BuddyPress.org

I am currently testing an installation where

• User registration is handled by WordPress and not BuddyPress
• I can register a user through the above interface without interference from BP registration
• BuddyPress’ Extended Profile fields is enabled
• I have added custom Profile fields and I am able to update them as a user (not during registration)

All of the above seem to work without issues. BP’s Name field is never touched.

But there are several support requests, such as this, asking that the field ‘Name (required)’ not be a required field and, invariably, the standard reply appears to be ‘here some code to fix that’, ‘this is not an easy fix’ or ‘there is a plugin for that’.

I have also seen tickets on Trac logged for this.

There was even a comment by Boone somehwere (either here or on Trac) saying that this field is so deeply embedded in BP that this modification is not easy (I can’t find this reference right now).

So I am trying to understand why I don’t have any issues with this field not being populated (see above) when much of the documentation saying it is required.

As it stands, all I’d have to do is to hide the “Base” Profile Group from my profile template with a hook or something and not worry about it being ever populated.

Am I missing something?
Thanks