@alexfa08
If I was creating a new theme with buddypress in mind right now, I would consider that most buddypress installs probably use the rtmedia plugin – and given that it is over bloated with it’s own loading of bootstrap components, and font awesome, and I think some zurb foundation files(?) – most themes I have tried to use that are responsive and work with buddypress plain – have issues when the rtmedia plugin is enabled – not sure why exactly – but I found that any theme I tried that was based on bootstrap code caused conflicts, and there for I was unable to use – since having media uploads is more important than having a good theme imho.
Maybe that will change if the new mediapress plugin proves to be a good alternative – but I don’t think we will know unless someone codes an import media and stuff from rtmedia to mediapress.
So if I was making a new theme for BP – I would try to test with rtmedia, and some of the other major plugins that most people will be using. I’d make it responsive – but I would get a list of all classes that bootstrap uses and make sure not to use any of the same.
It would be nice to see a new theme that had options to un-enque / deregister calls to repetitive assets – on my current theme I think my theme calls 4 javascripts, 3 css files, adds inline css styles, and then my 6 plugins do the same.. so I end up loading javascripts about a dozen times, and fonts, and about a dozen css files, and a few hundred lines of inline css, and all kinds of extra bloated bs.
Some random thoughts from my recent experiences.
Hi @alexfa08
It’s great to hear you’re thinking of theme development particularly for BuddyPress.
There’s lots of things to consider, but The Theme Review article is a good place to start. It details some guidelines as well as standards and good practices.