Starbucks Addict Since 1974
For those of you who aren’t following me on Twitter, I recently entered the ring for a heavyweight bout with BuddyPress. I began development on Sunday night, and you can see what I’ve done with GrungePress since then.
GrungePress homepage:
GrungePress single page:
GrungePress member page:
I am a hopeless Starbucks addict, freelance designer and internet consultant living in the northern 'burbs of Chicago. I write poetry and also love to ski. I am a huge Sarah McLachlan fan, sail the Caribbean and have been known to dabble with WordPress. [Read More…]
I like what I see but I don’t exactly understand, what exactly is GrungePress? It looks like social network, users can make groups, submit blog posts … aka BuddyPress – but much more nicer. Is it a template, software … ?
Thanks Matej – the intent is to make it a social community for those who love music – there are a lot of things we plan on doing with it, and the site isn’t close to being ready. Just wanted to share with my visitors that I have been dabbling with BuddyPress.
Aah, so that’s just another your site project, you are not planing to share ( sell ) template on Studio Press at the moment ?
Site sounds so interactive, and it looks like that 2009. is all about that – communities, conversation, more options for users to interact with website/blog ( facebook, google connect, twitter and all that stuff … )
The BuddyPress files are actually somewhat complex, and trying to make something that works out of the box and to support it right now would be counter-productive with my time.
Yes, I can imagine all new question topics on forum lol
Bryan — How much work did it take to get your theme to work with BuddyPress? Because I emailed you a few weeks back asking about compatability and at that point you hadn’t tried it out but you thought that with a few tweaks your Church theme would work just fine. I’m still considering purchasing your theme to use with BP. Would a WordPressMU guru be able to handle the tweaks easily, or are we talking about hours upon hours of work?
Wonderful news!
I actually submitted a question about BuddyPress to Jeffro, for your upcoming interview with him on his podcast., so, obviously, I’m delighted you are already tackling it. Will you be releasing any BP themes?
Also, will you be re-opening registrations on GrungePress? I’d like to check it out from the members side.
Donnacha, yes, once I get further along on the site, I’ll be opening it up for people to register. Right now it’s just to show people what I’ve done – and I don’t know that the site is stable enough to let a lot of people in yet. As for releasing BP themes, check my response to Matej above…
Hmm, yeah, I see what you’re saying.
Perhaps an explicitly non-supported theme, nothing fancy, would be a popular gesture of goodwill towards the more technically-inclined BuddyPress enthusiasts, sort of planting StudioPress’ flag in the sand for any future BuddyPress ventures.
At this point, so little attention has been paid to the visual side of BuddyPress that almost anything to point people in the right direction would make a big splash.
What I’m saying is that it might be a good investment in terms of furthering your already excellent reputation.
I will have to play it by ear, with so much going on, I guarantee that an explicitly non-supported theme becomes a supported theme. After all, some people can’t read… you don’t know how many support and customization requests from my StudioPress contact form which clearly states the obvious.
Faster than I could imagine! Awesome and ImPRESSive!
Now I’m lookin forward to know how you’ll manage the members blogs!
Good work, Brian. It’s cool to see BuddyPress picking up in popularity, and I’m sure it will happen even more so with it (apparently) opening up to single WordPress installs as well.
And you make a good point, that BuddyPress themes are a bit more complex, and may be tough to actually sell to people. I was just thinking, as I looked over the first comment or two here, that it would probably be tough to market BuddyPress themes, since there isn’t yet a widespread understanding of what BP is, like there is for WP already.
Here’s to a challenge!
Brian, as someone who has dabbled in the dark arts of wpmu and buddypress, I wish you all the luck. The community could really use a designer and some nice themes written for buddypress.
Congrats! It is looking great
Awesome Brian,.. Looks great! I have several BP ideas for the future and hope to get them going sometime soon,.. But being so new to even WP, and reading up on what’s involved with WPMU/BP, I knew it would be counter productive to even attempt to move forward with them at this point. Looks like you doing some great work! Look forward to see where you are going with this!
Steve
Ps. Interested in getting involved with the projects I mentioned?
This is reall cool. Like a mini Facebook for a smaller group of friends. Maybe you should open up the registration again and see how many people sign up for it! (I would…)
Nice Job! You’ve done some really great things with this.
Congrats!
I love it! Will it be available for purchase soon? If I could get that theme I would add BuddyPress to my WPMU site today!
oh wow a social network for music! Sweet! I am looking forward to seeing soon!! I always have music going, if not in my MP3, or in my PC! I think the grunge look fits great too, seriously gives it some texture! I like that! Looks like so far your winning the match!!
Cool, never heard of buddypress before until i found this post, must check it out …
Nice Brian, the site really looks good. The layout is different and the flow is easy. I really like the directory on the groups, blog & members page that is a great idea. A person can create a really nice club, organization or business site using this theme.
Nice job, Brian.
I have been dabbling in buddypress for about a week now and it is not for the faint of heart. I think the barrier to entry will get lower with time, but there is still a ways to go.
Keep up the good work.
Matt
have you tried inviteFriends plugin?
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/invitefriends-plug-in/
Good looking theme, it could be verry usefull .. But, as ive think you have to pay for it, and that last thing suck big time. Why dont make it opensource or something like that ?
So, just release it!
Nice job, Brian
Dabbling with WPMU and BP… My prayers are with you and amazed at what you have done with GP. Looks awesome and makes BP look great.
It needs the work of a great designer like you to get more people interested in it.
We just launched a social network on BP. Still working out the kinks with a database of 18k members that we brought over, but it was a huge upgrade to our previous platform. Looking forward to seeing what your project turns into. I’m actually redesigning another community blog that I own and have been back and forth between a few of your themes. I’ll keep an eye on this post for updates. Thanks,
Hey Brian. Did this go anywhere? Can we download Grungepress theme for Buddypress anywhere?!
Hi Brian,
I am using the church theme from studiopress and have been trying to get the blog directory to work I can’t wait for you to get a design up and running using the buddy press format as it opens up lots of possibilities for different types of websites. I lke the church theme with the homepage rotating image feature by adding wpmu your site sloted in nicely!
I have got the blog directory working a bit just need to work out some css I think as the directory letters are verticle instead of being horizontal!
http://chauffeursblog.com/blogs
Anyway I know you will come up with a fantastic bp theme so good luck and all the best in the future!
Regards
Mal
Hi Brian,
Just to let you know I sorted the blog issue by using a different theme! Are you still looking at doing a buddypress theme and if so any news when we will have the pleasure!
Regards
Mal