BuddyPress MU

[sooskriszta]

Like WP MU enables networks of blogs, perhaps BP MU could consider powering networks of communities:

• multiple communities on same install of BuddyPress
• shared or partitioned user base
• each community decides separately and independently which BuddyPress features to use (one may use profiles and activities only, other may use profiles and groups and forums, etc)
• profile fields can be different for each community
• each community can be on a separate subdomain
• each community could use a different theme

[mercime]

There are already two free BuddyPress MultiNetwork plugins in the market.

1. ​http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/bp-multi-network/ - shared user base

and

2. ​http://buddydev.com/plugins/buddypress-multi-network/ - separate user base

[sooskriszta]

Replying to mercime:

1. ​http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/bp-multi-network/ - shared user base
2. ​http://buddydev.com/plugins/buddypress-multi-network/ - separate user base

Based on the description ​http://buddydev.com/plugins/buddypress-multi-network/ seems pretty close.

This is a very useful functionality.

However, this is one of those functions, for which one finds it very difficult to trust plugins. It is a "mission critical" application, so to say. If a plugin is abandoned, or breaks on updates, it brings down the whole site from ground up.

Hence core enhancement, from my perspective.

[boonebgorges]

However, this is one of those functions, for which one finds it very difficult to trust plugins. It is a "mission critical" application, so to say. If a plugin is abandoned, or breaks on updates, it brings down the whole site from ground up.

We have to make decisions about what goes into BuddyPress core based not only on what some people think (rightly or wrongly) is "mission critical", but also on what will have the broadest impact. BP MU is a neat idea, but it almost surely would only be used by a very small percentage of BP installations.

That said, over the last few versions, some key BP functionality (such as bp_get_user_meta()) has been abstracted in such a way that it would be easy to do a true BPMU (as opposed to multi-network) with a plugin. There's nothing wrong with the current multi-network solutions, but they're not user-friendly, and they introduce a little more overhead than one might like.

I'm putting this into Future Release because I think it's worth having a continuing conversation about the further steps that BP has to take to be easily converted to multisite-mode (even if we never expose it in the UI).

[sooskriszta]

Just to clarify, by "mission critical" I don't mean necessarily important for everyone. What I mean is that if someone is using this function then it is at the core of their site. They can't abandon just this function and expect to use the rest of the site properly. Removing this function would kill the site. So, a plugin is a VERY risky bet. If a plugin is abandoned, or breaks on updates, it brings down the whole site from its foundation.

If a significant minority of BuddyPress users use this function, then it's probably worth including it in core.

[sooskriszta]

P.S. Since WPMU is part of the WP core, we should think about including BPMU in BP core, for parity reasons as well.

[mercime]

I suggest we close this ticket. I have to agree with "BP MU is a neat idea, but it almost surely would only be used by a very small percentage of BP installations."

[slaFFik]

Closing after discussion with the team on a meeting.