PDA

View Full Version : Nice little Forum Plug In for Wordpress



Harold Mansfield
03-10-2010, 02:05 PM
I have never been too impressed with Wordpress Forum Plug ins and I would never use one for a full solution, but recently I looked again as I was looking for something light, yet functional to use simple as a place to answer support questions.

I was going to do a full installation of V- Bulletin (which was too much), but then I found this:
Simple:Press Forum (http://simplepressforum.com/)

It's actually a pretty decent plug in and it does exactly what I needed it for, something on a smaller scale to use as a place for support questions.

Works with Single User WP and MU

Installation wasn't bad (it's a big plug in), my issues came from my FTP program not uploading complete folders, but after I got that worked out, it seems like it will be perfect.

Just thought I'd share:)

Patrysha
03-10-2010, 02:26 PM
Thanks for sharing that :-) It might come in handy for a project I will be working on soon.

vangogh
03-10-2010, 09:07 PM
I've heard good things about simple press, but I lean towards using bbPress as it's being developed by by Automatic and is what BuddyPress uses internally. Did you realize BuddyPress used bbPress as forum software? It was a single click and 5 seconds and I had a forum set up.

Harold Mansfield
03-11-2010, 01:30 AM
I've heard good things about simple press, but I lean towards using bbPress as it's being developed by by Automatic and is what BuddyPress uses internally. Did you realize BuddyPress used bbPress as forum software? It was a single click and 5 seconds and I had a forum set up.

Yes, I have it set up, but I couldn't see a clear way to use it as a support forum. It's set up more as a message board between groups and members.

vangogh
03-11-2010, 01:47 AM
I think that's BuddyPress doing that. bbPress on it's own can be set up as a support forum. I've seen a few people discuss that they'd like bbPress to work standalone in conjunction with BuddyPress. I imagine there's a plugin to make it happen or will be one coming before too long. Of course that wouldn't help you right now.

Harold Mansfield
03-11-2010, 01:55 AM
I think that's BuddyPress doing that. bbPress on it's own can be set up as a support forum. I've seen a few people discuss that they'd like bbPress to work standalone in conjunction with BuddyPress. I imagine there's a plugin to make it happen or will be one coming before too long. Of course that wouldn't help you right now.

Oh it's definitely the way BP has it set up. Even so, I like the idea of having a small support forum separate from community conversations.

If I need a full fledged forum solution, I'm still going to go with V-Bulletin.

But this Simple Press Forum plug in is nice for a little mini forum.

vangogh
03-11-2010, 02:07 AM
I want to be able to have the forum separate too. The reason I'd lean toward bbPress is because I think it will ultimately be the one that gets developed more and generates more plugins around it. BuddyPress will likely grow now that it no longer requires MU and since it uses bbPress, which is part of the Press family of applications.

I'm thinking down the line it will be the more robust forum platform for WordPress. Again that doesn't help you now and like I said above I've only heard good things about SimplePress. I'm certainly not knocking SimplePress. Just think about the future.

Harold Mansfield
03-11-2010, 02:19 AM
Speaking of the future, I'm thinking come April, the way I have things set up right now, will be as obsolete as leaded gasoline.

I did upgrade my hosting account today to a VPS in anticipation of building a few more of these on the new version.

vangogh
03-11-2010, 10:42 AM
Funny and sad to think your setup will have a 3 week lifespan. It's the way of technology isn't it.

SimplePress isn't going anywhere. Plenty of people use it and say positive things about it.

Harold Mansfield
03-11-2010, 11:41 AM
Funny and sad to think your setup will have a 3 week lifespan. It's the way of technology isn't it.

SimplePress isn't going anywhere. Plenty of people use it and say positive things about it.
Well, a little extra knowledge never hurt anyone. Kind of like the age old grade school student/ teacher argument..."Why do I need to show the work when I can do it on a calculator?"

Well I learned a few things that may help me troubleshoot in the future.

vangogh
03-11-2010, 09:28 PM
True. I always look at tough projects that way. Next time out it'll be that much easier and if you had trouble the first time you know others will too. It's another service you can sell.

Harold Mansfield
03-12-2010, 07:52 AM
True. I always look at tough projects that way. Next time out it'll be that much easier and if you had trouble the first time you know others will too. It's another service you can sell.

That the whole point. I remember when I was in the bar business and liquor companies were jumping on the whole email thing. I know I snagged at least 5 Jagermail (http://jagermail.com/src/login.php)addresses.

I can see this being the next wave of that internet branding and community building.

vangogh
03-12-2010, 11:25 AM
I can see this being the next wave of that internet branding and community building.

I think so too, at least for WordPress users. I'm expecting we'll see a lot of growth in BuddyPress sites this year. Of course having the technology to build a community is one thing, actually building a community is something completely different.

Harold Mansfield
03-12-2010, 12:06 PM
I think so too, at least for WordPress users. I'm expecting we'll see a lot of growth in BuddyPress sites this year. Of course having the technology to build a community is one thing, actually building a community is something completely different.

Absolutely. But I can see companies that already have recognition really taking hold of this, I mean if I were say a Capt. Morgans, I'd rather have my own community om my own branded domain, rather than having to utilize someone else's like what has catapulted general community sites like Facebook, My Space and Twitter.

I know that many of them have tried it before and have attempted to build their own platforms, and they have previously failed, but I think as this becomes a little more user friendly where as anyone can do it..the possibilities are almost endless.

vangogh
03-13-2010, 02:05 AM
That's what I think too. BuddyPress is going to make it easier for people to build communities around their sites. What I'd really like to see, but don't think exists yet, is for BuddyPress to work across sites.

Say you build one site on WordPress (after 3.0 or now with MU) then you build another few sites under the main one. It would be great if your BuddyPress community could become part of the community for all the sites instead of just the one site, assuming you and they wanted to do that. Now that would be community and a great way to grow your entire stable of sites instead of just one.

It makes sense to me for it to work that way. For example I currently have a blog that focuses on web design and web development. I stay away from WordPress topics, because I plan on building another site based around WordPress. I think it would be natural that some of the audience for each site would also enjoy the other. Of course each site will link to and promote the other, but it would be great if there were just one set of profiles and one forum between both sites.

Harold Mansfield
03-16-2010, 12:07 PM
I think that's BuddyPress doing that. bbPress on it's own can be set up as a support forum. I've seen a few people discuss that they'd like bbPress to work standalone in conjunction with BuddyPress. I imagine there's a plugin to make it happen or will be one coming before too long. Of course that wouldn't help you right now.

On a second look at that, I realized that it wasn't necessary to install a separate forum for support.
By utilizing the 'Group' option in the included BBpress forum, I could simply name a group 'Support' and set it so anyone can join and "Viola" , you have your support forum.

vangogh
03-17-2010, 01:15 AM
Oh cool. When there's a will there's a way. I think some of your troubles are simply not a lot of familiarity with BuddyPress yet. Not your fault of course given how relatively new it is. I take there isn't the same community around it yet as there is for WordPress, but I imagine that will be coming.

Harold Mansfield
03-17-2010, 01:42 AM
Oh cool. When there's a will there's a way. I think some of your troubles are simply not a lot of familiarity with BuddyPress yet. Not your fault of course given how relatively new it is. I take there isn't the same community around it yet as there is for WordPress, but I imagine that will be coming.

No, there's hardly anything. A few webmasters like me trying to get into it.. guessing at trouble shooting, and one company charging $70 a month for access to a few themes and plug ins and a support forum.
That's it.

It's not like WP single user where you can type in a problem and 10 articles and forum threads pop up. With BP/MU, when you type a question into Google, all you get is a 3-4 people asking the same question and forum threads that haven't been touched in months and no answers at the end of them.

I haven't seen anyone jump into it with both feet like I have and of all of the sites that I have seen in the "Show off your Buddypress Site" section of the forum, they all are using a barely modified stock template and no real ideas of what to do with it.

The only other sites that I see that are successfully running nice communities..Universities and such aren't talking to us...I imagine they have an unlimited supply of student support help in place and don't troll the forums too much for answers.

They must have a direct line of communication with WP developers because there is no way they just winged it.

vangogh
03-17-2010, 01:55 AM
I'll be joining you working with it before too long. It's still too new for their to be much activity around it, but again I expect that to change in the not too distant future.

On the plus side imagine you knew everything you know about WordPress even just a couple of years ago and all the opportunities where you could have been early or first to market. You'll be able to now with BuddyPress.


They must have a direct line of communication with WP developers because there is no way they just winged it

There is. If you search around the WordPress.org site you can find some of those channels. I believe the devs chat weekly over IRC and anyone can join in. I hooked everything up so I could take part, but never did actually take part.

Here you go

Contributing to WordPress (http://codex.wordpress.org/Contributing_to_WordPress)

There's info on all the ways you can contribute, many of which are different places to see what's coming.

You can also set up WordPress to upgrade automatically via Subversion so you can get nightly builds, etc. Matt Mullenweg has said his live site has been upgraded through Subversion without problem.

Here's the instructions for setting it up (http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing/Updating_WordPress_with_Subversion).

Another one of those things I've been meaning to try and haven't found the time yet.