Topic: Better Introduction Needed

Better Introduction Needed

3DWorld
Member

@3dworld

12 years, 6 months ago

I installed buddypress because it sounded like a great idea, but I don’t know much about web building.

I wish there was more written about what buddypress can do and what the end result will look like. I don’t like the examples in the showcase because they don’t even remotely look like the buddypress that I have. I would love to see a very plain skeleton example of what buddypress does and how to set up a basic forum.

For instance what is the difference between a forum and a post. They look exactly alike in the dashboard.
And how do I tell my visitors where to start if I don’t know myself?
You can’t start a topic until you start a group. You can’t start a group because there are no topics. You can’t add a member because there are no groups to join.

Nothing but frustration.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a little welcome page saying, “Here’s how to set up your buddypress forums. First you create a few groups. Then add topics to each group. You can’t add this until you add that so start with this.

I just want an overview so that I can know if I’m doing something wrong or if there is a problem with the software when I can’t add a forum or don’t see my topic.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

@ChrisClayton
Participant

@chrisclayton

12 years, 6 months ago

`I wish there was more written about what buddypress can do and what the end result will look like. I don’t like the examples in the showcase because they don’t even remotely look like the buddypress that I have. I would love to see a very plain skeleton example of what buddypress does and how to set up a basic forum.`
BuddyPress has a test demo site [http://testbp.org] which will show you what it can do out of the box without doing any extra coding. The only way i can think of to put the end result into words is “It gives you a social network out of the box” (which is already on the BuddyPress.org homepage)

I’d highly recommend reading the Getting started pages on the codex https://codex.buddypress.org/getting-started/ go to page links on the right sidebar and read them

`For instance what is the difference between a forum and a post. They look exactly alike in the dashboard.`
As BuddyPress is an extension of WordPress, and is designed for WP users, is defining Blog Post and Forum Post necessary? I think your concern may be better at WordPress.org/forums as BuddyPress doesn’t define the word themselves, WordPress does.

`You can’t start a group because there are no topics.`
Are you using a plugin that makes topics a prequisite for starting a group? That’s not the way it works out of the box from my experience.

`Wouldn’t it be nice to have a little welcome page saying, “Here’s how to set up your buddypress forums. First you create a few groups. Then add topics to each group. You can’t add this until you add that so start with this.

I just want an overview so that I can know if I’m doing something wrong or if there is a problem with the software when I can’t add a forum or don’t see my topic.`
Seems you’ve already figured it out. As an open source project, You can contribute back what you learn by creating a codex article. https://codex.buddypress.org/

Hugo Ashmore
Participant

@hnla

12 years, 6 months ago

> You can’t start a group because there are no topics.

Sounds as though you are labouring under false issusion that you have to have forums active in groups – you don’t! You can have groups without forums , your users then use the activity stream for the group to hold ?discussions.

> Nothing but frustration.

Yet you have spent, thus far, so little time understanding the application you are trying to use – don’t jump the gun and vent your frustrations until you have spent a little time learning how something works, then you will be better able to judge whether something really is a frustration, in need of better explanation – go to it write codex guides, we need them – , or simply your lack of understanding.

BP might ‘Work’ out of the box but that is a deceptive phrase, to make BP work for you you need to decide what you need it to do and configure it that way – out of the box simply means it functions in all it’s aspects – but that is including the kitchen sink – and that’s not always required.

3DWorld
Member

@3dworld

12 years, 5 months ago

These are not helpful comments. I am not a developer. I have no knowledge. I am just learning as I go. But it appears that there is something wrong with my buddypress. I have only html when creating a post or page. There is no tab in the upper right corner to go back and forth between “visual” and “html”.

Your answer to my frustration was, “Yet you have spent, thus far, so little time understanding the application you are trying to use – don’t jump the gun and vent your frustrations until you have spent a little time learning how something works, then you will be better able to judge whether something really is a frustration, in need of better explanation” What kind of help is that? The point is that I am not finding the information I need. Wouldn’t it be better just to tell what I need to know, rather than scold me for not knowing? This is useless support. I have been working on this for weeks, yet you wrongly assume I haven’t given it any effort or time.

Your tech support skills need work.

Hugo Ashmore
Participant

@hnla

12 years, 5 months ago

If you have specific issues then you need to create a topic for it, explain in as much detail what exactly is wrong, then we can attempt to help you with something specific.

All the information that is available is in the BP Codex, I’m not suggesting that you necessarily write something for it but it is only as good as the effort put in by the collective volunteer community and is acknowledged to be in need of expanding.

@ChrisClayton answered many of your points but if you have further specific issues start a new thread and people will attempt to help you with them.

As for the visual editor issue that is a WP function not BP so suggests that perhaps your WP install is not functioning correctly. The best approach to setting everything up is to to first install WP and simply work with that checking that all it’s functions work as expected,i.e posts, permalinks, registering new users etc only when all that checks out proceed to activating BP using it’s default theme and checking all it’s basic functions are working.