Editorial

Long-form articles with the thoughts, opinions and insights from across the WordPress Realm.

It’s Time to Stop Kicking the BuddyPress Puppy

31 July 2012 by Tammie Lister 20 Comments

If I had a £ for every time someone complained at BuddyPress or moaned about this or that shortcoming, I’d probably be quite rich and typing this from a desert island. To me, it sometimes feels as if BuddyPress were a poor puppy, tossed out into the world and kicked as an easy target. In the words of Chris Crocker: “Leave BuddyPress alone!”.

In an attempt to redress this imbalance, I am going to roll out a few of the old chestnuts levied at BuddyPress and try to prevent the puppy kicking with some counter points. I will state from the outset that this is not meant as a deep analysis, but rather just my responses to the nay sayers. I might be a member of the BuddyPress-pompom-cheerleading-fan-club-squad and don’t hide it, but keep in mind that BuddyPress pays most of my bills so it kind of deserves my defence, to some degree. That said, I am certainly not blind to where it needs a little nudge to get better.

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I Attend WordCamps: You Should Too

16 July 2012 by Siobhan McKeown 12 Comments

Today I’m travelling home from my third WordCamp since March. As I write, the other WP Realmers are having transportation troubles. Noel Tock is stranded at Heathrow Airport, while Tammie Lister and BuddyPress Core Developer Paul Gibbs are stuck on a broken-down train between Edinburgh and London. The British transportation system is its usual reliable self. The weather is grey, it’s threatening to rain; I, and no doubt all of us, are suffering from post-WordCamp blues.

Sitting on a rattling train, I became aware that it’s my week to write an editorial for WP Realm. No doubt Zé, who is my own personal editor, will be grumbling about this, but it’s my prerogative to tell the ~~wise~~ grumpy old man to stfu (love you! 🙂 ). I thought I’d use my slot to reflect not only on WordCamp Edinburgh, but the series of WordCamps I’ve visited over the past four months and on WordCamps more generally.

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My Take on BuddyPress

4 July 2012 by Rocío Valdivia Leave a Comment

Over the last few years I have had the chance to work on a many BuddyPress projects. This fantastic tool has an incredible potential, which is often only limited by your imagination. Even if you often meet clients who believe that the only way to create a successful social network is to make a Facebook clone, other times you are challenged by more original clients, who are open to finding great and innovative ways of creating a strong community around their website.

I have seen how BuddyPress has made huge advances to become what it is now: the best open source tool for creating a social network. Of course, there is still has a lot of work to be done, and I have my personal opinions about BuddyPress’s weak and strong points. This is my first post for WP Realm and, because I love to work with BuddyPress, I am eager to talk about its strengths and potential. But I also want to see it getting better and evolve, and so I will begin by presenting some weaker areas that I’ve encountered and areas to be improved.
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