BuddyPress 1.5 is really close to release now (really!). I’ve started on a much-needed update of Welcome Pack, to bring it up to date for the latest versions of WordPress and BuddyPress, and planned features which will enhance the email customisation options.
After that’s done, BP Labs will probably be next, as I want to continue building on the Akismet integration; I think that will be really popular once word gets around.
Then Achievements. 
BP Labs 1.2-beta-1 should be available on WordPress.org, soon. What’s new?
Activity Stream Spam requires BuddyPress 1.5; it won’t do anything on earlier versions of BuddyPress. 1.5 is due out soon, and is itself currently in beta (go test!). The admin backend for un-spamming (or “hamming”) activity items looks like this.
Please note you’ll need to have WordPress’ standard Akismet plugin set up, configured and working. In beta 1, there is no way of manually marking an activity item as spam; Akismet will use its best judgement.
I wanted to get this out as soon as possible so people can (hopefully) test the core functionality, in order for a final release a little while after BuddyPress 1.5 goes out. Let me know in comments any bugs or feedback.
Hi Paul, I dont know how your plugin work but I’ve a suggestion concerning “@mentions auto suggest”, I think that the list of suggestions must bu grabbed from the page that we are!!
I know!! it’s unclear, I’ll explain: for example I’m posting a reply in a forum topic the plugin will suggest only the persons who replied to this topic and the the writer of course (or group’s members).
when I would update my activity the plugin will suggest from friend list only, when I would post in my group wall it will suggest from group’s members and like that the plugin will be verry rapid 
Hi hohodz,
Thanks for the feedback. I had thought about making it context-sensitive, as you are suggesting, but I haven’t looked at how to implement that just yet. Hopefully will be done in a future version.
Sounds a little unnecessary to me because you wouldn’t want autosuggest to limit who you could @mention. You just want it to make it easier to find the name you’re looking for, regardless of the context. What if you wanted to @mention someone in a group topic that was not yet apart of that group topic? You wouldn’t be able to.
Also, I’m using 1.2 (I’m pretty sure it’s Beta 1), and I notice a lag when you type “@” and at least one character: It says it’s loading, then it goes back up, then it goes back down to display the names. Also, it extends to the right too far, resulting in a horizontal scroll bar – http://oi56.tinypic.com/m79mj8.jpg. It happens with the Frisco theme, too, I think.
That’s a known issue with BP Default 1.5. It is proving very challenging to fix so far! It only affects those “what’s up” activity boxes. It should work fine with areas such as the private message compose window.
plz give me the default language file to translate it to french and arabic
Last week, the BuddyPress core team put out the first beta of BuddyPress 1.5; I’m extremely thrilled that it’s so close to release now. It’s set to be the best BuddyPress yet, and I’m looking forward to people enjoying all of the enhancements we’ve put into it. Once 1.5′s out, I plan to shift some of my time to back to working on new and old BuddyPress plugins.
I’ve had time this weekend to get my BP Labs plugin close to another release. The big feature, as previous mentioned, is integrating Akismet into the Activity Stream. It’s going to be a pretty rudimentary implementation in the first release, as I need to think about how the admin UI is best done, and how it should or shouldn’t match WordPress’ comment spam handling. Here’s a screenshot of the admin UI so far, which is what I’ve spent this afternoon on:
Activity Stream spam, admin UI
I’m excited about BP 1.5 too, it would have been even better if you’d skipped all the way to 2.0
Will the current Achievements work well with BP 1.5 or would it be better to wait until you’ve had time to release an update?
Thanks, as ever, for all your hard work Paul.
P.S. Most of your spam seems to be coming from this fellow “admin” and his sidekick “test”, you should think about banning them.
I’m not sure about Achievements; I’ve not had lots of time to test, and it seemed to work at a cursory glance when I checked a couple of weeks ago, but I didn’t test everything. It’s on the todo asap.
Tomorrow, we have our regular Wednesday BuddyPress Developers’ chat. It’s at 19:00 UTC, in #buddypress-dev on Freenode. We’re getting a growing number of attendees, but if you haven’t before, tomorrow’s would be a really good one to pick
If you are new to IRC, the best way to join in is to visit http://webchat.freenode.net/. In the channels box, type #buddypress-dev, enter a nickname and complete the captcha, and click connect.
I spent last weekend at WordCamp Portsmouth, and met and re-met all sorts of super cool people. I was lucky to be presenting a session about BuddyPress, where I covered details of features in the next (1.3) release, as well as our plans for the future (1.4).
The presentation was recorded, and as soon as that’s uploaded, I hope to share my thoughts on the WordCamp in another blog post. For now, here’s my slides:
Looks exciting going by your slides, I can’t wait to watch the video (and see what fun I missed out on over the weekend!) But also to hear about the new exciting enhancements for BuddyPress 1.4 — I might just have to start running trunk locally and play about?
If your site, or company, uses BuddyPress, please let me know. I’m trying to make a big list for a presentation. In particular, I’d love to hear from medium/large companies.
Please reply in comments, or to @pgibbs on Twitter, or email me if you want to keep it confidential. Thanks!
I just started using BuddyPress so it’s the very beggining :
http://www.oreille-malade.com
(french website about tinnitus and hyperacusis)
I’ll take a look; many thanks
here’s a couple
http://www.leckhamptononline.co.uk – hyperlocal website
http://www.bigsmallworld.co.uk – big society initiative in wandsworth
Hi !
My social network , im using Buddypress 
(french & arabic socialnetwork)
@megainfo
freemania.net
and while I am here, and why i got here:
Hi,
I would like to implement BuddyPress and bbPress on my site, and need a Community Organizer:-)
Someone who is well versed in these two tools, technically and especially conceptually how they work.
I need someone to set up the system[s] (they are 80% done, btw), maintain them, and promote them.
If you are or know someone who fits the bill, PLEASE tell me about them or vice versa.
Thanks for the feedback
I’ve eventually updated Welcome Pack for WordPress 3.1. It should become available on wordpress.org shortly.
Welcome Pack is a BuddyPress plugin that enhances the new user experience. When a user registers on your site, Welcome Pack lets you automatically send them a friend or group invitation, a Welcome Message and can redirect them to a Start Page. You can also customise the default emails sent by BuddyPress to ensure that they match the brand and tone of your site.
Hey Paul, when will Welcome Pack be ready for 1.5? Really need it
After BuddyPress 1.5 is out; I simply don’t have time at the moment.
I’m happy to announce the newest release of my Achievements for BuddyPress plugin. Available immediately, Achievements gives your BuddyPress community fresh impetus by promoting and rewarding social interaction with challenges, badges and points.
Be sure to visit its own website at achievementsapp.com. I’ve included an introductory video into the below post, so you can learn about the plugin and see it in action.
Nice job, Paul. This is the best.
This is great, Paul!
Congratulations.
Spanish translation will be done soon
As if the release of BuddyPress 1.2.6 wasn’t exciting enough by itself, John James Jacoby has today announced that Boone B. Gorges and I have joined the BuddyPress core team; this basically means we get the keys to the car! I am extremely thankful to Andy Peatling and John for this honour, and I am excited beyond words to be working with them on the next versions of BuddyPress.
I consider this to be one of my highest personal achievements this year, in addition to presenting at WordCamp Ireland and WordCamp UK. If any of you are attending WordCamp New York this week, I’d love to say hi. I am also attending WordCamp Netherlands in November.
This brings the BuddyPress core team up to five people — Andy, John, Marshall, Boone and I — and puts the project into fifth gear. I’m humbled, honoured and hugely happy. Let’s rock!
EDIT: I can’t make WC NL. Have a great time those attending!
Congratulations, Paul! It’s excellent to see BuddyPress in such capable hands, and it was wonderful to meet you this weekend at #wcnyc. Keep up the great work!
Congratulations! I must admit that I’m not that into BuddyPress yet, but I need to make some time to jump into it. Let’s talk about it at WordCamp Netherlands!
Congratulations! Really looking forward to 1.2.6!
Congrats on joining the BuddyPress core team, Paul!
Congratulations Paul
Time to dip into buddy press me thinks
Looking forward to the good things ahead
Thank you everyone
You are THE man Paul.. well done mate!
Glad you’re on the team. Well done and well-deserved.
Congratulations Paul.
You really deserve it.
Thanks!
I realize this is late, but is very well deserved and will be a boon (excuse the pun) to the BP community. I can’t wait to see the progress that’s made with the extra core developers.
The first version of Achievements is almost ready for release. However, BuddyPress 1.2.6, which Achievements requires, isn’t. I will not be releasing Achievements until BuddyPress 1.2.6 has been.
Consider this a private beta period. If you want your hands on Achievements now, and know how to use SVN and how to obtain the BuddyPress 1.2 branch (this will become the 1.2.6 release), leave a reply here and I’ll send you the details.
I apologise for any inconvenience this delay will cause your projects, but I’ll be using this extra time to continue improving Achievements.
Yes please!!
Email en route!
Great, keep up the good work!
Yes, por favor! =)
Email sent!
Yes, please! btw Great work!
I’ve sent you an email, thanks
Please.
James — I think I’ve sent the details to you previously; those same details still apply. Let me know if you never got it previously (a few weeks ago), and I’ll re-send. Cheers.
D’oh. I did get it but missed it in my inbox. Thanks. Looking forward to trying it out.
Yes please!
Hi Linus
I’ve just emailed you the details, thanks.
I would love to try this out. Looks like exactly what I need. Great work!
Sounds great! May I try it out?!
I’ve sent an email to you
Sure why not, send me a copy.
Hi – I think you were already on my mailing list. If you haven’t received my previous emails, let me know and I’ll resend. Thanks.
I checked my email. There wasn’t any previous email.
I’ve just sent the details to the email address which you left on your comment.
Thanks received it.
Why is it you are unable to create new achievements in Version 1.23, but you are able to create additional categories? This seems to be a bug- maybe it didn’t install correctly on my wordpress install? Doesn’t look like there’s a support forum for this plugin version that’s active to ask others if they’ve run into the same problem, which is why I’m posting here.
As for Achievements 2.0 – can one create their own achievements? Example: I have a founder’s club for the first 1,000 users on my site, along with other special achievements and awards related to polls and quizzes. I would also like to create custom badges/award achievements for special posts/forum topics that are really outstanding. There should be a way for the website owner to add custom achievements. Thank you.
oh, never mind. I see it’s going to happen in 2.0.
I would very much love to try this, thank you.
Please send me details when you can!
I’d love to try it.
Just a feature request. Can we have external triggers? I plan to use this in my wordpress flash arcade. I would like to trigger an achievement from the flash game. I can run any php, database code through it. So any ways to have custom triggers for achievements?
All you need to do would be to build a function in WordPress that intercepts an appropriate AJAX request generated by your external app, and it’d work. Email me if you need a pointer how to do this.
hohodz, and 1 other are discussing. 
Hachi, 
Arthur Freitas, and 
Paul Gibbs, 
Vikram Jhaveri, and 13 others are discussing. 
Mike Kennedy 8:51 pm on August 20, 2011 Permalink |
I’m looking very, very, forward to using Welcome Pack again!
Can’t wait. May I kindly suggest that you do one upgrade to make it compatible with BP 1.5 so we could use that in the mean time, and then upgrade it again with the planned new features, so we can begin using it sooner 
Oh, and does the BP Labs autosuggest use the same autosuggest as the one in Compose Message? Because it would make more sense to me if it did, because it does a great job at autosuggest as well, and it would cut down on code and whatnot since you could just reuse it. Just wondering, as I have absolutely no idea
Paul Gibbs 10:05 am on August 21, 2011 Permalink |
Hi Mike,
I’ve actually had a mostly updated Welcome Pack ready for some time, but I hadn’t released it, so your suggestion is definitely possible. Someone also sent me a couple of patches for Achievements and Welcome Pack, to help bring them up to date, which was super helpful, too!
I’m going to start on the email changes and see how long that looks like taking; depending on when BP 1.5 hits, if I have to release the “make it work” version, I will.
RE: Labs autosuggest. No it doesn’t; partly because I wanted to learn how to build a jQuery plugin. I think mine does a better job of regex parsing input for user names, but my plan is to try to use the standard autocomplete script (which is what Compose Message, and the P2 theme, both use) and test how that works
donnacha of WordSkill 2:37 am on August 21, 2011 Permalink |
Ah, Achievements … saving the best for last.
Paul Gibbs 10:01 am on August 21, 2011 Permalink |
Most complex to last
Gidon Ariel 6:04 am on August 21, 2011 Permalink |
Glad to hear from you! I am starting a site that is heavily dependent on BP and I am glad that a BP resource is available.
Paul Gibbs 10:07 am on August 21, 2011 Permalink |
Excellent! Be sure to share your site on the BuddyPress.org gallery forum
Fausto Fernós 11:04 pm on August 21, 2011 Permalink |
Awesome! Thanks for your hard work.
nahummadrid 2:52 pm on September 9, 2011 Permalink |
how about…Achievements first!
I shouldn’t have cyborg’d Achievements and WP MU!
Paul Gibbs 2:59 pm on September 9, 2011 Permalink |
But I’m already half-done on Welcome Pack
(To those interested, the time remaining is to build a new feature to Welcome Pack, not a compatibility fix)
Paul Gibbs 10:35 pm on September 18, 2011 Permalink |
Just to update: Welcome Pack coming along pretty well for BuddyPress 1.5 compatibility. If I can’t finish re-building the email customisation feature by next weekend, I’ll release a version with that feature disabled for the time being. I’ve done the front end stuff, I just need to figure out some clever plumbing on the backend
Nicusor Dumbrava 9:01 pm on September 29, 2011 Permalink |
Paul Gibbs, your fast response on updating plugins for BuddyPress version 1.5… are very much appreciated
Today I’m starting my first site powered by BuddyPress, why now? mostly because… now I really believe in the success of BuddyPress, version 1.5 looks pretty major… this is like high school diploma for bp
Thank you for your contribution to the community!
Gerald 1:18 pm on November 18, 2011 Permalink |
Now when BuddyPress 1.5 has been released, hundreds of bug, enhancements, and all-new features are fixed. Thank you!!