BuddyPress.org

1) Gravatars are ugly and nearly impossible to disable. This is the no. 1 deal breaker for me. Why can’t I simply create my own default avatars and/or let my users upload their own? The call to gravatar.com is just useless.

2) Poor documentation. There is too much asumption that new users know what you’re talking about. Why can’t I find a simple explanation of the parts of Buddypress? I’d even create one if I could figure out how the pieces all work together. I.e. bbPress integration. Where does it tell me i must create a group for the forums to work? And, what exaclty is the function of a Group in the BP world? Almost all instructions are like “1. Install plug-in” 2. Activate plug-in 3. Done!” Only you can’t find how to use the thing you’ve just installed. RE. bbPress.

3) Proprietry templates. GRRRRRRRR.

4) To much hacking required of the PHP to make things work right. This is why I left Joomla/Community Builder (although it looks lik I’m heading back)

It looks like WP and Buddypress was written by Mac guys. Just like Macs it looks really clean and slick and is “easy” for most common users. That is until you want to make it function like you really need it to. But then unless you can write your own code, forget about the “easy” part. And again, far too much is assumed.