[Darfuria]

It has been 4 months since the latest update on the blog, and I’ve not heard any news about it elsewhere. I know that it’s a side-project of sorts, but I was just curious to know if there was any development news or upcoming features.

[tonicarr]

@ grassrootspa and @all

I think you hit the nail on the head with BuddyPress, I have been asking that question and no one will comment. I don’t know much about it but there is a lot of energy swarming around BuddyPress. Go to twitter and checkout #BuddyPress, something new all the time, then check #bbpress and practically nothing. I think BuddyPress may be the way to go but I don’t know much about the forum aspect of it. From what I understand it is not longer only for WPMU.

[chrishajer]

@tonicarr, what question are you asking that was unanswered?

[grassrootspa]

@tonicarr:

Haha, we must have been separated at birth!

RE: development activity and attention, your twitter remarks say it all. I know bbPress isn’t going to ‘die’ but it’s just so stagnant right now compared to BuddyPress and WordPress. It’s night and day.

Yeah, they are merging WP and WPMU. Smart idea in my humble opinion.

[tonicarr]

The question(s) is … Is bbPress worth the energy? Is BuddyPress the alternative? Does BuddyPress have a good forum?

[johnhiler]

BuddyPress has great forum software built in… it uses bbPress.

https://buddypress.org/about

[chrishajer]

I don’t think anyone but you can answer the first one.

BuddyPress does have a good forum, as far as I’ve heard. You can learn more about how bbPress was integrated with Buddypress in this IRC log:

https://bbpress.org/blog/2009/12/2009-12-09-meetup/

You can ask Andy directly about forums in BuddyPress too:

http://twitter.com/apeatling

Or John James Jacoby:

http://twitter.com/johnjamesjacoby

He was active here for a while and then became a dev for BuddyPress. He would be a good one to ask about the energy required.

[tonicarr]

@chrishajer @johnhiler @all

Then that may be the direction I should go in. It seems to be what all the buzz is about lately. I saw a presentation at wordcamp and was really impressed except at that time it was only for WPMU.

[johnhiler]

BuddyPress is a series of plugins on top of WordPress MU… I don’t think that’s going to change. In fact, that sounds like the new plan for bbPress: to become a plugin on top of WordPress MU.

In terms of BuddyPress versus bbPress: BuddyPress actually uses bbPress code to power its forums. So using BuddyPress isn’t exactly walking away from bbPress… bbPress comes standard with a BuddyPress install!

In terms of what you use to power your sites, it’s probably best to choose your software solution based on your needs. If you want a social network with blogs thrown on top, BuddyPress is a good bet. If you want forum software with a plugin architecture, bbPress is currently the only game in town.

[tonicarr]

@johnhiler

“If you want forum software with a plugin architecture, bbPress is currently the only game in town. “

You have answered my question, I am back to bbPress because basically that is what I want and need.

We have now come full circle.

[grassrootspa]

Here’s a little bad news re: BuddyPress (well for me anyway):

I asked Andy (one of the lead developers of BuddyPress) and there will probably never be a proper out-of-the-box way to have multiple bbPress installs integrated with a single BuddyPress install (unless of course someone develops a plugin to do so independent of BuddyPress’s standard release)

Looks like it will be one bbPress install paired with one BuddyPress install integration wise.

For most folks this is not a major deal but I personally didn’t like this. I was excited about the idea of tons of bbPress forums integrated together (same user database) working properly with one BuddyPress install. oh well.

The sticking point? The ‘activity stream’ is tricky when it comes to showing bbPress forum activity. I got the multiple bbPress installs working in the sense that they all shared the same user databases but the ‘activity stream’ didn’t want to show the forum activity on the various independent bbPress installs.

The thing I dislike the most about BuddyPress is how the ‘activity stream’ is in relation to ‘Groups’ and, you guessed it, bbPress. Still having a dog of a time getting these things to work together with a NORMAL one-to-one BuddyPress bbPress integration!!!

[QuickD]

I thought the legend was BBpress was created from a mad session of coding over a weekend. If this is the case why not have another mad weekend session of coding and get BBpress into a plugin with the top 10 plugins as part of the core.

[Markus Pezold]

Hi to all,

I think that Automattic works increasingly on BuddyPress before developing on bbPress at the moment – yesterday has appeared the Second Release Candidate of BuddyPress 1.2.

The Trac shows BuddyPress 1.2 no longer in the originally planned schedule, but the official release will be soon.

I can imagine that after publication of BuddyPress 1.2 the work will be focused at bbPress again. Automattic hopes for the big success of a Single Installation of WordPress (2.9.1/3.0) together with BudyPress as social network module.

Then – as we can hope – bbPress is the third component that will be integrated.

Greetings

Markus

[johnhiler]

BuddyPress has a lead developer – Andy Peatling:

http://apeatling.wordpress.com/about-me/

bbPress does not have a lead developer right now. Automattic founder and bbPress creator Matt Mullenweg ( http://ma.tt/ ) was hosting weekly bbPress chats and jamming out a few features along with another Automattic dev, but that stopped a while ago and we haven’t heard from Matt since.

It’s not likely that Andy is going to switch tracks and work on bbPress… he’s pretty focused on BuddyPress, and it has an ambitious product map that should keep him busy!

Maybe Matt will come back to us after his schedule clears up… we’ll find out soon enough!

[chrishajer]

I hope Andy sticks with BuddyPress. That project is getting a lot of love right now and I think that should continue. John James Jacoby also develops for BuddyPress.

http://johnjamesjacoby.com/category/buddypress/

[Matt Mullenweg]

I’ve been on the road for a few weeks — back now. People seem to pull a chicken little every 10 minutes though — I wish as much effort went into more productive activity but it seems there isn’t overlap.

[johnhiler]

What do you mean by “pull a chicken little”?

[Matt Mullenweg]

The sky is falling the sky is falling!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vnp4kj5lLOU

[kevinjohngallagher]

I wish as much effort went into more productive activity

Like what mate?

Plugins?

Themes?

We’ve been sitting with a semi-functioning release for over 6 months, and there’s a new version coming out at some unknown point in the future, and given the track record, we can’t develop anything for it becasue BBpress releases = break loads of things from before.

Heck even your single solitary remaining moderator has told people that. (i don’t want to requote chris too much, he’s been a great mod who’s workign his socks off here, and don’t want to back him into a corner).

With the upmost respect bud, we can only go on what we’re told. And we’re told to check the blog, then we’re told to check the weekly IRC logs, then we’re told to check trac updates, then we’re told to check commits etc etc. Every time someone pulls a “chicken little” the place they’re told to check for updates doesn’t have any, and then they come back a bit more worried.

We’re not intentionally pulling a “chicken little” every 10 mins matey, we’re just trying to keep up. It takes very little time (thanks to a wonderful blogging platform ;-] ) to post saying “no irc chat for 3 weeks folks”, and the problem is solved.

Much like spam, it’s best prevented before it sets in, rather than being unhappy about it afterwards. May i suggest that less of the “Wizard of Oz” routine (man behind the curtain saying all is well) might diminish some of the “Chiken Little” routine that seems to irk? Maybe communication could be considered your Akismet

What i’m not sure you get it mate (and you might, so i’ll apologise if you do), that alot of us are in limbo with this. We’re all in a holding pattern waiting for this mythical next release, and man, we want to help. But with no communication, its really hard.

http://www.dilbert.com/fast/2003-10-12/

That said, really hope you had a great time on your travels

[Matt Mullenweg]

“Like what mate?” Core improvements — I’ve given core commit access to anyone who has shown ability. I’ve never told anyone to check for updates, you must be referring to someone else. I’m sorry it’s stressing you out so much.

[Kevin Ryman]

Every once in a while I come and see BBpress’ progress and wow and surprise people like _ck_ are gone. What’s going on here, Matt? We need a BBpress Dev Team. Seriously, BBpress is a nice bulletin board that deserves more attention. Lean and clean.

[Matt Mullenweg]

I’ve given site and commit access to close to 10 people. Besides putting in my own time, which I do when I can, there’s not much else I can do.

[chrishajer]

Devote some resources to bbPress? Put someone in charge of the project?

Unfortunately, the people who care about bbPress (and we complain because we care) are not always the same people who can help with programming.

[Matt Mullenweg]

Yes, and the dearth of coders is the hardest to work around. Without code contributions bbPress will never be a community project.

[frooyo]

@Matt

I think you’re missing the bigger point trying to be made.

Every “community project”, as you put it, has a Benevolent Dictator … someone who LEADS the project. bbPress for the past 6 months hasn’t had such a leader.

Frankly, many of us thought YOU were stating that you would take over that role as bbPress project lead. Apparently not.

If you don’t want that role, please post a blog post on it – that way we as a community can find someone else to drive/lead the bbPress project because clearly noone now from automatic has cared about bbPress since Sam left.

Not to be rude, but no wonder why both Sam and _ck_ left. I’m feeling like a battered women who just now realized that I’ve been abused for the past 2 years.

[Matt Mullenweg]

That’s not how it happened at all. I have been leading the project and sheparding resources in many ways, which is why it started development again after several months of zero activity, but unfortunately I don’t have as much time as I would like. I care about bbPress, otherwise I wouldn’t have spent as much time as I have already, and hopefully as some people leave (I can’t believe you said you feel like a battered woman, the analogy feels completely inappropiate) others will join.

I’ve been keeping up with this conversation with the new email notification feature, for what it’s worth.