Committee Platform

@RobertWood suggested we include this in the our reviews: https://www.sitepoint.com/wordpress-gone-social-buddypress/

rtMedia plugin may help with the education committee's needs. https://wordpress.org/plugins/buddypress-media/

@RobertWood - can we assume your recommendation means it is not as onerous to manage as moodle would have been? Or does that still need to be evaluated?

@PhilMcIntosh It's not as onerous as Moodle but I haven't spent too much time evaluating it. I've avoided making too much noise because I didn't think there was a mobile app but I'm seeing that there are some out there.

Since it's Wordpress + php, that means that we'll need to actively manage, patch and secure this...

Unless we want to trust someone like WeFoster.co (https://wefoster.co/platform/pricing)

It depends. A lot of the patching happens automatically. It really depends.

Although even at the highest end pricing, that would save us money and potentially headaches.

weFoster - At the higher end we'd need more members to qualify it looks like. Why are they advertising SSD storage separate btw? Do they runs this on laptops that get tossed around a lot?

A lot of hosts are moving to SSD drives as it speeds performance.

For the speed - got it. Then we have to manage what goes on the fast drive vs. standard drive?

I think BuddyPress has the same issue we have with Socialcast - once a group is 'public' any member can join the group. Great as long as we have only Sage groups. If we grow into other ERP publishers, we don't necessarily want crossover. For example right now in SC if we had an Intacct group, then they see the Sage groups and the Acumatica group and vice versa. Correct me if I'm wrong @RobertWood. https://codex.buddypress.org/administrator-guide/group-settings-and-roles/

I think there is a plugin for that.

I'm not finding it - do you know what it is called?

I thought there was several. I think this one might work. https://wordpress.org/plugins/paid-memberships-pro/ But I just gave it a cursory look.

I was looking at the link in BuddyPress, I guess any WordPress plug-in works then?

Not necessarily but many will.

BuddyPress site says to check or ask about BuddyPress compatibility

Do I understand this correctly? We need to source the plug-ins we need, test them, and if they aren't correct, look for another?

yup. There are quite a few that are specifically for BuddyPress though.

Okay so the pro is - we can add-on to make it work the way we want but we are limited by compatibility. Cons we might not find what we need and then what? Develop our own?

We could do that, but it is quite likely something exists that will work or will work with minor mods, which we could do or maybe have the plugin developer do.

@PhilMcIntosh is there a way we can set up a demo site for BuddyPress like we have with Clinked, Bloomfire, etc?

We could probably set something up on a VM from Digital Ocean or Linode pretty cheaply.

Thanks Phil. @RobertWood see comment above. Do we have sandbox for 90minds site?

We could. Or I can set it up on a Wordpress hosting account I have already.

Which is faster and easier?

The BuddyPress stuff I saw recommended against shared hosting, but I guess for a few of us to test it it would be OK

My plate is full this week. @PhilMcIntosh how soon would you be able to get an instance up and running and have it installed?

File upload plugin for BuddyPress Groups: https://wordpress.org/plugins/bp-group-documents/, BuddyDrive: https://wordpress.org/plugins/buddydrive/

And BuddyPress Docs looks interesting: https://wordpress.org/plugins/buddypress-docs/. Looks like a wiki add-on that could be our Evernote replacement...

There are definitely lots of opportunities. My biggest concern with it in the past was the lack of an app but it looks like there are options there these days.

It's also definitely more work for someone to maintain.

That's my concern.

And it's a legit concern. On the other hand, if it fills most of the needs and works well and is cost effective, we certainly need to consider it.

Absolutely.

Other possible host: https://wpengine.com/plans/?coupon=funnelwpe (we're re-writing our site and have had good luck with them so far)

This could come in handy: https://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/buddypress-guide/

Thanks @SteveIwanowski!

That lead me to this article, which is a good feature compare: https://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/wordpress-social-network-showdown-buddypress-v-wp-symposiumpro/?utm_expid=3606929-109.P6e7JvhjTrWFxwrJZjRkog.0&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fpremium.wpmudev.org%2Fblog%2Fbuddypress-guide%2F