Forum Replies Created
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In reply to: Confused about HTML Meta tags & SEO
Neat. Thanks for that – I’ll try those ideas asap.
In reply to: For hacky peepsThanks Atsutane.
In reply to: For hacky peepsHi johnhiler. Guess we’re on the same side of the ponds, or you don’t sleep..?
We’re up to 0.9.0.5 now, but thanks for the pointer to _ck_’s reference pages. Mind you, seems to be just database info. What I’m after is Function_Blah(a, b, c) does such and such a thing…
In reply to: Alphabetize Forums@clicknathan; you got a message from the man himself. Unless you have a thousand forum titles, I’d think drag-drop in Admin is easy enough..?
In reply to: Are you doing display names on bbPress 0.9?Hi reboot. I saw a thread somewhere about this, and mention of a plugin for 1.0 which turns OFF display names. From what I remember, they can be used to spoof Admin, etc. Can’t find it now, but I think the plugin was called disable-display-name. Might be worth a look.
In reply to: bbPress v1’s eventual release@johnhiler – I guess you’re not alone in not wanting an ‘authority’, though all I mean by the word is those creating and maintaining bbPress being seen as an authority in ‘the outside world’, as opposed to ‘the inner world’ of bbPress forum users. It’s already being done in a way, internally, by us getting to know who we trust most. Perhaps I’m letting my enthusiasm for a great product carry me away..?
Maybe just this thread and the comments from various members is enough in itself, as like any other, it raises awareness. For myself, I already have a few names in my head of those I trust when it comes to plugins, which are an essential part of bbPress. _ck_’s comments are funny in a way, about only writing plugins for fun or to show what can be done, hers(?) turning out to be among the very best! Perhaps I am barking up the wrong tree, and it should just be left as it is; to be fun, a hacking ground for those who want to hack, with gems coming up here and there from the talented coders. As you say _ck_, it spreads the workload and encourages new input, perhaps in ways that just wouldn’t happen if it wasn’t Open Source.
In any case, I’m grateful to those who invest time and effort into extending bbPres. My needs are few, as almost everything I want exists already. I’d like user roles in a stable version, and may have to go the way another thread suggests, and edit a file to add my own. I’d also like a sticky topic sort order plugin, but don’t have the skills to create it (yet). Tell you what I will do though, regardless of any standards for plugins, etc. I’m going to advertise bbPress personally; word of mouth, on my sites, etc.
Returning to my original thought; “bbPress v1’s eventual release”… I’ll have user roles when that version is considered stable enough for general use. For now, 0.9.0.5, completely free, is excellent.
In reply to: PWRSHOT.com – Canon Powershot Users Community ForumThat’ll help. I removed it entirely from my sites, so people know they can read anything, but only see the ‘Reply’ area if they can post.
In reply to: bbPress v1’s eventual releaseYeah, I use NightGunner’s PM, and it’s a gem. As to the legal side, I know so-called civilisation has become litigation mad, but you just put it in a nutshell yourself; “bbPress Certified”. If it’s in quotes, it’s ‘a quote from someone’, and not legally binding as a testimonial (at least here in the UK, which is why all our adverts are wrapped in quotes). I’m sure with the millions of dollars Automatic were given recently, they could easily get advice on making it litigation safe too.
You know, it doesn’t have to be much of a big thing from this end, but it’d inspire confidence in ‘the outside world’, by which I mean those who want Open Source software, but not problems, as they’re not coders or forum hounds. On the inside it could be very simple indeed, ie;
1. Is the code neat and readable? 1 star.
2. Uses the the proper hooks and function calls? +1 star.
3. Works instantly with the current ‘safe’ release? + 1 star.
4. Doesn’t affect, and isn’t affected by, other plugins? +1 star.
etc.
User ratings could go alongside it as an extra, and us forum hounds can carry on as usual. However – and it’s a big however in the eyes of the outside world – the creators of bbPress (and their other systems) gain massive kudos, and therefore, a larger user base. Imagine a press release;
“Sammy Surfer, creator of burblePress said today; We’re into the next generation of forum software. What we’ve realised is that most folks want it to run straight out of the box. We have a compact and powerful core engine, and are announcing our new certification system for plugins. Plugins allow users to develop additional functionality, and while we can’t guarantee code others produce, we do look at and rate plugins. In fact, plugins are key to making burblePress do what you want it to do, so get involved!”
Etc., etc., ad nauseam.
Funny, don’t you think, that no Open Source forum producers have had the balls to do this yet..? But I’ll tell you this: the first one who does will have their name in lights. Do M$ produce amazing, unbeatable code which rules the world? Do they hell. Have they grabbed the world’s attentions and millions of users simply because they set their own standards? You bet your damned underpants. I hope Sam reads this, and throws his own undies to the wind.
In reply to: New stable version 0.9.0.5Fixed. And thanks for all your hard work Sam.
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Hmm… After the slight rant, I realised that theme files may always have the potential to be ‘broken’, as you might upgrade those too. I guess there isn’t a theme-proof way of upgrading bbPress..?
I have to say that this is by far the best forum package I’ve tried – and I’ve tried them all. It’s lightweight and fast, it just works, there are great plugins available to provide features my users need, plus superb and friendly support in the bbPress forums. On those days when you wonder why on earth you do it Sam, remember that nothing else comes close, and countless users out here are grateful. (You’re helping new mums and their babies in Lincoln, UK, do you know? The forum is only just up, but the 45+ members will soon be online and using it, and there’s going to be a press release too. I’ll see if I can wangle a mention of bbPress! Have a glance at http://mbforum.letsdoo.org and their main site at http://www.maternitybuddy.org.uk)
In reply to: bbPress v1’s eventual releaseI can see what you mean, but I don’t think it’s going the wrong way at all, and it’s not contrary to Open Source. (Open Source is not another name for ‘A Flaming Mess’). It’s common sense. It needs to be implemented in an easy-going way, but be there as a label so users know that plugins have been looked at and given a thumbs-up by those in the know. And those in the know don’t have to create a huge system and lots more work for themselves either. They’re already glancing at plugins from what I’ve been told. All that’s needed are some simple guidelines as a standard.
As I said, the current user rating system is useless. I downloaded a bunch of 5 Star plugins and they crashed badly. Since then, I ignore the star ratings. I also look at the code before installing a plugin. If it looks like granny’s hair in a tornado, I dump it. Anyone who writes code without caring how it reads is unlikely to write code that works. You either care, or you don’t.
Bear in mind that I’m talking about end users here, not forum fiends who love to delve into things (and I’ve quickly become one of those!) Picture someone like my voluntary sector clients, and others, who want to download, install, and play. They don’t want hassle, and they don’t want to hang around forums looking for fixes to plugins which provide functions they need. They want the star system to mean something, and they want the people who created the software in the first place to authorise plugins in some way.
It doesn’t have to be Big Brother. For those who aren’t coders or forum hounds, it just has to work. having something like ‘bbPress Certified’ or whatever, would give some idea as to whether it’s going to plug and play, or whether you plug and pray. Sadly, at the moment, the latter is more likely. Just read through the forums! (And yes, I very much do respect the time and effort people put into developing plugins).
In reply to: New stable version 0.9.0.5I’ve downloaded and installed this update, but find one thing very annoying. The topic description has a hyphen in front of it.
My theme puts the description on the line below the topic link, and I had to alter a file to remove the hyphen. Now it’s back, and I have to hunt down the file and alter it again. This should be changed: upgrading shouldn’t break custom themes.
(It’s in template-functions.php: –)
In reply to: Am I a bozo?Yeah, I was a bozo the other day due to including a URL. I’m still a bozo today, though not in the eyes of bbPress.
In reply to: bbPress v1’s eventual releaseYes johnhiler! But without much extra work.
(My ‘Holy Cow inefficiency’ rant was fueled by a late night and beer – I finally got out of the house).
bbPress, and WordPress, need some standards for plugins. Think about it. I know there’s no perfect analogy, but let’s imagine it’s a car. Ford decide to release a twenty-first century car, and it’s damned cool. It has a chassis, steering, wheels and an engine, but everything else is bolt-on. You get to choose how it looks and works. Some people bolt on an aerodynamic shell and a blower, and achieve speeds in excess of 150mph. Others bolt on a big shell and wheels, and lots of seats to carry their kids around. Everyone has a hundred other options. Cool! However, anything you want to bolt on has either a) to be ratified by Ford, or b) noted as a user bolt-on from elsewhere. Ford has a main site/blog/forum where you can see authorised bolt-ons working and links to where to get them, but there are a thousand sites/blogs/forums where you can get ‘unauthorised’ bolt-ons. The world is, as Douglas Adams said, any mollusc you like. But at least you know the Ford authorised bolt-ons are going to work, because they’ve tried them, and all the screws fit the right holes.
Sam and other core developers need to do something similar. Set some standards. Many existing plugins may adhere to those standards already. Many won’t. They should do it across all systems they’ve created. They tell the world that these new standards exist, and that they’ve set a benchmark. The world reports that bbPress/WordPress has set standards other forums haven’t. They don’t need to do much more work, but lickety-split, they’re an authority in the blog/forum world.
When that happens – and it had better happen if the developers want to be taken seriously – users will do a few simple things. They’ll download and install, grab some certified plugins, and go. Sites will appear all over the world with comments like, “I clicked a couple of links, sent the package to my server, added a few certified plugins, and YAY!”
That’s what you folks developing the core of bbPress/Wordpress want.
Isn’t it?
In reply to: PWRSHOT.com – Canon Powershot Users Community ForumCool pics, and a clean look! One thing (I’m finicky about interfaces); you might want to remove the [closed] label. Noobs think it means [don’t bother looking in here].
In reply to: bbPress v1’s eventual releaseAha. Then Go sambauers, Go sambauers, Go sambauers – YAY! (Pretty girls doing athletic stuff here. Well, it can’t hurt, can it?)
If Sam’s the man, then listen up Sam. Standards for plugins are essential. Really. Essential. Yep, really essential. Can’t say it enough. I’ll say it again: If bbPress and associated systems want to be taken seriously in the working world, then standards for plugin development are absolutely essential. Really, absolutely, and any other words that mean really and absolutely.
Leave the rest of the ‘bb developers’ behind. Simply calling plugins ‘bbPress Certified’ will make the world assume that those behind bbPress are an authority who have the power to authorise things. M$ did it, and millions of people believe in them. Do it Sam, and you’ll quickly become an authority. People will believe in you, and plugin coders will soon learn to adhere to your standards. In fact, they’ll have to. Those who produce cool ideas but crap code, or cool code but no admin settings so users have to hack (and can’t or don’t want to), will become a thing of the past.
Those of us who aren’t programmers will be able to download and use certified plugins that do what bbPress core does: just click and go. Think of the kudos. Think of the subscriptions. Think of the write-ups in The Times, etc. bbPress: click, go.
In reply to: bbPress v1’s eventual releaseHoly cow. You know what I said about plugin programmers maybe not knowing what they’re doing..? Re-reading, I do wonder…
If all this inefficiency is real, then who’s writing the core code, and are they truly competent..? I would hope that those who construct a system like bbPress have some professional training behind them. If not, then perhaps we’re back into school kid land…
In reply to: Trying to use ‘bbpress’ theme in bbpressProf; check your info@ email – I’ve added some instructions on fixing your theme image, etc.
In reply to: bbPress v1’s eventual releaseYep, the idea of a minimal core engine with stable plugin hooks sounds the best way to me too, even as a non-developer.
Something I’m sure would help is a standard for plugins. I think too many people are put off when the core doesn’t have a function they want, but yippee; there’s a plugin! Then after many hours of frustration, ah crap; this fails too, and here we go with the forum questions again. It also makes the product look bad, even though the plugin developer may not be related to that product in any way.
A ‘bbPress Certified’ system would give users more confidence, and raise the bar for forum development as the outside world perceives it. I can see that plugin developers work hard to get things right for others, and every eventuality can’t be tested for of course. However, I also know from struggling very hard with different forum packages over the last 6 weeks that there really are no standards, and on a couple of systems people seem to have jumped on the plugin bandwagon because it’s fun and brings kudos. In one case, I found myself delving into posts from as far back as 2005 in an attempt to get something simple working. They have a massive forum, but it’s jam packed with ‘How can I make this work?!’ posts going back years. (bbPress is a gem by comparison, which is why I’m still here).
Non-programmers see a plugin on a ‘legitimate’ forum and naturally assume it’s going to work properly. Not everyone’s into hacking around, and some have no time or inclination to do so whatsoever, especially working people who want Open Source software but need it to just work out of the box. On the other side of a crucial plugin may sit a very competent programmer with great ideas, but it can just as easily be a school kid who’s learned a bit of php and doesn’t have the experience to make their ideas actually work. There’s no way of knowing, unless they post in an obviously off-putting way. The current user rating system looks good, but is quickly dismissed when two or three 5 star plugins fail.
Any standard takes time and effort in the background to assess the code others produce, though it sounds like that’s already being done anyway. I submitted a very simple plugin and wondered why it hadn’t appeared on the forum, and another member mentioned that it can take a while for it to be reviewed. If some checks were done for code readability, apparent competence, etc., as well as the checks already being done for maliciousness and obvious bugs, then you’ve got a working standard. If someone submits something your programmers can see is messily written, uses innapropriate function calls, etc., then they get a ‘Sorry, it doesn’t reach our standards’ email. Maybe a Certified bbPress Star System; 1 star – not rated; 2 stars – appears competent, or is excellent but has no admin panel; 3 stars excellent structure and use of core functions, and has admin panel, and so-on. No guarantees, but at least we’d know to go for 3 stars or more, or if you love to play, grab the 1 star and have fun improving it. Kudos for both developers! The user ratings could be left in as an extra, though casual, system.
It doesn’t really have to be any more labour intensive than at present, and if bbPress and associated systems want to be taken even more seriously in the working world, then standards for plugin development are essential.
In reply to: bbPress v1’s eventual releaseThanks for all the excellent advice. I do like hacking around, but as I need to get a couple of forums up and running I’m best with 0.9.0.4 right now. I think that sticking with it until 1.0 has been well tested – and has the plugins or functionality I need – is the best bet too.
I’ve spent around six weeks or more trying everything under the sun, until finally settling on bbPress. Mostly, it just works. I don’t think I want to do much more than learn a little php and more css as I go along. I’m remembering that there are people outside this room, and conversation, and beer… Hacking about in the guts of things is interesting and really very addictive, but there’s life out there! Love all you folks for making it possible though, I have to say.
In reply to: Trying to use ‘bbpress’ theme in bbpressYes prof; the original Kakumei theme had a bbPress logo there. Look for this in the template’s style.css file;
#header {
and add right after it;
background: url(‘images/my-image.png’) no-repeat bottom right;
where my-image.png is the image you’ve placed into the theme’s /images folder.
If the logo looks too far down, change ‘bottom right’ to ‘center right’. You can make the image a png or a gif with a transparent background, though you might find it looks a bit ‘edgy’ against the graduated fill of the header. (That’s why I ditched my own logo, though I’ll spend some time getting it right once everything’s finished).
One other thing, your username is very long and runs into the post text. I’ve seen a few threads about this kind of thing, as long URLs do it too (though _ck_ I think posted a fix for it). Anyway, I’ve just uploaded a tweaked bbVanilla.zip – just a few things spaced better, and the long names should be cut off. Can’t think of a better way to do it, but try it and I’ll have a look at your site again. There is a file modification which limits the length of usernames when registering, so I’ll have another look for it.
If you want minor changes in things like font sizes, by the way, just copy the style.css file out of the zip, modify it and FTP into the theme on your server. If it breaks, you can always copy the original back over it.
[Edit] Found it, and have limited the username to 18 characters, which should fit ok. Theme’s uploaded again.
In reply to: Getting my plugin on the siteAh. Cheers johnhiler.
In reply to: Trying to use ‘bbpress’ theme in bbpressApologies! I just re-uploaded it after you downloaded it, so grab it again. I added a needed plugin to the bbVanilla.zip file, which you should FTP to your my-plugins folder (no need to activate it). That provides a consistent warning/error page for various things.
Also, if you really want the Latest Topics at the top of the front page (a mess in my group’s eyes) then I can show you how add back it easily, or do it for you.
Just noticed on your site (looking sxc by the way); there’s a gap in front of .com in the title (intentional?), and you’ve left the default ‘Just another bbPress community’ message in the banner (Admin, Settings to change).
In reply to: Trying to use ‘bbpress’ theme in bbpressNo, that’s how the theme comes, to fit 800×600 I think. I altered the background image to make it wider, then changed the container width in the css, but it didn’t suit my user group.
Prof, you might like to try my new theme at http://getfiles.letsdoo.org – it’s a very clean layout, with some (very slightly) modified plugins to give a consistent user interface, and also fits 800×600 but doesn’t look squished. Same procedure; just FTP the bbVanilla folder to my-templates, then enable it in Admin. You can always delete it if it doesn’t suit, but looking at your site I think it’d go well with the academic content.
In reply to: Getting my plugin on the siteI created a simple but useful plugin, and filled in the Send Plugin form, complete with URL to my server. I thought that was it, but 20 hours or so later, nothing. Then I spotted this thread. I’m downloading Tortoise now, but what’s all this about a trunk folder..?
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This is no good. My broadband mobile is getting eaten up, and Tortoise is 19mb – just to upload a file?! Isn’t there an easier way?
In reply to: Stuck with installingHow did you resolve it prof, in case it helps me or others..?
