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Building and Managing Communities with Multisite, BuddyPress, Commons-in-a-Box, and bbPress

WordCamp Raleigh, April 2018, Amanda French

@amandafrench

amanda@amandafrench.net

http://amandafrench.net

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What is a “community”?

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Markets are conversations.

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Markets

Communities are conversations.

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By Eris Siva (Eris the Barista) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

What kind of conversation do you have with Eris the Barista?

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Starbucks in Washington DC. by: Elvert Barnes. date: 29.11.2005. source: https://flickr.com/photos/perspective/68320063/ via Wikimedia Commons.

What kind of conversation do you have with your friends at Starbucks?

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Aspects of community to consider

  • How autonomous are they?
  • Do they meet in person?
  • How technical are they?

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Multisite

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Multisite features

  • Users get their own websites
  • Super Admins can control …
    • Whether users can install plugins
    • Whether users can create sites
    • What themes users can use

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Multisite is good for ...

  • Communities with a high degree of autonomy
  • Communities with a fair degree of technical skill
  • Communities who meet in person

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Multisite tips

  • Provide lots of defaults and templates -- plugins, themes, content
  • Provide some but not too much customizability
  • Make sure there’s a central place for multisite users to ask questions (e.g., a central forum)

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bbPress

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bbPress features

  • Forums!
  • Replies, topics, threads
  • No real user profiles

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bbPress is good for ...

  • Communities that aren’t really communities (think: you and your barista)
  • Communities with a low-to-medium degree of technical skill
  • Communities that have a central moderator
  • Simple, public conversations that can be referred back to -- ideal for tech support

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bbPress tips

  • Provide lots of defaults and templates -- plugins, themes, content
  • Provide some but not too much customizability
  • Make sure there’s a central place for multisite users to ask questions (e.g., a central forum)

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BuddyPress

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BuddyPress features

  • Profiles (my favorite)
  • Groups - almost like sites or forums
  • Activity Streams
  • Friending
  • Messaging

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BuddyPress is good for ...

  • User profiles!
  • Centralized communities with sub-communities
  • Communities that don’t necessarily meet in person
  • Communities with a low degree of autonomy
  • Communities with a low degree of technical knowledge

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BuddyPress tips

  • Look for BuddyPress-compatible plugins
  • Make sure not to overwhelm users with communication possibilities

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Commons-in-a-Box

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Commons-in-a-Box features

  • Everything BuddyPress has
  • Plus a selected set of useful plugins

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Commons-in-a-Box is good for ...

  • Communities that meet in person (e.g., discussion groups, classes)
  • Communities with a high degree of autonomy
  • Communities that need serious tools like wikis and documents

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Commons-in-a-Box tips

  • Provide lots of documentation
  • Think about which of the many tools you need to provide to users - turn off unneeded tools

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Thanks!