BuddyPress.org

@fanvid really nice post, in fact the best I’ve read so far IMO, you also said that elgg has image posting, where? The file plugin? Apart form having likes and hashtag support, it’s kindda the same. Plus the hard thing about elgg is their codding standards, very hard to implement stuff and to design a great theme, BP is way easier in that regard. Just my two cents about it.

I agree 100% that BP should start over, fresh. Don’t try to copy WordPress with the blocks and stuff, just release it with basic social features and make a plugin market right here only for BP.

Hi everyone,

I am using an Uncode theme, Buddy Press Version 10.4.0 and WordPress 6.0.3. We’ve setup a Two empty pages ‘Register’ & ‘Activation’ and assigned them through the BuddyPress and it’s been working fine up until now. However, we can no longer see a Registration form and not sure what can be the issue, could you please help us solve this issue.

Thanks in advance.

please can you tell me how you got your problem fixed through the theme ? i had the same problem and i downloaded the theme without problem , i went through all steps just like you, i still have the same problem

If you are using BP Nouveau then this code snippet should work:

function themename_bp_reorder_member_directory_filters( $filters, $context ) {
	if ( 'group' !== $context ) {

		$filters = array();

		if ( bp_is_active( 'xprofile' ) ) {
			$filters['alphabetical'] = __( 'Alphabetical', 'buddypress' );
		}

		$filters['active'] = __( 'Last Active', 'buddypress' );
		$filters['newest'] = __( 'Newest Registered', 'buddypress' );
	}

	return $filters;
}
add_filter( 'bp_nouveau_get_members_filters', 'themename_bp_reorder_member_directory_filters', 10, 2 );

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.

Thank you for all your great work!

I think the number one problem is the UI. Most people install BuddyPress on their or a default theme and the result is not pretty.

This deters most people and makes them look for other solutions.

A BuddyPress theme that looks modern and nice would be a great addition. If it is too much trouble, it might even be a list of 3rd party themes endorsed by BuddyPress.

A notice for users to use a BuddyPress endorsed theme after they install the plugin would solve that problem.

Statistics
Most community owners need data for their communities. Having analytics on their member engagement and other statistics would be of huge value to them.

Plugin Directory
Furthermore, I would like a plugin directory for BuddyPress related plugins. Us BuddyPress developers would love to have a place to showcase our plugins, and also, the users would have a place to look for extensions easier.

BuddyPress developers/agencies
Many times users need help with their sites, but they do not know where to turn to. Having a list of approved/certified BuddyPress developers/agencies would be a big help to them.

Thanks again.

Mobile app.

Browser only websites are dying, slowly. Can you imagine discord, telegram etc without a mobile app?

I am working on a wordpress theme that focuses on being a bridge for headless wordpress + https://quasar.dev

I believe BuddyPress can be ground breaking for any mobile app that built with WordPress.

During office work in lockdown of covid, buddypress not give proper support. In modern time there have revolutionary change in social media. Reaction, activities variation,etc. Suddenly chating programmes become more popular than email & social media post. WhatsApp, instagram, Twitter, tiktok give some extra experience than buddypress. In present time facebook, instagram, WhatsApp try to make many change to stay stable. Youtube start short video after popularity of tiktak. We should depend on many more plugins for design the buddypress based community. So reduce dependency on them. Without theme you should develop moser buddypress template, which is suitable for modern time in all device. Hashtags also.

The most important thing BuddyPress is missing is social engagement. BuddyPress lacks a lot of features that makes a social network. Likes / Reactions, media posting, hashtags, user activity as main activity page, suggestions like who to befriend and what groups to join, and many more.

Yes, these features are present with the help of other BuddyPress plugins, but why? Why not make them part of the core? These are generic social networking features that all other social platforms have.

Or at least make them add-ons. The theme is my last suggestion. Make a simple theme for BP so that developers can modify it as they please. Install the theme when BP is installed. Or maybe suggest to install the theme after.

The reason why developers prefer different platform is because doing new type of theme based on js framework and not on general wp template files and learn new js framework require a lot of time.

Another reason is lack of ducumentation for developers and code examples. Codex must be improved.

If Woocommerce has theme storefront for using features of woo and has also open source woocommerce mobile app, bouddypress can have the same. Dedicated theme wich gonna be very easily customized with blocks and template tags. Source code for customizing buddypress mobile app.

I love 💕 buddypress.

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”

Before diving into technical or feature suggestions since as a developer I’m automatically wired to go via that route, I thought about asking non-technical people about the product, BuddyPress, itself.

I recently participated in the WordCamp US and had the chance of talking to a few people, besides conversations I had online (Slack, etc). I think the overall feedback I gathered is that BuddyPress needs to find its product-market fit.

## Product-market Fit

The overall argument is that BuddyPress made sense when it was created because organizations needed a unique social network. Nowadays this is easily solvable with other tools that weren’t available at the time like Slack, Discord, Telegram, Facebook Groups, etc.

It’s much easier now to create social communities/networks using those tools than using BuddyPress. So as a project, we are not only competing against other open source projects but also with big companies which provide a solution to this problem in a much better way.

So far, all the conversation I’ve read about this issue sort of understands this new reality but the solutions presented miss this important point. So finding a new “place” for BuddyPress in this new scenario might actually be the most important thing we can do and that will define how we spend our resources going forward.

## BuddyPress’ problems

### Complexity

Before I became a BuddyPress contributor, I used to build small communities for clients. One of the first things I noticed about this niche was that all communities were the same but different. There was always a small tweak or a small feature on top of an existing component needed. BuddyPress was perfect for business. Clients didn’t know how to do it, so they hired me to build or extend it for them.

Even to this day, I still think BuddyPress suffers from this “problem”. If you are not a developer, BP is too hard to change. In BuddyPress’ marketing, it sells itself as flexible software, which is, but only if you are a developer extending or building something on top of it. Not to the regular users that install or try to use it.

I think this is an area where other tools thrive in comparison. People don’t usually build social networks with BuddyPress because it is open source. That also includes WordPress. They use WordPress because it is easy, a good solution for a problem at hand: “how do I make my own dam website?”.

Quoting feedback I got recently:

Every good product is a tool that helps people execute their creative vision, saves them time on boring tasks, or entertains in some way.

On top of that, BuddyPress is still considered expensive to many, be that due to the need to hire developers, to buy themes and plugins to accomplish their creative vision.

### Feature Set

I think BuddyPress has a strong foundation of features to create a social community. But as mentioned before, users are trying to execute this creative vision, so there is always something more needed.

This is an area where BuddyPress lacks as a project and in extensions (plugins that add features to BuddyPress) as well.

The most emblematic examples are the Follow Feature and the Media component. The first one because it is so basic in the land of social networks. And the latter in the lands of Instagram and photo apps. But the core BuddyPress plugin lacks both.

On top of that, features/components are pretty hard to integrate or extend as mentioned. Whereas other tools, provide an almost seamless experience, a rich set of features in a Jetpack-like style where you only need the click of a button to get something working and showing in the default theme.

### Conservatism

Here speaking as a contributor and observer of both WordPress and BuddyPress.

BuddyPress is still too conservative when it comes to changes or new features, however small they are. There seems to be a philosophy or approach that it’s practiced not against change but I’d argue that it is an almost “orthodoxical” concern to changes and new features which in my opinion is impeding the project to evolve.

A recent example was the introduction of PHPCS support which to me it would be considered a no-brainer but that it took more time to convince than I anticipated or expected.

And this is also an overall theme with BuddyPress. I see a willingness of the project to experiment and a desire to evolve but we still move at a very slow pace (even in the heyday of the project).

There is a “desire” to change and evolve but over years I also see a hesitation which “drags” the project a little bit.

### Low number of contributors

BuddyPress has been suffering from a low number of contributors in recent years. The reasons for that could be varied. It is also not clear if that’s actually a big problem for the project. I’d argue that it is not that big.

But it is clear that identifying what’s turning possible contributors away is a very good first step. And what we can do to revert that.

## Finally, some suggestions for the project

### Decide on a product market fit

This should have a high priority. Whatever we decide here will dictate how resources will be spent. What features will be built. What areas will have the most attention. IMO, this might be the most consequential decision for the future of the project.

### Improve the feature set

As mentioned previously, basic features of a social network are still missing in BuddyPress. Privacy, social networking, and following features are all missing. In the past, the argument I’ve always heard/read was that those features were better off served by plugins. Whereas users would be more likely to expect them inside the core plugin.

So I think BuddyPress needs a more complete set of social networking features. And that those features should be more integrated with each other and other parts of the site.

h3. Improve the project’s marketing

I think we need to do a better job of marketing what we offer. Not only look and feel but also of presenting information to the user.

–

That’s it! Not a lot of suggestions but I’m purposefully not adding technical suggestions to the project because I feel this is secondary. As long as we do not get into a new product market fit, we might not be addressing the real issue of the project.

=)

Deep admin integration for all core components and logged-in Members – show me my activity in my User Profile, etc…

A default set of universally wrappable theme-side template parts for one-line-of-code integration into any WordPress theme/builder/blocks, that ultimately outputs what equates to a self-hosted Tumblr clone.

You just need the latest snippet, only use the one.

You don’t need any other plugins apart from BuddyPress.

You can put the Snippet into your functions.php

functions.php

Many thanks for the quick response. I’m not a developer so please excuse two clueless questions:
1) Do these snippets work on their own, or does your User Roles plugin need to be activated?
2) Do I insert both of the above snippets in the child theme, like this?
add_filter( ‘bp_get_group_join_button’, ‘venutius_restrict_group_join’, 10, 2 );

function venutius_restrict_group_join( $button, $group ) {
global $bp;
if ( current_user_can( ‘manage_options’ ) || $group->is_member ) {
return $button;
}

$membership_total = count( BP_Groups_Member::get_membership_ids_for_user( $bp->loggedin_user->id ) );

if ( $membership_total >= 1 ) {
return false;
}

return $button;
}
add_action( ‘groups_join_group’, ‘venutius_group_join_filter’, 10, 2 );

function venutius_group_join_filter( $group_id, $user_id ) {
global $bp;

if ( current_user_can( ‘manage_options’ ) ) {
return;
}

$membership_total = count( BP_Groups_Member::get_membership_ids_for_user( $user_id ) );

if ( $membership_total >= 4 ) {
groups_leave_group( $group_id, $user_id )
}

}