SG is a great platform initially when you want to start up a social network.
I have been with them for 3 months. Great software and easy to use but there are MANY limitaions. YOu don’t host anything yourself you you are reliant on their servers which as of late have been terrible. Lot’s of problems, slow page loads etc and issues with widgets not working.
They have just moved data centres so that should improve.
The biggest problem I have is not having access to the content my users create. the vaule of our sites is often user generated material such as forums.
Yes of course SG is secure but what happens if we build a network with a couple of thousand users. they may create thousands of posts which give our site value. Just say SG end up having problems with their servers or indeed don’t last out and aren’t in business down the line. All of our content is gone.
Also you are pretty much limited to their widgets for chat etc which are lacking.
Some good stuff to test out your niche market but I am looking at migrating to BuddyPress in th enext couple of months. I’m putting everything together now.
If you have any questions just ask
Cheers.
I find that the greatest gaps in functionality for the new site I’m putting together is in the integrated BBpress forums
BBpress is not part of Buddypress -> BBpress forums
When I ask about core BP issues here, I’m often referred to the WP or WPMU forums. But questions about BBpress are apparently OK. Why? I don’t get it. Personally I don’t see what forums have to do with a social network. You don’t see Facebook and LinkedIn integrating an oldfashioned linear forum.
So my wishlist? Remove forum integration so I don’t have to comment stuff out or have one more item in an already way too cluttered admin area.
And things like adding (parts of) TinyMCE to textareas you can do yourself if you know some basics of theme customization and read the instructions in the TinyMCE documentation.
(Edited by r-a-y to stay on topic)
As webmaster, you have to use some tools to have anwers for such basic questions.
You can use web developer, for example. Or firebug…
A few questions.
1. When I go to my profile button and click chat it says You’re currently logged out. (I’m not)
2. When I go to another persons profile and click the chat button (next to groups middle page) it says:
Only steve can look at steve’s chat. (I’m logged in as admin in both cases)
3. When on a group homepage, is there a chat button somewhere for the group chat?
4. I’m using a custom bp child theme. I created the folder directory in my child theme /members/single/chat/index.php but it was not taking effect, not to mention I am not sure what I should put into that file.
Are there instructions anywhere on what the child-theme path should be so that we can style the page appropriately?
Please check my profile and see what I’ve been struggling with since about April ’09. I need a really good coder who can help me set up a BuddyPress community and be available for other questions and configurations. I wish to work with someone who is willing to work on Skype while on video calls, who can teach and code and laugh and help at the same time. I am an IT Manager, web manager, musician, and have extensive experience in technical writing and training. I work well with high-level coders.
Just wondering, between all the BuddyPress users, no one have the answer for at least one of these questions?
I would start with GF “paid” help. I’m working with them on similar questions, so check the forums there. Ultimately, it will be a matter of creating a function that inserts the results of a bp function in the value of a form field.
Cheers Mariusooms and co… good work!
No questions or comments so far as I don’t have time to test today but wanted to say thanks.
Hi guys, me again.
I want to give my users some personalization options for their profiles, so this is what I was thinking:
Upon registration there would be a non-required field where people can input a URL for an image, now what I’d like to do is use the value of that field within a style=”” attribute of an element, so I could attach it as a background image.
My questions would be:
* Is using profile fields the right way to do it?
* Can a non-required field (or rather field group) be hidden from the register screen? They are not required after all, so my guess is that this can be accomplished via CSS alone.
* Is there a way to check the value of the field? I’d like to allow only .jpg, .gif and .png files.
I guess the last two are considered “extravagant†so I’d settle for a bare-bones solution (i.e. just enabling the option).
Peter , yes to both questions.
As the username comes up in the user’s URL , some users might prefer usernames and others might prefer emails.
Would be nice to give the user an option.
Thanks
r-a-y, I definitely understand that these days people like to consider older posts and forum threads dead after a short period of time. Some user just like to jump on old stuff without finding the answers in newer threads. However, when there is a dearth of information about a particular topic and people are trying to properly research before posting and all that comes up is old threads, I’m of the opinion that they should be resurrected. Why start a new post asking the same questions and diverging the threads? I’m actively searching for information about this and scrounging through PHP code and websites for answers. I’ve uncovered some good information that I’m trying to share, but am still looking for more answers. If I run a search and it returns all these “dead” threads and no new threads, the masses are going to as well.
Plus, I just replied to other threads offering to help with questions you’ve asked here months ago to which I see no answers. If you’ve figured all this out, why not update those original threads with the answers for newer folks trying to figure things out? If you haven’t figured everything out, then why not be happy that the threads are going active again and information is being shared?
Please don’t take this the wrong way, I just don’t understand why some forums seem to be filled with people complaining about “old” threads being responded to and others appreciate it. And why don’t the forums that are dead-set against replying to old threads, simply close out the old ones?
Alessandro, I’m a bit confused with what you are trying to do. It sounds like you have a normal (single) WP installation and are looking to go social with it. A lot has happened since you posted this and BuddyPress is now available for single WP installs. I’m testing it out now. In WP v3.0, WordPress MU will be merged with the single WP installation and there will be a migration path. I can help answer questions around this… just let me know some more specifics.
regarding “Private Group” on Group-creation, I do have the following questions:
– are the members-data who have joined this “Private-Group” visible to search-engines like Google ?
– are the user-images (avatar-images) and user-Profile-Fields of “Private-Group-Members” visible to search-engines ?
– is the user-activity (e.g. Permalink-comments) within a “Private Group” being exploited to search-engines or is it hidden from search-engines ?
@muratk
there are 3 different questions up there
1) if he’s using WP instead of WPMU then the answer to “How do users make blog posts?” is “they just can’t”. You should use BP with WPMU (not BP + WP) in order for you to enable blog posting by users.
2) “Is there a way for users to make posts to the main site blog?” – It depends on what Hypergripe means by “main site blog”. One of my installations (BP+WPMU) have two different blogs; a) one belonging to the site owner and b) others for each user. Now, Hypergripe, do you mean enabling your users to post on your blog site referred to in a)?
3) “my goal is to have users be able to make a blog post while in my site theme” – The answer of Travel-Junkie is right. However, you may have an options: style your WP back-end the same way your BP site is styled (not so very complicated if you are familiar with CSS)
Yeah, very helpful, thanks! A few further questions:
1. Do these blogs share the identities of users, or do you have to register for each one separately?
2. Is it possible to selectively disable BP for a sub-blog?
3. Can anything be done to make this information more prominently available, like in the BP documentation?
Many thanks again,
D
We have had bits of this conversation going on in a number of other topic threads, but I’d like to unite the conversation in one place. Here are the main issues/questions:
- Is it possible, or will it soon be possible with an upgrade to BP, to have a “Favorite” button in forum posts in addition to Activity Stream posts?
- Ability to “Favorite” a TOPIC, not just an individual post, would be huge, and show FRESHNESS of posts within that topic. I have found this feature very handy here on the Buddypress forums — there are probably 15 Topics I have added to my list of Favorites, and by viewing my Favorites list, I can quickly scan the freshness of topics in the list to see which ones have new replies to read. This is a killer feature that turns the forum into a real tool. I realize that this is a bbPress feature, but since Buddypress is all about integrating bbPress with WordPress, I’m really hoping you can add this feature or someone can make a plugin to do this with BP.
- What is the current state of Favorties plugin development, and is there something in the works that can accomplish the above?
Thanks for all your hard work — BP is an amazing piece of software, and you have done a great job with it.
The upgrade worked for me…Thanks! I’ll post further questions/issues on your site.
@Andy
sorry if my following questions are off-topic:
when I do create a “Private Group” on Group-creation:
– are the members-data who have joined this “Private-Group” visible to search-engines like Google ?
– are the user-images (avatar-images) and user-Profile-Fields of “Private-Group-Members” visible to search-engines ?
– is the user-activity (e.g. Permalink-comments) within a “Private Group” being exploited to search-engines or is it hidden from search-engines ?
– are all data from “Private-Groups” are actually hidden from other members within an installation ?
So if “Private Groups” would be hidden from search-engines, this would be perfect “Privacy” – just need to setup “Private-Groups” only, instead of “Public-Groups” ?
Many thanks.
I simply did the easy things. I added yes or no questions. I put in default profile fields they would have to answer and I added a date of birth field.
What I don’t understand is right now I have registrations closed and they are still signing up.
Registration has been closed for almost an hour and I still got 8 or 9 spam accounts over the last 40 minutes.
How is that possible?
thanks Ray the pathing solved the integration (?) problem but I have to admit this is now getting confusing:)
What I was *expecting* was that the data from my current bbPress would basically be repurposed into BP style/version of bbPress forums.
What I am hearing though is that instead of being a wrapper like BP is around WP I am going to have to maintain two sets of forums?
I have tried both http://www.winextra.com/forums/ and http://www.winextra.com/forums/bb-config.php with the same result – can’t find the file.
If I’m not mistaken, I think you have to put in the absolute file path to bb-config.php (eg. /var/www/forums/bb-config.php).
—
1) bbPress plugins in BuddyPress will require porting to a WP plugin so BuddyPress can detect it. Depending on the complexity of your bbPress plugins, this might be complicated.
2) You’ll basically have two sets of forums – BP group forums and your external install of bbPress. Your external install of bbPress will need to be themed if you want it to match your WP/BP site.
3) BP forums are powered by groups. You need to create a “group” in order to create a forum in BuddyPress. If you choose to integrate an external install of bbPress with BP, your BuddyPress forums will show up in your external install by default as well. To avoid duplication in your external bbPress install, read this thread.
—
Re: long range question. Not sure what is going to happen.
Okay I am in the process of getting BuddyPress 1.2.1 up and running on a WP 2.9.2 install (site: http://www.winextra.com but BP is not available to non-logged in visitors).
Current;y I am just working on the theme aspect ( variation of the default theme which surprising may just suite my needs ) but I have some questions regarding the forums part of BP and my current install of bbPress 1.2.
First off I have tried to connect my currently install forums (http://www.winextra.com/forums/ ) through the Forum Setup option page for BuddyPress. However whenever I point to the folder of where the bb-config.php file is BP keeps telling me that it can’t find the file. I have tried both http://www.winextra.com/forums/ and http://www.winextra.com/forums/bb-config.php with the same result – can’t find the file.
So any suggestions on how to solve this problem would be greatly appreciated.
Now for some general questions regarding BP Forums (hacked bbPress) and the existing installed bbPress forums.
This is all supposing that I manage to get them connected of course to play nice in BP.
1. bbPress plugins – with the switch (if that is what it is) to the BP implementation of bbPress how will the existing plugins I am using be affected?
2. When I incorporated my currently installed bbPress forums with BP will they use the new theme by default or will I have to make a specific bbPress theme to match the new BP/WP blog theme?
3. I saw reference to BP Forums using ‘groups’ instead of the bbPress style categories. How will incorporating my currently installed bbPress forums be affected by those? Will they be converted to the BP style ‘groups’ ?
One long range question: Given the talk of moving bbPress to a plugin for WP how will this affect current BP/bbPress installs.
I am sure I have missed a few questions but this will do for now as they are the most important ones on my mind. I appreciate any input on these questions as I really want to move forward on this change to a WP/BP setup.
Thank you.
Hey:
I’m new to this; be gentle with me.
Here’s the deal: I want to set up a site that has two separate user bases. The main users will be, say, business owners. The second group will be business trainers. I want to keep the two groups separate so that the trainers aren’t spamming the business owners with “Come to my seminar!” style posts, but can interact in a civil way, answering questions, providing information and just generally helping out. It looks like there is a plug-in under development that will allow some sort of segmentation of the user base. Is that correct?
Second. One of the key features of the site will be allowing the Businessmen to comment and offer feedback on the trainers: “I went to this course, and, while he was really interesting, he covered basically the same material as this person did, and they only charged half as much.”
Is this sort of thing currently possible without a lot of hand coding (I know enough php to spell it)? Are there plug-ins/plans afoot whereby one could take and wrestle with Buddypress and get it to do something like that? I don’t have a lot of time, but I have a soft spot for WordPress, and would prefer to use Buddypress than another (paid) system.
Thanks in advance.
