BuddyPress.org

Modern UI/UX, Follow Feature,

Good day. Thank you for your hard work and the will to the future. About what is missing in my opinion. You correctly wrote that now social communities are retreating, rather payment-related and other details are coming. I would make some kind of connection with Woocommerce as much as possible, perhaps I would add the function of paid participation, paid subscriptions and everything like that. It seems to me that the audience earning with your plugin is much more willing to pay and it is growing.

Hello

Thank you for your work and for asking.

I have installed and uninstalled the plugin a few times. My problem was conflict with other plugins say membership plugins that play a critical role on our site. But, I also wanted greater customization. – What do I mean by that? Shortcodes, feature activation choice – for example: I may only want to use certain aspects of BuddPress and NOT the whole pack. I may like the messaging and docs for example. Having the ability to ACTIVATE the sections I need with say a check box would be excellent. Then for these sections I could use shortcodes on pages to add only those sections to the page I created. This gives me more flexibility for designing my site how I prefer, not the other way around. So any user could design their site with the entire system of buddy press how they prefer – rather than how it is with links and sub links etc.
The other challenge I had, was it competed and dominated any other profile plugins and I would have to work hard to prevent that. But if it is flexible and unassuming, I think people would appreciate the flexibility.

Design it where it is okay – if a user just use one section and all other features can be activated or deactivated – I think that is a big plus.

If you consider this and add it – allow it to ONLY create pages for the features selected and activated, so it reduce the excess files. So page creation happen ONLY after the desired sections are activated

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.

=)

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”

On a personal note, one thing I would like to see on BuddyPress is a complete Groups hierarchy with (multiple) parents, siblings and child groups. I reckon this would open a whole new market for things like geneology (big business).

Also I think you should take a good look at the rival product BuddyBoss, which, feature wise, is ahead of Buddypress in so many ways. A good media integration for example is a must have, likewise a file download system. BP could have the edge on its rival though, simply because the latter concentrates on Premium features.

Just my 2 cents

Thanks for the reply @imath. I was simply implying to look and see what they are doing – SOME of what they are doing I think fits into general interest (look at how they deal with media). They are doing research and it would be foolish to ignore some parts, even if it in the end it leads to ways we can mold it more toward BuddyPress thinking.

Sometimes you can lead my example, other times you can lead by taking something and making it better in some way.

There’s a balance with addons – too many and a user can get overwhelmed with choices and research but overall I lean toward simple as possible. Perhaps it’s something that is simple for a niche purpuse that uses BuddyPress “under the hood”. It’s not a great example but thinking about “how can I spin up a special kind of to-do app that I can add my friends and share and collab with, while still owning my data, control, etc”. Thought of this today while my kid was showing me what she does in Notion today.

Ok, so if the WordPress repo is our advantage – then how do we use that advantage? how do we stand out (from member sites and other social plugins)? how do we feature BB plugins that are trust worthy and maintainable that avoid people having to dive into thousands of plugins in this “important advantage”? Good questions, looking forward to hearing more from people about them.

I don’t believe BuddyPress is missing THAT many features. Part of this is also changing with the times. Which means maybe thinking a little differently – even if it’s me thinking differently from how I look at BuddyPress when I started with it so many years ago. ☮️

I think it’s worth considering turning optional components into plugins as long as discovery and onboarding are done REAL well. The plugin directory is definitely a way, but i’ve seen companies do one-click installs from inside the settings screens of the plugins themselves.

Also another subject – how often do we (the collective we) feature prominent, large, special, or niche BuddyPress powered sites? If developers see potential that might get them more involved in testing, etc. Problem is how to discover or find them on a constant basis. This goes back to a mention of mine of “marketing” earlier.

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.

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.

I need a “Temporal Latest Activity and Profile Activity Feed” for Buddypress plugin. For now Buddypress Activity public Feed is so annoying with so many activities. We need to manage activities on public Feed and Profile Feed for a month, a week, a day or less.

Temporal Latest Activity Feed. Please. @imath

I need a voice call like Facebook messenger or Whatsapp. I want my users can make calls to whoever they want to. @imath