[John James Jacoby]

I am a bit confused. Are you suggesting that plugin developers aren’t contributing to bbPress?

Core. bbPress Core is what comes in the zip when you download it. A plugin in its own zip file isn’t the same as writing patches that help create bbPress.

Is a plugin a contribution to bbPress in general? Of course! So are themes, moderators, evangelists, anyone that’s involved in a positive way is contributing.

Is the work and the opportunity to use your plugin appreciated? Yes. Does a plugin (sponsored or otherwise) help new and updated versions of bbPress core get released to everyone that’s using it? No.

[johnhiler]

I am a bit confused. Are you suggesting that plugin developers aren’t contributing to bbPress?

[John James Jacoby]

I have funded the development of dozens of bbPress plugins, almost all of which are available on the plugins tab as open source. They are just not released under my name, as I didn’t do the programming.

I have gone out of my way not to bash on bbPress on the forums, and to be supportive of the platform. I have 19 pages of posts on the bbPress forums, mostly answering questions from users.

I don’t think I deserve the comments you directed at me. That said, I wish you all the best with your new project.

Plugins are great, but they haven’t helped lead bbPress or contribute to the core project. Everyone appreciates any plugin that shows up in any repo, sponsored or not, yours or not.

I say this in the nicest way possible, but you shouldn’t have to go out of your way to be a genuinely nice person. Any and all contributions are always 100% awesome, so nothing I say ever is meant to mean anything other than that. The topic here is bbPress core, which means what comes in the bbpress.zip.

I’m sorry if you feel anything I said to you was off-putting. Just trying to put out this fire and answer questions with what I know to be true.

there is no way a bbPress plugin is going to be robust enough in 2010 for the public

Probably very true, and I wish I had the chance to start this topic; it sort of got started without us. We’re still going to work really hard to get something out there. Compatibility is the number 1 priority before this should even be considered to use with existing data.

Thanks for sticking to the 0.9 branch _ck_. I’ll be keeping equal eyes on the bbPress trac and BuddyPress trac, so if something crops up in 0.9 that needs committing or requires a security release, we can make that happen.

The trac is open to everyone to snoop through all of the code, and I welcome the criticism of the plugin branch 100%. I want it to be the go-to discussion forum software for every WordPress powered site, and I know that a team of people can’t do that by themselves, nor should they have to.

[jomontvm]

How can I get the corresponding Arabic version of bbpress 1.0.2?

And can I install both English and Arabic versions of bbpress under a single installation of wordpress mu with the database shared?

Anyone please advice..

[_ck_]

JJJ: Nothing is being dropped, or abandoned, or tossed aside anytime soon.

Good to hear. Probably should have started this topic with that as the first sentence as it would have prevented a lot of misunderstanding by many folks.

Based on my experience and knowledge of bbPress internals, even with two developers working on it, there is no way a bbPress plugin is going to be robust enough in 2010 for the public, unless compatibility is going to be completely thrown out the window and it’s “bbPress” in name only (hence again my point, do not call it bbPress).

But I’d like to hear the following as FACT from Matt instead of just casual opinion (as good of an opinion as it is):

JJJ: … if a bug fix or security issues pops up with 1.0/1.1 branches, the responsible thing to do is to fix it and push out updates.

For the record I’ll state that I intend to keep 0.9 going as long as reasonably possible. Before that last sentence appears elsewhere on the net let me qualify it by saying that doesn’t mean I am going to run a public fork of it. But in theory people should be able to count on it for years. Features would be added as plugins, not in the core.

[johnhiler]

I have funded the development of dozens of bbPress plugins, almost all of which are available on the plugins tab as open source. They are just not released under my name, as I didn’t do the programming.

I have gone out of my way not to bash on bbPress on the forums, and to be supportive of the platform. I have 19 pages of posts on the bbPress forums, mostly answering questions from users.

I don’t think I deserve the comments you directed at me. That said, I wish you all the best with your new project.

[John James Jacoby]

It’s hardly dismissive. Sorry you feel that way, but it’s meant to say that those of you that are upset, are also choosing not to hear what we’re saying anymore; you’re just mad and there’s not much I, or Matt, or anyone can do about that.

Over the past year, we’ve seen people request more features, people request less features, people want new leadership, people want to know the direction of the project, etc… The fact is that you can start developing the core right away by submitting patches in the trac. If you’re not doing that, then you’re not investing in the future of the platform, you’re investing in your own ventures which I’m happy to help with, but can’t be responsible for.

Sorry you feel it’s been badly handled, but to be quite fair, it’s partly because we’ve been directly answering everyone’s questions in this topic, and partly because this won’t happen for several months anyhow. This is big news to deliver, that’s why it hasn’t been delivered yet.

John, you can continue to spend as much money as you’d like on the future of bbPress, doing those exact same things the exact same way. If you’re satisfied with what you’ve invested in today, you will continue to be tomorrow. Nothing changes other than bbPress has a team of developers that are communicating to everyone now.

I’ve answered the ‘same name’ question a few times already, as have a few others. I mean nothing but the utmost respect when I say this, but there is nothing preventing anyone that’s upset here from developing bbPress core themselves and keeping up a stable branch if they see fit. It’s very much a meritocracy, so if you keep developing, you’ll keep climbing the ladder.

There’s also nothing wrong with forking it the same way WordPress did with b2 in the beginning. We’d rather have you on board, but if you just can’t and won’t be involved in the future bbPress plugin, then all I can do is keep repeating myself.

[chrishajer]

With layout issues like that, it’s nearly always a div issue (div size, float, unclosed, extra, something.) So, you should validate first:

http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&uri=http://www.supporttheanimals.co.uk/bbpress/topic.php?id=3

Can’t validate because of an invalid character on line 8. I tried to view the source of the page to see what the character might be, but when I right click on the page, I get this:

http://www.chrishajer.com/bbpress/copyright.png

[johnhiler]

It’s pretty dismissive to compare an open source project to cars, turntables and crock pots. bbPress is not a “hobby” for me. I have invested years of my life and tens of thousands of dollars in the platform. I’ve sponsored plugins, worked with developers, and answered help requests. It’s been a big part of my life, and my career.

This is big news to deliver, and I wish that Matt had delivered it personally. Or at least weighed in on it on this thread.

This proposed transition has been very badly handled. I am not even referring to the past year or so, or Matt’s posts in these forums or his speeches elsewhere. I am referring specifically to this proposed transition.

Why not just announce the separate WordPress plugin project and use a new name – why use the same name, and confuse users and antagonize this thriving community?

[ColinBradbury]

Hi I have customised the default theme as to make it match the rest of my site but I am having a major problem getting this page to look right http://www.supporttheanimals.co.uk/bbpress/topic.php?id=3 as you can see all the posts are towards the bottom of the page, could anyone tell me which section of the CSS of files I need to edit to fix this.

Also as a not so important but just an annoyance thing, if you navigate to another part of my site you will notice that the BBPress theme doesn’t quite match the rest of my site, mainly I think due to an error on my part with setting up the margins and padding but I can’t for the life of me find that solution either so if anyone can spend a moment or two to maybe let me know what I have done there too please?

If you need any of my code please don’t hesitate to ask you can contact me here or via email colin @ supporttheanimals.co.uk (without the spaces).

Kind Regards

Colin

Founder of Support The Animals

http://www.supporttheanimals.co.uk

[zaerl]

zaerl:

I have a question for official developers:

Update and submit new plugins right now is a complete waste of time?

and refueled:

And to add to zaerls question: will creating/updating bbPress themes be a waste of time?

I think that we deserve a direct answer. I have spent a lot of time and energy making plugins in the last 3 months (yes I am a newbie) and I want to know what to do in the near future.

[John James Jacoby]

Yeah… We both basically missed each other when we started both of those. That was just a miscommunication and probably a blunder on my part. I’m not sure who did what first, but we’re going to merge those two and close one of them down soon.

The way it sits today, is that ‘bbdevel’ is and has been the existing standalone development blog, and I opened ‘bbpdevel’ back in January when I originally started writing plugin bbPress code, not knowing if there was an existing dev blog, because there weren’t really existing devs . I got busy with work, and it sat for a while, and now it’s back in full swing.

If you need a way to remember it, think ‘bbp’ means bbPress plugin maybe? It wasn’t originally intended to be like that, but might help. I basically mirrored wpdevel(WordPress) and bpdevel(BuddyPress)

[citizenkeith]

Which Dev Update site should we be looking at now?

http://bbdevel.wordpress.com/

http://bbpdevel.wordpress.com/

This is just the beginning of the confusion, I’m sure. Thanks for keeping us posted. We’ve been in the dark for a while, and it’s nice to hear from the plugin developers, even though some of us still use bbpress 0.9.

[John James Jacoby]

Can’t speak on anyone’s behalf, but I imagine he does. Those sites can continue to run bbPress all the same, and if a bug fix or security issues pops up with 1.0/1.1 branches, the responsible thing to do is to fix it and push out updates.

I think what I might be confused about, is if bbPress as it is today is close to exactly what it should be, what would you want it to do 2 years from now that wouldn’t add more bloat or slow it down?

If today, it’s good; then let’s fix up what we have to put out a solid 1.1 stand-alone, and when shift gears to focus on 1.2 as the plugin milestone.

If someone crops up in 1.1 while we’re working on 1.2, then we put out a 1.1.1, etc…

Nothing is being dropped, or abandoned, or tossed aside anytime soon. The plugin is just a new branch of code with the same heart and soul, that will be able to import existing installations into WordPress.

[_ck_]

Does Matt realize that over 10,000 sites are currently using the standalone version of bbPress?

That’s not a massive number but it’s not trivial either.

[luminousnerd]

You could just modify the theme that comes with bbPress. Just change the url in the CSS to your header instead of the WP header.

[refueled]

And to add to zaerls question: will creating/updating bbPress themes be a waste of time?

[luminousnerd]

This is coming up pretty high for various google searches, and is extreme misinformation. If you meant something other than what you said, you should probably edit the original topic.

What you said, however, is wrong.

[zaerl]

You want to directly embed my code in your bbPress? I don’t think that it’s a wise choice. Anyway my plugin is GPL so you can do whatever you want with the code. Grab it and copy the code where you want.

Keep in mind that my plugin can’t be used to hide the entire forum (it’s a design choice). I think that swirl is the best choice.

[zaerl]

I have a question for official developers:

Update and submit new plugins right now is a complete waste of time?

[Rich Pedley]

Firstly, thanks JJJ for actually confirming that bbPress as a standalone will be dropped after the plugin is released – that does make a difference to things being discussed.

Non WordPress uses can’t use VaultPress, or BuddyPress. As the plugin is being developed, if you have suggestions on how it might still be able to sit on top of BackPress, I’m open to building that into it also provided it doesn’t overly sacrifice performance in other areas.

I keep having a weird thought which I know it not practical, about a cut down version of WordPress – oh wait that was what BackPress was supposed to be wasn’t it? Then within it you could have an option to upgrade to get full WP functionality. It would literally only need the files that bbPress utilises.

Ok I have weird thoughts – I admit it – hangs head in shame.

[kevinjohngallagher]

bbPress 1.0.3, and bbPress 1.1, are still being actively developed. Once those versions are available, what /more/ would you want bbPress to do on its own?

Honestly mate? Bug fixes.

Some big bugs that we’ve had for over a year have been bumped because Matt told us we weren’t to have a bug fix release, and instead were to roll out a release with 2 new features instead.

8 weeks ago Matt started deleting milestones from Trac. Didn’t tell anyone. Took him 3 weeks to reply to emails wondering why.

bbpress1.0.3 was ready over 3 months ago (save for a Backpress bug we could live with/patch ourselves). Matt decreed we’ve not to package it and give it to folks as an alpha or even an actual release. We have to wait for 1.1 and the next version of BackPress to be ready. In order to speed that up, we’ve had to bump loads to 1.5, which now isn’t going to happen.

This is the end of the line for the current implementation of bbPress.

Yes. Just like 2.9.2 was the end of the road for the 2.9 branch of WordPress when 3.0 came along. I understand the obvious differences, but at the end of the day, it’s just another day.

Two differences here though bro.

1) No-one has actually said that yet.

2) The new bbPress plugin is a totally separate project, being run under the same banner. Other than being able to import the data from the existing project, its totally different. It doesn’t even have the same requirements. Or any of the same code.

This isn’t resistance to change, nothing is being changed, it’s being replaced. And someone needs to be very clear and categorical about that. This is very very different from going from WP2.9.2 to WP3.

This is effectively a hostile takeover. The people with the keys to this website are handing the reins over to new management; while everyone is speaking in positive PR/Management speak. I’m not saying that the hostile takeover won’t be benefitial in the long run or benefitial to more people than currently use this product – i’m just syaing that hostile takeovers breed questions and uncertainty. Some of that uncertainty needs to be managed.

I know that you’re a real positive guy JJJ, and I’ve said before it’s infectious because you deliver, and deliver with a smile. I can think of no-one better to deal with this.

But the horse has bolted, the cat’s out the bag, the jig is up; and it’s a shame your left here answering questions, but in honesty – to some of us this is our livelyhood and we really need definative answers that are crystal clear so we can quote them as needed and make business decisions that affect our lives.

I am sorry tht you couldn’t have done this in your own time and in your own way. Your handling and galvanising of the BuddyPress community has been great, as I’m sure it will be here as well, we just need to get over this hump so that we can work with you

[Ivaylo Draganov]

Some time ago I came across markItUp! – a markup editor written as a jQuery plugin. It can be attached to any textarea, providing editing interface to it. The best thing is that it that interface can be totaly customized and there are many sets that are ready to be downloaded, among which is a bbCode set.

I’ve been using _ck_’s bbCode toolbar plugin but it lacked buttons for adding colors and changing font-size, so I decided to swap it for markItUp. It turned up quite nicely and the code is dead simple. Here it goes:

First, download markiItUp, along with the necessery bbCode set

http://markitup.jaysalvat.com/downloads/download.php?id=releases/latest

http://markitup.jaysalvat.com/downloads/download.php?id=markupsets/bbcode

http://markitup.jaysalvat.com/downloads/download.php?id=addons/bbcode/colors

* the color set is seperate by default, so you’d have to merge it to the bbCode set later

Upload the downloaded files to a directory on your server (my choice was my-plugins/scripts) and include them in your template. You can do that using bb_head in functions.php of the theme (bbPress 1.x) or as a mini plugin (bbPress 0.9.x)

/*

Plugin Name: markItUp! for post form

*/

function mark_it_up_init() {

echo '

<!-- markItUp! scripts -->

<script type="text/javascript" src="' . bb_get_option('uri') . 'my-plugins/scripts/markitup/jquery.markitup.js"></script>

<script type="text/javascript" src="' . bb_get_option('uri') . 'my-plugins/scripts/markitup/sets/bbcode/set.js"></script>

<script type="text/javascript" >

jQuery(document).ready(function() {

jQuery("#post_content").markItUp(mySettings);

});

</script>

<!-- markItUp! stylesheets -->

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="' . bb_get_option('uri') . 'my-plugins/scripts/markitup/skins/simple/style.css" />

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="' . bb_get_option('uri') . 'my-plugins/scripts/markitup/sets/bbcode/style.css" />';

}



add_action('bb_head','mark_it_up_init');

* Or you could just add that code to your header.php (without the PHP function wrap-up).

And last but most important – include jQuery before markItUp! in your template. That is best done using <?php bb_enqueue_script('jquery'); ?>

You can see it in action on the forum that I manage:

http://comicsbistro.net/forum/?new=1

Hope that this will be useful to someone Cheers!

[mr_pelle]

This wouldn’t have even started if your brand new forum plugin for WordPress (for which I wish you the best of luck) were named NOT bbPress!

This community and its software have survived the last months and I think they will, if this forum won’t be flooded by newbies not knowing exactly what software they are asking questions about…

My email for further discussion: http://scr.im/mrpelle

[mr_pelle]

To turn the whole forum private: https://bbpress.org/plugins/topic/swirl-unknowns/

To hide single forums: https://bbpress.org/plugins/topic/zaerl-visibility/

P.S: why on earth do you want your site to be invisible to websearches? Are you planning something evil??