bbPress.org

9 years. Man. Can you stop rely on third party developers and plugins. They are simply said a mess.
This one from this trac is not the only one lacking in forum core.

First 5 years is an entirely different bbPress from what it is now, but the last 4 it picked up more and more and now it seems to be finished from what I can tell.

Make a list of “must” things in the core. Otherways you lose time coding, relatively nobody use bbPress.

There is this, that lists possible considerable plugin functionality that might be in the core. I need to clean it up later though and move some information I placed their earlier to some other guide I created. There are also probably more functionality I recommended to be adopted that I haven’t yet listed in the page yet.

Feature Plugins Tracking

Share tasks between bbPress core developers and give each of them, or few of them, adopt a fetured plugin. it doesnt have to be in the core. Just some security it will follow all changes in the bbPress core and adapt fast to changes, continue to work with all new bbPress version.

Plugin functionality adoption happens for some plugins like bbPress threaded replies which made its way to core, and also topic/forum subscriptions. Other plugins need to rely on the plugin author to keep up, if there is an issue or no updates the community will usually fork/adopt the plugin. I might help though, I thought about it.

I repeat, third party (plugins) community for bbPress is a complete mess and cannot be trusted. How do you expect people can sleep well with 5-15 thousands of registered Users on forum and one important third party plugin has a developer writing one comment per year on support forum. Or per 3 months, one per month. All the same.

Hopefully when I get around to writing the Plugin developer section in the codex, that it will help most of the code quality/security side of things. But right now most devs will have to use the WordPress codex to gain their knowledge of this (I am mostly gonna base the information I learn from this).

Support Forum activity has many factors to it. The dev could be busy or just stopped supporting the plugin.

Also would you mind sending me list of plugins that you may not trust through my email, not to call anyone out in the forum. And see if I can take a look at why you may be thinking that.

Contact

Stagger Lee,

The plugins you mention, Jetpack, that’s maintained by Automattic, Advanced TinyMCE is just a standard WordPress plugin that happens to be maintained by a core developer as his own project aside from core, Pods is a 3rd party plugin also not associated with WordPress, your last example, Shortcake is a featured plugin that is being proposed to be merged into core, this plugin has been bought to the core team to be considered for merging into core, the WordPress core team has not gone out and found plugins to maintain or merged.

There’s details of WordPress’ featured plugins available:

Feature Plugin Chat on July 14

Feature Plugins Tracking

We are happy to do the same with bbPress, if a plugin developer comes to us with a plugin that they would like to see merged in bbPress we are more than happy to look into doing just that, the same way WordPress does. 🙂

Here is a list in my opinion should have under Author names at least one nam of bbPress core developers. Not of things on list has anything to do with me personally, just using other popular forum scripts as reference.

Sorry, I disagree with this, if a plugin author or the community has a problem with a plugin we’ll happily help out where we can when asked. As to maintaining that list of plugins, speaking for myself, I have other projects that I am interested in and being asked to maintain a bunch of other plugins is not something I am interested in doing. 🙂

As the bbPress slogan goes “Forums made the WordPress way”, we try and do everything the same way WordPress does, we maintain the core software and make it as open as possible for developers to extend with plugins and themes, but because we are not as big as WordPress, we don’t have the same amount of developers developing for bbPress.

@stagger-lee

I have seen this list but it is not the same as Feature plugins are for WordPress core.

Im trying to spruce up the page on the bbPress codex.

Not of things on list has anything to do with me personally, just using other popular forum scripts as reference.

Anything that BuddyPress already has as a feature and putting it into bbPress is a BIG decision to make, this could shy away from the plugin integration with BuddyPress in bbPress, but it would make bbPress stand on its own compared to other forum solutions though. Most of the features people want could be added by just installing BuddyPress with bbPress. I am starting to think if users want something like Vbull or IP Board they install should install BuddyPress to add any social network features. If users want a simple forum just use bbPress.

Here is what I think of your plugin list, it is just my opinion, my opinion could change depending on how you reply to how I feel about this. Maybe tell us a reason of why to incorporate these features into core vs a plugin. I just want to know what you think, and please do not just tell use that this forum is doing this and that bbPress should have do it also, make it an interesting discussion.

• Live preview – maybe bring TinyMCE back, as long as it doesn’t have issues
• Report content – Josh Eaton’s plugin I think personally is pretty darn good and well developed to stay being a great plugin for awhile. Might have to see how his plugin favors in the 2015 survey for any core considerations though.
• Ignore User – I don’t know really know, this might need some additional functionality somewhere else, maybe plugin territory.
• bbPress moderation panel separate from backend –  I could see improvements on front-end moderation, maybe not exactly similar to the way the backend is set up, but I have ideas.
• Notifications – BuddyPress can add this..
• Make topics/forums read, unread (dont know if it is already in the core) – Not in core, toss up if in core or not, lots of plugins to choose from.already, do not know which one is the most optimal for most sites.
• bbPress TinyMce plugin – Maybe bring TinyMCE back, as long as it doesn’t have issues
• Reply titles – I don’t see a benefit from this, there is already a plugin for this though.
• View counts – I had this implemented on one of my forums using WP PostViews, after awhile I got to thinking that the voice and reply count really do show how popular a certain topic is, especially the voice count. Because the higher the voice count amount the more participation from users and not just back and forth between two people. Plus this will bulk up your database with a bunch of data.
• Topics for posts (very important even if not used on all installations) – Something like this is set for core. The creating a new topic for each blog post and linking to the topic where the comment form is gold. Entirely replacing the comments is where I had thoughts about this and I started to question possible issues that might come forth from this, and also the set up needed to make this work flawlessly.
• Online / Offline status – Don’t know really, I don’t really care either way, it is neat though.
• bbPress Polls (not shortcode based) – Maybe someone should just fork _ck_’s version of polls and make it work for bbPress v2, but this in my opinion this should stay plugin territory.
• Attachments – bbPress definitely needs more support for the import of attachments from other forum solutions, but managing them might shift to BuddyPress because they have the attachment API now, and BuddyPress might handle it better. I could see a simple image upload button in toolbar though.
• Move topics / replies between subforums – Yeah probably needs to be core. Maybe just topics with its own replies, not single replies??
• Avatar management – Same thing with attachments, needs more support for the import of avatars, managing them might be considered a toss up too, maybe BuddyPress/plugin territory, maybe core.
• Like / Vote topics, replies (I personally would never use this one, but..) – Probably plugin territory, I have seen some great plugins for this that are compatible with bbPress though. This also gives the user to have more choices on what to use, a 5 star rating, thumb voting, up down rating, like only topics. There are lots of choices.
• New plugin that makes it easy to add custom fields and add them where you need (this one is not referenced by other forum scripts).- I think you could use Advanced Custom Fields, but I am not entirely sure where you are going with this one??

Take some of those plugis from your list and give them to bbPress core developers. Or ask original developers to sign some of you on list of plugin Authors. For those developers who dont have much free time you have some plugins literally made from one-two PHP files. Just as it is a GPL take ownership from todays developers, or cooperate with them as co-maintainer Author.

Well this is tough sometimes too, contributing is one thing but taking ownership is another. Some devs might not see eye to eye, some have probably have gotten most of their income based on a very popular bbPress plugin.

There are plugins that I have suggested merging into core because they seem to improve areas that bbPress already has, the plugin seemed simple enough to consider thinking about since it is very commonly requested, and also that it would make life easier in some cases. I have also contacted a few developers if they wanted to contribute some have said they would like to see what they made into core, and others have not replied back.

Also some plugins could be very small, that might not mean put it in the plugin anyway.

There is not a lot of core devs in bbPress as one might think to start taking over some plugins while bbPress would have a bug that needs to be fixed, testing, code improvements, and other features added to core that may not exactly be a plugin on WordPress.

If you mean just any other active plugin developer to ask them to take over stuff, well I can’t really tell what they are good at besides making their own plugin. And I don’t want to seem bossy by asking people to do stuff that they might not agree to or have time to.

All those names of developers are very active in core community. Developers of bbPress plugins are not.
Either they abandon plugin and lose lust, dissapear.

WordPress core is very active compared to bbPress, but they are two different things. One is a plugin the other is the entire CMS. Other forum solutions are CMS’s to themselves but bbPress is just a plugin.

If there are some plugins that are abandoned and do not have an alternative/fork that you think the plugin should be resurrected and be contributed to, you can say which plugins here.

I think I got most of your points, if I missed one point it out. Try not to be rude at all or come off as rude, just have a decent discussion.

Because I see potentioal and how WordPress self can make bbPress powerfull. Or buddyPress, I install it all the time together.

I know a lot of users who ask for more features like other forum solutions are like this because they all do see potential.

But, one thing is very specific for bbPress. I would not dare to touch it as average User, who installs and setup phpbb or SMF forum without big problems. It is extremely hard for beginners

In what ways is it difficult? Is it anything about user experience, or from just going from one to another?? Any ideas to improve it for beginners?

At least take those 10-12 plugins from Github and put them in WP repository. Dont ask developer, it is GPL. Developer had 2-3 years or more to decide to do it byself, and he did not wanted it.
Problem there is notification about updates.
Just one example, lost many hours to see why Live preview stoped to word and by chance checked on Github versions. If it was in WP repository I would be notificated directly there is an update for it.

There is some plugins on Github but that doesn’t mean everybody should use them. Some plugins on github were made from developers from jobs they did for people(might contain specific db table names for a specific site), are just some custom plugins they use on their site(might contain several referances to a site), custom projects for themselves(just playing with stuff/learning development). There is a difference between building a plugin for yourself, and building a plugin for everybody to use. When you begin to build one for everybody to use, you definitely take into consideration some plugin conflicts that might happen(I think GD bbPress attachments and bbp live preview comes to mind). There are some plugins on there that actually should be considered to be on WordPress.org, so I will keep that in mind.

Just to not be missunderstood. I personally dont have any problem whatsoever with this list above. Implemented with help of code tweaking and those plugins all of this. And much, much more. All except proper Polls. For this I cannot find a solution.

The polka polls plugin is the best plugin for polls for bbPress. It does require use of shortcodes, I do not think you have to whitelist the shortcode or anything, I think it just works. I guess it could get inspired from some ideas of the bbPress polls plugin for v1 that _ck_ made.

I am not telling about design, despite this too is hard for Users beginners to tweak.

Please say any issues you might have on this, I have ideas for users to make design for theme compatibility easier.

Github should never be primary source of plugins. Additional OK, but only and one never.
I know there is a plugin that makes updates from Github possible, but demands some lines added by author in plugin self.

It isn’t, any plugins listed on the featured plugins list are really just plugins that might have functionality similar to what might be suggested to core. Github was never really a plugin repository for WordPress, mostly development. Some of the information why some plugins might not be in what I already said above. Plus some plugins were pretty neat not to leave in.

Something like Jetpack for bbPress would be a killer, perfect. But I do understand when you say there are not many developers of bbPress. Wish just you start discussion about it and report back to us how it went. Jetpack probably started with few developers, and with years come to number of 46. It doesnt have to start great, developers are attracted later to all good staff by itself.
Do you know what all those names behind Jetpack say to me ? Not in the first hand anything about code quality, but about security. I know it will flow huge amount of years before this plugin is abandoned. And with all new WP versions they adapt code before new version get out.

If we are talking about Jetpack as a plugin full of features, then BuddyPress could be something like that. There is also another plugin but it is paid (has minimized free version) that has several other features like bbcode, attachments, quotes. Creating another plugin like that I will keep in mind.

Dont want to talk about design and style. It would ruin all from my title.
But yes, bbPress is ugly as hell when installed and takes lot of time to design. Better to keep written notes what you do and how, to be able to use it next time.

email me then, I actually do want to talk about design.

Dont know what to say about buddyPress serving as “Jetpack”. I like to install buddyPress along with bbPress and think they do better with design. Guess it is up to them, will they be standalone WP plugin or serve as filling gaps for bbPress.

Really just design? Only design I can think of is the companion stylesheets? Other than that it has a plain layout look like bbPress. Not the groups, @mention autosuggest, members page, attachments api, more advanced profile fields, ability to change/crop avatar?

Back to your question. Cannot point exactly what is hard for begginers and users. It is all small bits and parts making it difficult. Even to me is hard and takes lot of time to have one bbPress forum ready for live server.
Guess it is huge amount of time spent searching on Google and forums howto. I made those mistakes on my first 2-3 instalaltions and noticed it is impossible to continue this way. Now I have searchable and filterable database with bbPress, buddyPress snippets. Just for bbPress circa 150 of them and some tutorials. But not many people will do this. When they spend half day searching on Google how to solve something they will simply go to phpbb, SMF forum and it is one user less.

It is easy to get a bbPress forum set up. It will definitely get hard to make bbPress work like other forum solutions? It would be pretty difficult to make something like phpbb turn into something like discourse for example.

Most of this time lost is fixing and tweaking third party plugins, using their adapted code in functions.php, etc.

What plugins? Tell me what plugins to adopt if you need to fix them? Email me this too.

In matter of fact price of one bbPress installation and customization goes easy to level of one very advanced web shop. Only know it is not sustainable and should not be this way.

Dont want to talk about money, just took it as example of how many hours and days bbPress takes to be finished and looks professional.

Yeah this would probably be level of skill vs cost for time to do it. It is easy for me and I might say I have a moderate level of skill. This is just my opinion though.

@stagger-lee

alright if it is out of those plugins I will probably just get one and that is the direct quotes, plugin. Take some features from the vip support forum plugin, and maybe just fork the new topics plugin into a seperate new plugin with the code improvements and post that on wordpress.org.

I don’t mind these topics at all, it gives us something to think about and reflect on upon, I think topics like these are important, I might not agree with everything said but I do actually agree with quite a lot. 🙂

Constructive feedback will always be welcome and appreciated 🙂

the first kuena link the forums look too busy.

Second link is what I was talking about but for bbPress, make it look cleaner. I have made something kind of similar, not exact but some parts are similar. (I know the icons are off a bit, idk what I did to mess them up, but they were fine before.)

the third and fourth link remind me of old bb boards, some phpbb inspiration I can see though.

Almost all of those Github plugins have almost non discussions, issues, requests. It doesnt mean they are perfect, it means they will be abandoned very soon. As much you here would abandon bbPress if nobody used it and nobody come to this forum. As much Drupal core and other Drupal developers abandoned Drupal forum because nobody used it. So simple.

I get what you are saying but what about plugin forks or just plugins with similarities.

Here are the other github plugins and their alternatives and why I might and might not fork them.

• VIP support -> bbpress-VIP-Support-Plugin-for-Latest-WordPress (will think about pushing to WP.org)
• Simple Support -> bbResolutions
• EDD bbPress Support Dashboard (this is a fork of VIP support too and was specific to the EDD site)
• bbPress Spam Cleaner -> This is the plugin that was made for a job for a specific user
• bbPress Report Abuse (needs paid plugin gravity forms) -> bbPress Report Content
• bbPress Avatar -> Basic User Avatars
• bbP Quote -> bbPress Direct Quotes(I said I might add this into a different plugin, and users can also install GD bbPress tools)
• bbPress Ajax Replies (not touching, do not know much about ajax)
• djb bbPress last read plugin -> closest I think to this exact plugin is the one I said I might add to WP.org
• bbPress Live Preview -> Just enable TinyMCE(but I will think about forking it more)

Tell me one thing sincerely. if you so much trust all those plugins why you dont install them here and use it as showcase for newcommers ?

I told you some of the plugins in there could be some ideas for functionality and that is why it is there, which leads to me sprucing up the page again.

Well that picture is custom design that I made for some clients forums, I am saying that I was working on something similar. The unread posts and the forum colors are custom plugins I have installed. I won’t care if they take some ideas like voice/reply count icons, and little things here and there though.