[Erlend]

That’s excellent news about W3 Total Cache, I’m very glad to hear you’re paying attention to the big cache plugins. WP+BP+BB is no joke laughing matter

[Erlend]

Beta by the end of the year

Will that include the BuddyPress integration?

[Erlend]

Beta by the end of the year

Will that include the BuddyPress integration?

[Erlend]

http://wordpress.elfden.co.uk/forum/

Cheers Rich! I registered and played around quite a bit.

Here’s the only issue I’ve come by so far, which is really nothing:

http://wordpress.elfden.co.uk/topic/tag-issue/#topic-577

[Erlend]

It would be great if JJJ and team could start a test site where the latest plug-in version was installed. It would make it easier for this group to pound on it and help bug test the code.

Absolutely! I’m quite uneasy around all of these development versions, but I would really like to lend a hand by testing whatever I can.

[Erlend]

Tried downloading the latest from Trac but I got the “invalid header” error. I don’t think I’m gonna bother asking for support about these things, so I’d rather wait for an official alpha release that’s got the bare basics put together. Great job though

[Erlend]

We need a “test.bbpress.org” or smt!

From what I can gather, I suppose this means there won’t be any bbpressplugin-as-BuddyPress-component testing until some later stage?

[Erlend]

oh, p.s.p.s.: As part of this dream, I always imagined it possible to, if you opted to, comment to any post within a thread as if its a blogpost, i.e. a small threaded comment the likes of which you see on Stackoverflow.

I really like this concept, as it enables dynamic conversations without easily getting off topic. I’m not one for “points systems” for any sort of thing; I prefer real human interaction. And that’s why it’d be great for me when someone posts a very comprehensive bug report to make a threaded comment giving feedback on how well detailed this report was, while the next post can still stay on topic about the contents of the report by replying with an ordinary post instead of a comment.

[Erlend]

Matt and I have shared a similar dream for allowing blog posts to either act as or create their own dedicated forums, allowing for dedicated topics and branched discussions about those blog posts.

I’m very excited to hear you say that, as I have had that same dream myself for years on end, yet all the major forum softwares I kept tabs on never seemed to innovate past the traditional, strictly linear model.

Way to go!

(p.s. remove tag “rehab in Spain Malaga” please)

[Erlend]

@tonicarr This is not really the thread for these questions; also it’s been asked already.

In quick summary though:

Yes it will replace the bbPress you are currently running (that would be the “importer” JJJ mentioned. One for standalone bbPress and one for BuddyPress forum component I imagine)

For more information check these links:

https://buddypress.org/2010/08/buddypress-and-bbpress-the-future/

https://bbpress.org/forums/profile/johnjamesjacoby

https://bbpress.org/forums/profile/matt

I fully agree with Lykketrollet: Don’t waste your time trying to maintain backwards compatibility with the old bbPress plugins. What you need to worry about is the plugin developers, not the plugins themselves, which will be in need of updates and free support regardless.

[Erlend]

15 it is, rock on!

[Erlend]

Thanks for the update John. I’ll admit I had already adjusted my expectations. Here’s the thing about transparent development and deadlines though: It’s fine to set deadlines, but when you’re getting a strong sense that you won’t make it, say so.

I would have preferred checking in yesterday or the day before that to find “bbPress pre-release deadline post-poned”. Instead I came in today with just a tiny bit of hope, but we all know how that ended.

@_ck_ The “hijacking” comment was all kinds of ‘too far’, ‘out of context’ and plain false. I have a lot of respect for you and share a lot of your opinions about the bbP project, but right now you are truly on the verge of trolling.

[Erlend]

Thanks for that. It’s a nice way to know they’re active, but that’s about it. What I’m really looking for is a way to realize:

“aha, they’re designing those features right now, so maybe I could help by making these suggestions and illustrating these example/past/future use cases related to those features.”

But hey, small as it may be, this is a start:

https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/green-wordpress-admin-color-scheme

[Erlend]

Quite nice, and I especially like seeing the forum getting all comfortable-like in the admin panel

Not sure about the strongest green though. Might I suggest an ‘avocado’ theme? Here are some examples:

http://kuler.adobe.com/#themes/search?term=avocado

There’s one there quite similar to what you’ve already got:

http://kuler.adobe.com/#themeID/300652

(looks like a spam-tag snuck in. check the slimex one)

[Erlend]

The challenge comes from the security model: WP hides a lot of things unless you’re on the backend.

Right on the money. That’s the root of my curiosity exactly.

So I see three possible options:

– With code-wizardry, you achieve what no other plugin author seems to have accomplished until now (bypassing the security model, without compromising WP security of course).

– Altering the way WP ‘guards’ its rich text editor

– Making a separate editor for the forumplugin

Or am I missing something?

It’s not like I really expect a finite answer while bbPress plugin is still in the early design stages, but it looks like this feature presents a proper challenge for the developers, hence my curiosity is peaked.

Maybe a good topic for a weekly meeting a bit further down the road?

[Erlend]

I’m rapidly running out of hope that such a discussion is even possible in this community.

That was sort of my point in the thread you just pulled Matt’s quote from, but I suppose I never came to articulate it like you just did.

The core problem is, this community is haunted by a great divide, the ones who are stuck with bbpress 0.9/1.x for better or for worse, and the ones who just really want to move on. This divide will not disappear any time soon, and it will certainly let its presence be known in every direction-related topic until bbPress standalone is firmly declared dead or forked. As long as its in limbo, so is the community.

This is why I suggested WordPress Foundation / Core Developers / Automattic could just as well pack up and leave from here and start anew elsewhere, easy as pie.

Sorry, I know this wasn’t what you asked for in the start of your topic, but I gotta vent some where.

[Erlend]

@Gautam

By that you mean front-end posting with the native WP editor, right? Not an included, new editor, the way bp-wiki or scribu’s editor currently does it?

Because when I’ve applied a plugin to extend the WP editor, that should apply to the front-end editing as well.

Thanks for the hint about image uploads with P2, I hadn’t noticed the feature. I’ll probably have to do a fresh test install though, because it’s buggy on my current one. Will report back my experiences later.

[Erlend]

@Ryan: I had JS enabled but.., aha, I never noticed the double-click edit upon mouse hover before. Neat

Now, the thing I encountered in both the P2 theme and Justin’s forum plugin is: Neither (seems to be able to-) take advantage of WordPress’ own in-built rich text editor.

I probably did not make this clear enough in my first post. My main point sort of ended up in the second to last paragraph:

What I’d love to see is rich front-end editing based on the native WP editor

What I’m inquiring about is:

How to achieve front-end editing with WordPress’ native rich editor?

The main question is of course ‘how will bbPress go about doing this?’, but clearly this method is still unbeknown to many plugin authors who could greatly benefit from it.

(Disclaimer: My project relies on the bp-wiki plugin, and I am indeed curious as to the possibility of a a more conventional approach to rich front end edits in the future.)

One ‘almost’ example I found is this one:

https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tinymce-excerpt/

It grabs the native editor and displays it somewhere new. However I suspect it can only do so because it’s still within the confines of the admin backend. Posting and editing content from front-end can clearly be achieved, but apparently with severe limitations. It’s getting functions that are normally limited to the backend (tinymce editor, file upload, etc) to the front-end that is awkward.

Speaking of which, feasibility image/file uploads would make for an excellent follow-up question, but maybe you’d rather have me start a new thread for it?

[Erlend]

Alright, appreciate the response. I think we’ve exhausted this discussion then

[Erlend]

I’ll just say this: All I’m seeing is many bbPress standalone users passionate about keeping bbpress.org as the home for the standalone software that they’ve come to rely on, while the only people steadfastly arguing bbpress.org should be the home of the new WordPress Forum plugin, are the core developers. While the rest of us, those who are eagerly planning to make the switch from standalone (or BuddyPress) script to plugin when the time arrives, couldn’t care less what it’s called, as long as it’s official, sleek and solid.

In other words:

“Keep the bbpress.org domain for the software it is today! Make a new one for the plugin!”

In favor: Several

Opposed: Few

Don’t care: Thousands

So there are some benefits about sticking to bbpress.org thrown about, but what have you got to lose by picking a new name? What happened to making everyone happy when you’ve got the chance?

I reckon we’re all pro innovation, right? As far as I’m concerned, I’m only typing up this rant in an attempt to foster innovation, and that’s it. Either which way this turns out I’ll still have the plugin I’ve always dreamed of. I just want it to become the best it can be.

We could probably keep the existing bbP directory running in a different directory to give people time to transition.

Not everyone’s going to ever make that transition, you know that.

In the wake of just a couple days of posting, I think it’s pretty evident that a bbPress fork, or 0.9 continuation more like it, is a pretty likely forecast. Now where could a front runner or two organically emerge to lead such a new initiative? bbPress.org. Where would such an initiative pick up the most momentum? bbPress.org. I couldn’t think of a significant third, but if I did? bbPress.org.

Does a bbPress plugin need any of this? No. A single mention on WordPress.org/.com (include the rest of the WordPress/Automattic ecosystem for good measure) and this plugin will have more buzz than any domain by itself could ever achieve anyway.

And I don’t believe a standalone bbPress fork would damage WordPress. If anything, it would only challenge its limits. bbPress will be shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Vanilla, while WordPress + Forum will be just that; +reason why you should pick WordPress to build your website. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that someone who wants just a forum will pick a plugin powered by a blog. If you want eggs you get eggs, not a full English breakfast with eggs on top.

“This just in: WordPress foundation gives bbpress.org back to the community that’s been keeping it alive” That’s what I wanna see. Openness for the friggin’ history books.

[Erlend]

But you certainly are not going to get anyone who is NOT using WordPress to install WordPress just to create a forum. There are far better options out there.

You’re probably right. Yet allow me to give an example of how major plugins like bbPress and BuddyPress complement WordPress in a way that greatly adds to its appeal (i.e. grows the customer base beyond those interested in WordPress)

Much like WordPress, our project (jMonkeyEngine) is a continuation of someone else’s work. When we picked up the reins of the jmonkeyengine.com website, we were stuck with three separate content systems (SMF, DokuWiki, WordPress) and a mess of custom code. We looked at several options, like:

– Extend SMF (no doubt the heart of our community activities) into a full-scale CMS

– Tie all systems together with a solution like Atlassian’s Crowd

– Replace our custom front page with Joomla! and use JFusion to tie all four tightly together.

– Replace everything with a widely extended Joomla!

We practically tried all of those options and more in practice, either in testing environments or on our live site. Meanwhile I’d been looking at complete ‘community solutions’, like Elgg, OpenWack, JomSocial, BuddyPress…

(I definitely looked at Drupal as well, but they just didn’t seem to have anything near as simple as say JomSocial that just goes ‘boom, now you can start build your community).

Then bbPress came to BuddyPress, and I made a decision. I proposed an overhaul and we got moving:

http://www.jmonkeyengine.com/forum/index.php?topic=13934.0

The only reason we’re not spamming press-boards with ‘look at us!’ links yet is because we made the decision to move everything over at once, and that includes the risky decision of adopting the BuddyPress-Wiki plugin (every other essential has been covered by core features) to replace our DokuWiki. With D.P. Cartwright’s dedicated help we’re just about there though.

Erm, point ahoy!

So the point I’m trying to make is, we never stopped to consider WordPress as a CMS, until BuddyPress arrived as the major complement to fulfill our every need in one package, as opposed to 20+ plugins. Having used WordPress for my own portfolio page and general sandbox play I already knew how intuitive (extremely so when compared to Joomla!) and easy to extend it is. When the last remaining piece of the puzzle arrived, the choice was a no-brainer. I imagine many will come to the same realization with bbPress.

I know I did not prove you wrong; I just figured people might find this brief case study interesting.

[Erlend]

Is there any timetable when the bbPress plugin project would be ready?

I’ve set my hopes for a Christmas Alpha

[Erlend]

Exactly the way I always dreamed it would be <3

Thanks for the answers guys, this really puts my mind at ease.

[Erlend]

Last I checked it seemed like Matt (the only developer I’ve seen around here) had his hat full with suggestions and left with that, quite some time ago now. I reckon if there is a future for bbPress it’s already set into motion some way or another. If that future is as a plug-in, I don’t worry at all.

WordPress is becoming a whole lot more than a blog these days; in some ways, a whole lot less. Way I see it, I wouldn’t be surprised if by WordPress 3.5 or 4.0, WordPress isn’t really a blog, but a plain extensible web development platform, making the blog functionality yet another ‘plug-in’ (that hovers).

[Erlend]

There have been talks about retrieving Sam’s work and getting it done, but I doubt it’s a priority. Consider it to be planned for ‘further down the road’.

bbshowcase is not an official part of bbPress (i.e. no direct affiliation with Automattic); I believe it was once maintained by an active bbpress community member and plugin contributor, who sadly does not think as highly of the project any longer.