem may actually be the placement of the buddypress themes (this is not explained anywhere that I can find). I just watched the video about installing on a Mac and I’m trying to figure out where it should be placed (hope I don’t break anything)… 
Download the latest BP release here: https://trac.buddypress.org/changeset/2205/trunk?old_path=%2F&old=2205&format=zip
You can find the new theme in bp-themes/bp-default
Ok here’s an idea..
1: Install the groupblog component
2: Make the default theme for the groupblog the P2 Theme: http://p2theme.com/
3: Only let the admins add new posts (this can be videos like you said) and the members of the group reply
4: Adjust the p2 theme to your taste so that it looks just like your site
You now have a “wall” where admins can post videos/news/photos which does more then a standard wire does and it’s also fully integrated with groups/activity stream.
It does’nt do everything you want but it could work
Don’t want a full blown blog for a group. Did get to thinking and now wondering can you create a category or sticky post type in the forums of the group that only the admin of the group could post to?
If you could do that, you could probably CSS the display of that category or group of stickies so they wind up on the group homepage as well as in the forum. That might work.
Hi there – Really like the look of the new default theme. Sorry if this is stupid question, but is it possible to download the current not-yet-final version as a zip file anywhere please?
Yes, lets please leave friending (and gifts!) to the complete meltdown that is Ning.
Instead of friends, let’s go the twitter route and be able to group people by lists or even with tags. That is useful.
Friending is a complete waste of bandwidth.
I think this is a no-brainer *as long as it doesn’t make life more difficult for the average user.* 
…also trying to avoid duplicating similar features that could just be one flexible component.
That’s why I would also consider deprecating/downplaying forum integration in favor of group blogs, microblogging, threaded comments. Consolidate social organization in Buddypress around blogs and groups. That would really set Buddypress apart.
I really like the idea of “following” people and making lists (friends/co-workers/family) which you can use to filter the activity stream (just like Twitter). But have you thought about how you would like to display this? This new “follow/friends” stream should on a seperate page or on your profile homepage (normal visitors only see your activity stream, you see the stream of all the people you follow)
This way you would visit your profile homepage to get an update of all your friends activity and the network homepage to see what’s happening on the entire network. Basically you would have a “user home” and a “network home”. I think this would be a very good idea and with the inclusion of widgets for both homepages it would be very cool
I’m currently working on my website and made two examples of how I would like to see it done:
User homepage
http://www.bp-tricks.com/wp-content/uploads/my_friendsv1.jpg
Network homepage
http://www.bp-tricks.com/wp-content/uploads/homepage.jpg
Consistent layout but different content: sitewide and personal!
ps: Merry Christmas everyone!
If this was the direction we’d go, it would probably be something like:
1. Deprecate “Friends” component code into a separate downloadable plugin that can still be used exactly like it is now, just not part of the core anymore.
2. Merge friends functionality into private “user” groups so that developers can choose to ditch the “friends” model if they want, rename it to “homies” or “classmates” or whatever, or keep it if they’d like to. (Boone is right on this one; the skin on top of this additional group functionality would make “friends” look and work pretty much identical to how it does now.)
3. “Friends” would replaced with the core ability to “follow” peoples activity, and for your activity to be followed by others. (Andy and I have also tossed around the idea of when people follow each other, that an automatic friendship is assumed.)
Thanks again everyone for joining in on this with your opinions. Our goal is to keep each component as flexible and adaptable as possible, while avoiding code bloat and also trying to avoid duplicating similar features that could just be one flexible component.
You’re all awesome.
hi,
i have a similar problem. when i access the registration page at http://<somehostname>/register i get a HTTP 302 response code and a redirect to the start page.
i’m usingthe following setup:
– buddypress 1.1.2
– wordpress mu 2.8.6
i’m sure, that i followed the installation instructions correctly step by step. i double checked it. the only thing i changed is the theme. however, also with the default theme activated (which i haven’t touched) the issue remains.
does anybody have an idea, why this is?
I checked that but the option in WP-Backend “BuddyPress” > “General Settings” –> Disable user account deletion?: Is set to “No”, but the link still isn’t displayed
EDIT: Problem solved. It was my own fault. I was logged in as overall site admin and this account isn’t deleteable.
Upgrades and updates are a pain, I use the BuddyPress Trac to review changes between minor versions when upgrading and apply them one by one while ensuring that any modifications made by me stay intact.
My motto is that you should let your theme dictate the look and the UI of your BuddyPress site and I’ve modified every single directory to match the look of my theme. Upgrading to 1.2 in January will require a lot of work and I’m actually considering starting from scratch, but I love doing it – it’s like taking your Xmas toys apart and figuring out how they work.
Happy Holidays
@Simon, I guess my question is how you deal with upgrades to BP or your WP theme (if it wasn’t purely homegrown)? It sounds like you were modifying HTML of the parent which I thought was a no-no for upgradeability??
That site is so beautifully, I’m sure many inquiring minds want to know.
Could someone explain the difference between buddymatic and the built-in buddypress parent them in /themes/bp-sn-theme? It seems like they’re both theme frameworks. Is the benefit to buddymatic that it can support all of the themeatic child themes out there?
I’m in the process of selecting a buddypress theme framework and it seems like using the built-in framework buddypress provides would make the most sense?
I’m sure I’m missing something obvious though. Thanks for the replies in advance
@designody
you might be talking about something like the “Group-Blog-Plugin” is offering ?
https://buddypress.org/forums/topic/groupblog-v13-adding-members-instantly-thanks-boone
Maybe I lack clarity. Maybe, it’s the post is just too long. I do understand I can turn off blogs. I’ve done that. Maybe I’m describing a beefed up wire.
For example, the admin of the group “teachers” wants to post a video describing the group on the group page. Maybe add ongoing postings that are “from the admin” as opposed to a stream. I imagine some of this is just changing template files/plugins, but just removing blog functionality wouldn’t get there.
@XEVO, re #3. If I use something like Thesis, do I then keep thesis as parent and then hack it up to work with BP in the child? If so, how do I handle upgrades to functionality in the BP theme framework?
Hi Jean,
h-mag.com was initially setup as a wordpress template. After setting up and installing BuddyPress, I imported each of the components one by one and began modifying the parent theme’s CSS and restructuring the HTML to match the functionality of the original wordpress theme. There are not shortcuts, just a lot of tedious work and trial and error.
I agree. Just turn off blogs. I don’t necessarily see BuddyPress as a social network for bloggers.
Original question:
… deprecating the friends component entirely, and using the groups API to mimic the behavior of “friending” people, which is basically just grouping people together anyhow
Removing the friends component would be great from a KISS perspective. Could you do Twitter-style following with the groups API?
