Now. Child themes have me going in circles. Some of my old bad habits still work but some willy nilly-ness is going on with a couple of functions and I miss my old custom.css. Any one know how to get a custom.css to work.

I’ve been off learning about buddypress and wp3.  I did have a semi-framework installed here before but with 3.0wp I felt it was time to readjust some things and begin some practices I wasn’t using before. Like child themes, post types, and hooks. Yea hooks.

So I’m refitting the site with the Canvas theme (child theme) and going to apply as many as the scripts I had on the previous MU framework along with Buddypress of course.  I have the videos site and photos site that are going to be beast but we’ll see how they get folded back in. It should be fun.

So you’ll see some jankiness but its just me pulling out all the engine parts. Guaranteed, after putting it back together there’ll be some left over.

Open the activity/post-form.php and add this near top. I put it under the avatar, don’t remember right now if there was a reason for that.

<script type="text/javascript">
<!-- Begin
function limitText(limitField, limitCount, limitNum) {
if (limitField.value.length > limitNum) {
limitField.value = limitField.value.substring(0, limitNum);
} else {
limitCount.value = limitNum - limitField.value.length;
}
}
// End -->
</script>

Add this next clip right afterwards or depending where you want it to display the number counter, you can move around as you please with #numbCount or whatever you’d like to call it in your style sheet.  Change the value number according to how many characters you want to allow, i’ve place 148 (sounded like a good number)

<input readonly type="text" name="countdown" size="3" value="148" id="numbCount">

Next replace the following

<textarea name="whats-new" id="whats-new" cols="50" rows="10"><?php if ( isset( $_GET['r'] ) ) : ?>@<?php echo esc_attr( $_GET['r'] ) ?> <?php endif; ?></textarea>

with the following, remember to include the value after where it says countdown.

<textarea id="whats-new" cols="50" rows="10" name="limitedtextarea" onKeyDown= "limitText(this.form.limitedtextarea,this.form.countdown,148);"             onKeyUp="limitText(this.form.limitedtextarea,this.form.countdown,148);"" /><?php if ( isset( $_GET['r'] ) ) : ?>@<?php echo esc_attr( $_GET['r'] ) ?> <?php endif; ?></textarea>

That’s how i got it to work. Any suggestions on how to optimize or make it better, leave me a note. Like for instance, I think users can copy and paste text longer than the limit and it’ll accept it…I haven’t looked into it as it doesn’t happen that often, but if you know please share.

<?php
$user_id = bp_displayed_user_id();
$user_name = bp_get_displayed_user_username();
$user_blogs = get_blogs_of_user( $user_id );
echo ''.$user_name.'\'s Author Page for this User:<ul>';
foreach ($user_blogs AS $user_blog) {
echo '<li><a href="'.$user_blog->siteurl.'/author/'.__($user_name).'">'.$user_blog->blogname.'</a></li>';
}
echo '</ul>';
?>
<?php$user_id = bp_displayed_user_id();$user_name = bp_get_displayed_user_username();$user_blogs = get_blogs_of_user( $user_id );echo ''.$user_name.'\'s posts:<ul>';foreach ($user_blogs AS $user_blog) {    echo '<li><a href="'.$user_blog->siteurl.'/author/'.__($user_name).'">'.$user_blog->blogname.'</a></li>';}echo '</ul>';
?>

So then I tried to force it by using this:

<?php
$user_id = bp_displayed_user_id();
$blog_details = get_blog_details(24);
$user_name = bp_get_displayed_user_username();
echo ''.$user_name.'\'s Author page on this Blog:<ul>';
echo '<li><a href="'.$blog_details->siteurl.'/author/'.__($user_name).'">'.$blog_details->blogname.'</a></li>';
echo '</ul>';
?>

…only thing with that is that it forces a link on a member profile even if the member doesn’t have posts on the subsite.

Wondering how I could get the first code to recognize all published posts regardless of membership to the subsite. Any ideas welcome.

I’ve been thinking of doing this for some time now. There are profiles that I just don’t need to have any longer. What can I do there that I can’t already do here on my site. If someone needs to find me. Google me.

Will be starting soon, my final test of the social networking sites. Delete Account.

I’m going hyperlocal now.

I don’t spend much time on the major social networks any more and if you look at my mighty little twitter widget on my sidebar it’s been more than 80 days (as of 4/26) since I tweeted. These last 6-12 months have been torture witnessing the mass absorption of social media but it wasn’t the absorption as much as the showcasing that became a little annoying – “hey look at me I are being social media!” – it became the web’s bluetooth ear piece.

Like I said before it’s been a couple of years now since I decided to stop being “social” in an attempt to hook on to whatever is going to be next. I spend much more time now working with open source platforms like WordPress and I’ve been exploring hyperlocal and niche networks – what will be the mom and pop networks of what was large social media. Large networks break off into smaller concentrated inter-micro-networks. I really believe that the social networks will in a sense implode if they haven’t already. Like any hot spot or popular gathering place, at some point it reaches critical mass. When everyone plus their mother starts showing up to your once exclusive spot it becomes too mainstream even for the mainstream, so layers begin to peel off.

I don’t use the major networks but I do observe how they are moving along. I login every so often to see what’s up and study the environment. It’s been in the past couple of months that I’ve noticed one very funny thing:

Myspace is cleaning up their space while Facebook is junking up theirs. Very funny. Once they were going in opposite directions and now it looks like they are turning back the other way. I think this is a sign that we are at a crossing point like what happens when the ghostbusters cross beams, well I think we’re seeing the result with these two guys. I noticed more and more that the myspace is committing to leaner layouts and design while the facebook has been adding more and more customization and distraction to their trademark minimal layout. Farmville? Pages? Junk.

It was supposed to be simple way connecting to family and friends. Pretty soon every single last of the rifraf will have “graduated” from myspace and will grace the pages of facebook that by then will have music and customization features just like the old myspace. And while they’re criss-crossing each other into a plateau – the new whatever will be here, whether it’s personal “blog” profiles, family networks, local networks or personal lifestream webpages, we are there – just need a snazzy name and a cute verb for it like social media and tweet.

If you want to ad advertisements – adsense or any other – try this. By modifying the activity-loop.php. You just need to house your ad code where you want and replace the filepath accordingly.

<?php /* Querystring is set via AJAX in _inc/ajax.php - bp_dtheme_activity_loop() */ ?>
<?php do_action( 'bp_before_activity_loop' ) ?>
<?php $counter = 0; ?>
<?php if ( bp_has_activities( bp_ajax_querystring( 'activity' )) ) : ?>
<?php /* Show pagination if JS is not enabled, since the "Load More" link will do nothing */ ?>
<noscript>
<div>
<div><?php bp_activity_pagination_count() ?></div>
<div><?php bp_activity_pagination_links() ?></div>
</div>
</noscript>
<?php if ( empty( $_POST['page'] ) ) : ?>
<ul id="activity-stream">
<?php endif; ?>
<?php while ( bp_activities() ) : bp_the_activity(); ?>
<?php $counter++; ?>
<?php include( locate_template( array( 'activity/entry.php' ), false ) ) ?>
<?php if ( BP_ACTIVITY_SLUG == bp_current_component() && bp_is_directory()  ) : ?>
<?php if ( $counter == 5  ) { include( TEMPLATEPATH . '/ads/ad_728x90.php' ); } ?>
<?php if ( $counter == 10  ) { include( TEMPLATEPATH . '/ads/ad_728x90.php' ); } ?>
<?php if ( $counter == 15  ) { include( TEMPLATEPATH . '/ads/ad_728x90.php' ); } ?>
<?php endif;?>
<?php endwhile; ?>
<?php if ( bp_get_activity_count() == bp_get_activity_per_page() ) : ?>
<li>
<a href="#more"><?php _e( 'Load More', 'buddypress' ) ?></a> &nbsp; <span></span>
</li>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php if ( empty( $_POST['page'] ) ) : ?>
</ul>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php else : ?>
<div id="message">
<p><?php _e( 'Sorry, there was no activity found. Please try a different filter.', 'buddypress' ) ?></p>
</div>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php do_action( 'bp_after_activity_loop' ) ?>
<form action="" name="activity-loop-form" id="activity-loop-form" method="post">
<?php wp_nonce_field( 'activity_filter', '_wpnonce_activity_filter' ) ?>
</form>

I think BP has leaned too heavily towards plugins built on top of BP, a plugin itself. I didn’t see it working that way at first and that’s why I used MU to house member “posts” as different media types or post types by way of a blog for each type. With limited Contributor Author roles for BP members to post on the fronted on each of those blogs BP members now had pseudo picture albums and video libraries and whatever else, links even by way of Author Archives. You inherit comment system, taxonomy for each, a search engine for each and wp plugins that can manipulate those posts like you would a wp blogs, similar videos, similar photos, rate, etc. I thought bp plugins would come in to help intergrate wp authorship into BP profiles to allow for frontend “posting”(uploading photos) & manage those “posts/archives” what you also inherit is standalone wp sites for each media type../videos for video section or .photos.domain.com for photo minisite to supplement your main blog. Instead of now having to try to figure out how to feature, tag, categorize, and manipulate photos, videos, or links plugins.

Is there something really big i’m missing as to why that might not be preferred. Maybe that’s where I see BP going now instead. It was only with MU i could do this but with post types around the corner for wpsingle…i think making use of wp post on to house social components is a good option.

Especially MU, whole themes suites could just be the plugins. bp albums or bp links could just be a theme themselves…i guess for single it would be post types. then bp can focus more on how to feed these into bp profile to display, edit and manage: edit only your “posts” and more time for plugins to manage wp dashboard, blog theme, widgets, on the frontend from your bp profile. Anyway that’s what I’m trying to stick to.

So i guess Buddypress is toolkit for building any type of site with members who want to share or see other people share content.

BP and MU and Plugins and Themes. It’s never really going to be perfect as you say, at some point you have to step back and stop adding the plugins and all the cool new features that you read about at the forums…and get focused on your community and start working on a story for what you’ve built. Because the nature of constructing something we these tools is that its easy enough for the next guy to build something very similar and odds are for many your sites will look and navigate very similarly from the get go (so try to deviate as much as you can from the prepackaged look of a bp site when you’re building).

So what is the story? Your story becomes very important especially in the general market. You have work harder to set your self apart from all the similar looking bp sites and blogs even. Your story starts with you and with the niche you’ve built your site for. who are you, what is your site and why is it important for me to know about both. Make it clear that its not meant to be a replacement for larger, established networks. Get your story to the shakers in your niche, get to know them, get them involved in the site and they’ll start talking about you and supporting you. Think of coming up with a story as coming up with a gimmick but not so gimmicky! It’s a narrative and ultimate about page.

As for lack of activity, that is a very big deal. So that’s where those beta testers, friends and shakers come in. Get them to create activity very early and a lot of it. Think about a restaurant. How do you gauge whether or not its good? Are there a lot of people inside eating or not so much. Perception. DO NOT create fake users with fake activity.

As i said in the beginning there are going to be bugs, never going to be perfect if your small time, once they know your story of being “a DIY little guy” invite the community to be part of the building and creative process of the site thru a blog blog, add report-a-bug links, give error page, nice looking error messages. When there is an error or down site, ask for forgiveness and give credit to the user who pointed it out, send out plain text letter emails directly from you the founder not “The Team” and user will be a little more forgiving of stuff that doesn’t work and they’ll come back. If they feel like they are part of a neighborhood and they’re chipping in for the success of that neighborhood, that goes a long way.