BuddyPress.org

Hello, and thank you for all the great work!

I have been using WordPress for about 15 years. I started my first online community in 2008.
I then chose not to use Buddypress, because at the time it was fine with a forum. Facebook hadn’t invented its activity wall yet, and people didn’t expect too much.

Now in 2022 I am in the process of re-launching this old online community again, after it has been dead for a number of years. (Mostly because Facebook arrived)
Meanwhile, I’ve been using WordPress & Woocommerce a lot – last couple of years – with Gutenberg and Blocks. An absolutely fantastic solution to a lot of problems!

If you use WordPress, it’s because you can do something yourself, but you can’t do everything.

I was therefore really looking forward to getting started with Buddypress in relation to the relaunch I’m about to start, but I was a little disappointed when I saw that it is not at all possible to use gutenberg to style the absolutely required pages. For example Register, Profile, Members, Activity etc.

I think many who now use WordPress are people who want to own their own information, have 100% control, and to shape something themselves out of their own creativity. They may have some knowledge, but not always enough to do programming, or to go deep into css and theme design etc. They don’t have time for that either.

Gutenberg blocks are therefore the perfect bridge between those who know a LITTLE, but need the help of software to do the rest, and who want to create something quickly.
I think there are many of us..

Wordpress scores highly here with blocks and easy solutions.

You can now use Kadence Theme + Gutenberg blocks to create almost anything you want.

I’m not a programmer myself, but I own a couple of companies. Much of the joy is being able to create something, see it being used, make it work – and I can do that by using blocks.

I’ve gone back and forth between Buddypress and Buddyboss, after I realized that Buddypress doesn’t yet have this functionality and tried to think what I really want.
With Buddyboss, I get a great theme, and it has all the functionality I need – but I’m completely locked into just that. Also, I’m not very impressed with companies that take credit for a product that was originally created by someone else. That is why I prefer to use Buddypress, and I also see Buddypress as the authority here.

I think you Buddypress developers will be able to deliver something more in the future, than what I expect from a company working with a product not originally made by themselves.

But still I see it difficult using Buddypress as it would turn out to be much more expensive, since I have to contact someone at upWork to do it the way I want it.
To many people it would be more logical to pay a couple of hundred dollars to be able to start tomorrow.

So my contribution to the discussion is perhaps not a secret: Make buddypress elements ready to use as blocks. And make sure to market it as a “point and click system with Gutenberg”

Additionally, specifically for my online community, I will need:
– Forums
– Private messaging
– Notification system
– Nice looking user profiles
– Speedy site
– Friends
– Follow friends
– Moderation system for both community and forums.

I might be too close to BuddyPress since using it since the 0.1 days (yes, that version is right). I do agree more with the comments so far about the “product fit” and some of that “vibe” feels like some people talking about where WordPress itself (which BP relies on) although I feel WordPress still fills many holes and has a long life to it. But there are two factors I consider to be competitors that offer attractive, “modern/hip”, and easier (in same cases) solutions:

– TikTok, Instagram, etc. social networks – the trend of posting content OUTSIDE your site and not truly 100% owning it. These are the “Wix” and “Medium” versions that WordPress exists with. They are easier to setup and the social mass effect can’t be beat. It would be neat though to have a BP-lite that could setup a TikTok like video sharing network (perhaps that could intergrate with 3rd parties). I’m not sure if there’s a “build this feature and it will help big” here, since if a user or client wants to use them you can’t stop them. But appeal maybe to the niche (which BuddyPress has always done well) and the customizers out there that maybe want something like them, or something that has a slimed down feature set with an attractive new theme/look.

– BuddyBoss. Surprised this hasn’t been brought up. Look at what they are doing in terms of features. The past few freelance projects that the cilents could have used BuddyPress on for new projects, they went and paid for BuddyBoss. My observations has been because of the (1) marketing, (2) features, and (3) continued support (the mobile app also maybe played a part although I’ve heard disappointing experiences about that). I know some don’t like BuddyBoss because they’ve forked BP and (as far as I know) really haven’t contributed anything back (GPL, open source, etc.) But if you’re looking for features, look at what this for-profit company is doing (big and small) because logically they are likely listening to their base and current customers and their actions and focus might be some input.

I do support a BuddyCamp (I used to have a BuddyCamp Miami way back… in 2010 I think?).

Some good BuddyPress plugins have been difficult to recommend because of their maintenance or lack thereof, with no fault to the authors. But BuddyPress always needs SOME plugins when being used for projects. Might be also nice for other plugin companies (say Yoast?) to promote their BuddyPress support.

I would love to see a new theme but not sure yet what direction to offer further $0.02 on that.

No real comments from a coding perspective – there are developers here with more experience in that. A “BuddyPress lite” plugin if you’re talking about “restarting from another plugin” might be worth some discussion. Imagine just spending 5 minutes with a few clicks and you have your own private, secure social network just for your friends/family. Simple. Easy. Modern looking, works with modern tech, etc.

Just my opinion and just an AI translation:

Where are the sticking points?

BP core:
After 9 months with BP and several free BP plugins, there are still a lot of questions. Group handling and invitation are too complex and partly illogical. (Example: Group Owner is allowed to remove himself and then the administrator has to ‘intervene’). Furthermore, internal e-mail, where you have to select users based on their usernames (@…). Also not visually appealing and sometimes rather confusing in use. Other BP features (sorting/displaying members within groups!) that don’t work even on a WP default theme (Twenty Twenty-Two). Just annoying!

In principle, the core plugin provides too little (in terms of functionality). Best example: Blogging and media. Something that defines WP at its core. In addition to two larger commercial “BP providers” and some ancient plugins in the WP repo, the selection and comparability is difficult if you want to use them for specific rights and groups. I understand that you want to offer an open and expandable system, but something “more” would be desirable or necessary.

BP mailing list:
Hardly any actions, but many (trivial) questions and no answers. On the other hand, technically interesting answers are often 10 years or more in the past (and unfortunately still up-to-date in principle), but where there is no attempt to test them in a current BP version.

ToDo (Plugins into Core):
Directory: Very important! Of course you can use “BP Custom Fields” but there’s no option to do a filter search, based on different fields to exclude displaying other profiles – or I just can’t find the options. Tried “BP Profile Search”

Why not just embed a few components “more tightly” into the core, why not simply take over the source code of others who simply “copy” BP themselves without returning anything to the community? There was an interesting discussion about this recently on another platform site.

Wishes:
– Rights management for pages/posts or for individual BP components (either private/public or at user level) – e.g. “User Access Manager”
– E-mail communication between each other without having to use the real e-mail address and being able to leave the borders of BP – e.g. “BP Reply By Email”

It’s a pity, but currently STILL not enough for uncomplicated use and sometimes stopped in development. In addition, commercial providers who copy BP as well as other WP Social Media Group solutions that are more complete and appear more self-contained.

To name a few plugins that could be partially included:

Theme: BuddyX (free)
BP 11 (dev) &
BP Attachments (dev) (what does it do? Substitution of BuddyDrive?)
– bbPress (smarter integration)
– BP Profile Search (no filter options found)
– BP Reply By Email (should be core as option)
– BuddyDrive (should be Core)
– Buddpress Docs
– BuddyPress Xprofile Custom Field Types (should be core)
– BuddyPress Xprofile Conditional Fields (should be core)
– Rendez Vous (should be core as option)
– “BuddyPress XY Blog” (should be core)
– “BuddyPress XY Search”