BuddyPress.org

Not sure, but it is probably done in the Buddypress menu.
Buddypress – General Settings – Disable activity stream commenting on blog and forum posts? YES
and/or
Buddypress – Component Setup – Activity Streams: Allow users to post activity updates and track all activity across the entire site. NO

Don’t forget the author.php. I use it in the most creative ways! As mentioned above you can use Gforms for frontend posting, or even allow your subscribers only access to Writing Post admin page only and then display the users’ “blog” posts on their author.php page (yoursite.com/author/username).

You could even embed the gform in the author.php for loggedin authors and display posts for logged out. You can go as far as customizing that author.php template to add the parts of the buddypress member profile, (I think you can replicate the entire member profile on there if you really wanted to) and voila you have user blogs without multisite and blog within user profile. Heck you could even make the author.php template very blog like and include a dedicated sidebar and widgets that only pertain to that author. It takes some..(alot of) tweaking but it’s doable, so good luck!

has_members()
next_member()
rewind_members()
members()
the_member()
bp_rewind_members()
bp_has_members( $args = ” )
‘type’ => $type,
‘page’ => $page,
‘per_page’ => 20,
‘max’ => false,
‘include’ => false, // Pass a user_id or comma separated list of user_ids to only show these users
‘user_id’ => $user_id, // Pass a user_id to only show friends of this user
‘search_terms’ => $search_terms, // Pass search_terms to filter users by their profile data
‘populate_extras’ => true // Fetch usermeta? Friend count, last active etc.

bp_the_member()
bp_members()
//Misc
bp_members_pagination_count()
bp_members_pagination_links()
bp_member_user_id()
bp_get_member_user_id()
bp_member_user_nicename()
bp_get_member_user_nicename()
bp_member_user_login()
bp_get_member_user_login()
bp_member_user_email()
bp_get_member_user_email()
bp_member_is_loggedin_user()
bp_member_avatar( $args = ” )
bp_get_member_avatar( $args = ” )
‘type’ => ‘thumb’,
‘width’ => false,
‘height’ => false,
‘class’ => ‘avatar’,
‘id’ => false,
‘alt’ => __( ‘Member avatar’, ‘buddypress’ )

bp_member_permalink()
bp_member_link()
bp_get_member_link()
bp_member_name()
bp_get_member_name()
bp_member_last_active()
bp_get_member_last_active()
bp_member_latest_update( $args = ” )
bp_get_member_latest_update( $args = ” ) {
‘length’ => 15

bp_member_profile_data( $args = ” )
‘field’ => false, // Field name
bp_member_registered()
bp_get_member_registered()
bp_member_add_friend_button()
bp_add_friend_button( $members_template->member->id, $friend_status )
bp_member_total_friend_count()
bp_get_member_total_friend_count()
bp_member_random_profile_data()
bp_member_hidden_fields()
bp_directory_members_search_form()
bp_total_site_member_count()
bp_get_total_site_member_count()
//Check bp-core-templatetags.php for comments about nav tags
bp_get_loggedin_user_nav()
bp_get_displayed_user_nav()
bp_get_options_nav()
bp_get_options_title()
//Avatar Tags
bp_has_options_avatar()
bp_get_options_avatar()
bp_comment_author_avatar()
bp_post_author_avatar()
bp_loggedin_user_avatar( $args = ” )
bp_get_loggedin_user_avatar( $args = ” ) {
‘type’=> ‘thumb’,
‘width’=> false,
‘height’=> false,
‘html’=> true

bp_displayed_user_avatar( $args = ” )
bp_get_displayed_user_avatar( $args = ” )
‘type’=> ‘thumb’,
‘width’=> false,
‘height’=> false,
‘html’=> true

bp_avatar_admin_step()
bp_get_avatar_admin_step()
bp_avatar_to_crop()
bp_get_avatar_to_crop()
bp_avatar_to_crop_src()
bp_get_avatar_to_crop_src()
bp_avatar_cropper()
//Other
bp_site_name()
bp_core_get_wp_profile()
bp_get_profile_header()
bp_exists( $component_name )
bp_format_time( $time, $just_date = false )
bp_word_or_name( $youtext, $nametext, $capitalize = true, $echo = true )
bp_your_or_their( $capitalize = true, $echo = true )
bp_get_plugin_sidebar()
bp_page_title()
bp_get_page_title()
bp_styles()
bp_has_custom_signup_page()
bp_signup_page()
bp_get_signup_page()
bp_has_custom_activation_page()
bp_activation_page()
bp_get_activation_page()
bp_search_form_enabled()
bp_search_form_action()
bp_search_form_type_select()
bp_search_form()
bp_log_out_link()
bp_custom_profile_boxes()
bp_custom_profile_sidebar_boxes()
bp_create_excerpt( $text, $excerpt_length = 55, $filter_shortcodes = true )
bp_is_serialized( $data )
bp_total_member_count()
bp_get_total_member_count()
bp_signup_username_value()
bp_get_signup_username_value()
bp_signup_email_value()
bp_get_signup_email_value()
bp_signup_with_blog_value()
bp_get_signup_with_blog_value()
bp_signup_blog_url_value()
bp_get_signup_blog_url_value()
bp_signup_blog_title_value()
bp_get_signup_blog_title_value()
bp_signup_blog_privacy_value()
bp_get_signup_blog_privacy_value()
bp_signup_avatar_dir_value()
bp_get_signup_avatar_dir_value()
bp_current_signup_step()
bp_get_current_signup_step()
bp_signup_avatar( $args = ” )
bp_get_signup_avatar( $args = ” ) {
‘size’ => BP_AVATAR_FULL_WIDTH,
‘class’ => ‘avatar’,
‘alt’ => __( ‘Your Avatar’, ‘buddypress’ )
bp_signup_allowed()
bp_get_signup_allowed()
bp_blog_signup_allowed()
bp_get_blog_signup_allowed()
bp_account_was_activated()
bp_registration_needs_activation()
bp_mentioned_user_display_name( $user_id_or_username )
bp_get_mentioned_user_display_name( $user_id_or_username )
bp_get_option( $option_name )
bp_ajax_querystring( $object = false )
bp_last_activity( $user_id = false, $echo = true )
bp_user_has_access()
bp_user_firstname()
bp_get_user_firstname()
bp_loggedin_user_link()
bp_get_loggedin_user_link()
bp_loggedinuser_link()
bp_displayed_user_link()
bp_get_displayed_user_link()
bp_user_link()
bp_displayed_user_id()
bp_current_user_id()
bp_loggedin_user_id()
bp_displayed_user_domain()
bp_loggedin_user_domain()
bp_displayed_user_fullname()
bp_get_displayed_user_fullname()
bp_user_fullname() { echo bp_get_displayed_user_fullname()
bp_loggedin_user_fullname()
bp_get_loggedin_user_fullname()
bp_displayed_user_username()
bp_get_displayed_user_username()
bp_loggedin_user_username()
bp_get_loggedin_user_username()
bp_current_component()
bp_current_action()
bp_current_item()
bp_action_variables()
bp_root_domain()
bp_get_root_domain()
//Conditionals
bp_is_blog_page()
bp_is_my_profile()
bp_is_home()
bp_is_front_page()
bp_is_activity_front_page()
bp_is_directory()
bp_is_page($page)
bp_is_active( $component )
bp_is_profile_component()
bp_is_activity_component()
bp_is_blogs_component()
bp_is_messages_component()
bp_is_friends_component()
bp_is_groups_component()
bp_is_settings_component()
bp_is_member()
bp_is_user_activity()
bp_is_user_friends_activity()
bp_is_activity_permalink()
bp_is_user_profile()
bp_is_profile_edit()
bp_is_change_avatar()
bp_is_user_groups()
bp_is_group()
bp_is_group_home()
bp_is_group_create()
bp_is_group_admin_page()
bp_is_group_forum()
bp_is_group_activity()
bp_is_group_forum_topic()
bp_is_group_forum_topic_edit()
bp_is_group_members()
bp_is_group_invites()
bp_is_group_membership_request()
bp_is_group_leave()
bp_is_group_single()
bp_is_user_blogs()
bp_is_user_recent_posts()
bp_is_user_recent_commments()
bp_is_create_blog()
bp_is_user_friends()
bp_is_friend_requests()
bp_is_user_messages()
bp_is_messages_inbox()
bp_is_messages_sentbox()
bp_is_notices()
bp_is_messages_compose_screen()
bp_is_single_item()
bp_is_activation_page()
bp_is_register_page()
bp_the_body_class()
bp_get_the_body_class( $wp_classes, $custom_classes = false )

I would like to know this too

Try reading up on enabling a third-party provider for WordPress’ embedding capability:
https://codex.wordpress.org/Embeds#How_Can_I_Add_Support_For_More_Websites.3F

If you want to use Wistia code, which I’m guessing you need to use the “ or “ tags, you’ll need to bypass the activity filters that are in place by default, so malicious content will not get the chance to be executed.

If you trust your userbase, you can disable these filters by reading this:
https://buddypress.org/community/groups/how-to-and-troubleshooting/forum/topic/make-users-able-to-use-and-in-their-posts

Or this:
https://buddypress.org/community/groups/how-to-and-troubleshooting/forum/topic/embedded-video-in-forums-and-streams/

If you’re planning on just embedding the Wistia video on a blog post, just enable some form of WordPress plugin that allows you to embed content like this:
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/embed-object/

it’s possible and I am sort of working on something like this but when I say working managing to map out all the problems I hadn’t envisaged. At the moment there is a manual-ish approach that can be taken where one (admin) can set profile fields check boxes that correspond to existing post tags, user makes a selection of the tags that interest them and then a post loop is run against the user id and the tags they have selected and posts displayed, I wanted to try and take that further and make it less manual but I may try to run up the widget first then try and build the rest around it

I would like to know if this is possible too?

Hopefully someone else will chime in, but the only thing you may lose by not importing the bb_usermeta would be any customisation a user has done to their “display name” or “nice name”; it’d default back to that person’s username. They’d have to just type their preferred display name back in to WordPress or bbPress, so nothing tricky. So, I don’t think you need to.. probably.

I get the feeling you’re aware of this, but I’d suggest having a test-run of this to find out how well it works (or doesn’t) before doing it on your live database. Also, check that bb_usermeta and wp_usermeta have the same columns, you may need to massage the import a bit.

Once you get the users into WordPress, and you can log in as one of them, we can see about associating existing bbPress forum posts with a particular BuddyPress Group’s forum. I’ve not done that myself so hopefully someone who has can guide.

That sounds like you actually need a custom front page, but what do mean by ‘click it’ that’s a rather loose term click what?

Why does that page not simply have the text/content you want with a simple link to the registration page and also a simple login, registered users will login and be directed to their profile page by the plugin mentioned earlier. What you do with the main site home link is another question, suppose it’s possible to have that custom frontpage display your intro page to all logged out users and once logged in if a member navigates back to that page it will display ? activity loop / main site blog posts

“Slowing down does not mean dying. It means they get tired. Tired devs make mistakes. they also have a big job – half the users want faster dev, the other half doesn’t. Vocal people want this change, two months later, more vocal people want the last change ripped out. See the problem there?”

Very understandable. Solution: Stop listening to all the feature requests and all the questions about forums/bbpress, event management, galleries, etc. Focus on the core: users, posts, comments. Make those solid and flexible, standardized as much as possible on what is already in WordPress, but with the member management and privacy/security you need for a social network. What are the minimum requirements to run a social network on top of WordPress? Boil it down. All the rest is for theme and plugin developers. Activity stream etc. is just one way to display data. Without a solid, coherent core it will only become a bigger mess as everybody piles on their hacks and ideas.

“There is almost no benefit whatsoever of Friends within BuddyPress …”

Buddypress was supposed to be social networking added to blogging. Friends could form groups and work together in blogs. Friending itself is probably most relevant for internal email. The one thing you need to make that work is beefed up member management beyond default WordPress:

– full real names instead of anonymous meaningless usernames
– extendable, flexible member data fields
– ways to manage member lists
– ways to manage member roles
– ways to manage relations between members
– privacy and security controls on member data
– front-end functionality for members to manage their own profile data
– front-end functionality for members to manage their relationships
– etc.

None of these points get the attention they deserve. Again, if you have the three solid elements (1) members (“users”), (2) posts, (3) comments, all the rest is just a matter of displaying the data in different views, including forum view.

The shift in focus from blogging to the old-fashioned bbpress forum structure further derailed the project. Adding social networking to blogging should have been the main focus.

“the best setup is having either Forums or Activity.”

I use neither. I’m trying to structure my custom 1.1.3-based theme around member profiles, blogs and groups with group blogs. My activity stream just reflects what’s happening on the profiles, blogs and groups; it’s not a discussion thread in itself – I think I originally broke the ajax and had to remove reply buttons etc…