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Membership and BuddyPress Registration

These plugins are fighting with each other.

I had people check my site and they all ended up registering under Membership. NONE ended up registering via BuddyPress so noone showed up as a BuddyPress Member – so no activity and no groups were joined. I only found out by accident that they were under Membership as nothing alerted me to them joining (I was watching the buddypress pages to see if they turned up there – but didn’t).

I found by accident they were under Membership.

The Membership plugin needs a MAJOR OVERHAUL in my view and if all the comments listed are read.

Thank you.

I wish Jack all the best in sorting out my site which is experiencing these issues and which I was hoping to have an operational site – but there is too much going wrong.

Wed, 8 Jan 2014 7:32:25
  • Karen
    • WordPress Warrior

    Ari

    I wasn’t aware that I needed to “allow access to BuddyPress” in Memberships/Subscriptions…

    If I get rid of Membership – will users of the site see the BuddyPress functionality? (which is what I was thinking of doing just to get my site operational as it is due to be launched on Monday and there is no way it will be ready with all these issues).

    Where does it say ANYWHERE that Membership OVERRIDES BuddyPress?

    Why is this confusing? Well I and one of my staff are listed in BuddyPress AND under Membership and there is nothing – anywhere – I have seen (and yes I’ve looked at the Membership manual which is sadly lacking in my view as are the videos) that tells me HOW/IF those two plugins operate together.

    Isn’t Membership about OPTIONAL Subscriptions – ones they can sign up to IF they want the services/info a subscription provides???

    Isn’t BuddyPress about a community of people using the site – which may not have anything to do with SUBSCRIPTIONS????

    Why doesn’t something , somewhere say that if you have BOTH – then the MEMBERSHIP plugin takes precedence and you then HAVE TO HAVE BUDDYPRESS ACCESS via a MEMBERSHIP SUBSCRIPTION???

    What am I missing here? Why isn’t it clearer?

    (The Membership Manual only talks about the membership features – NOT it’s workability -or lack of -with Buddypress).

    Thanks if you can clarify further.

  • Karen
    • WordPress Warrior

    Folks

    I just followed some of the related issues and this issue of incompatibility – and confusion – is TWO and THREE YEARS OLD!!! (and the manual still isn’t updated to take account of or explain this concept many people have raised).

    On https://wpmudev.com/forums/topic/buddypress-membership-registration it refers to these two (conflicting) bits of advice:

    See https://wpmudev.com/forums/topic/membership-plug-and-registration-page#post-76026 (2 years old)

    https://wpmudev.com/forums/topic/integrating-buddypress-and-membership#post-61970 (3 years old)

  • aristath
    • Recruit

    Both BuddyPress and Membership are evolving.

    I don’t think there’s a single line of code in the BuddyPress plugin that hasn’t changed since those posts were written. So naturally they are conflicting and not functional, since they are in essence talking about completely different plugins!!

    BuddyPress is a social plugin.

    Membership is a plugin that allows you to set-up access to all areas of your site according to your preferences.

    When you install Membership, your site becomes a membership site.

    If you want your users to be able to access a certain area of your site, then you have to specify it in the membership settings!

    We can’t make assumptions about your use case without you setting it up first… that would be simply wrong!

    I hope that clarifies it.

    Cheers,

    Ari.

  • Karen
    • WordPress Warrior

    ARi

    Thanks – yes it helps.

    Comments:

    1. If that is the case why not REMOVE the old posts if they are no longer relevant. They are still turning up as “related posts” so why wouldn’t a new-to-WPMU Dev site reader think “related posts” are relevant?. There are NO DATES on anything so until you scroll down and see “two years ago” etc you have no idea they are old.

    2. People new to your site do not know all the ins and outs of what has gone on in the past (nor do they care – they just want answers to what is going wrong now) -so they should be removed. It would remove some of the confusion.

    3. PS Why isn’t your simple explanation anywhere in the manual? That is what the manual needs …basic explanations like that.

    I agree you can’t make assumptions about my site – but I also don’t want to have to make assumptions about the plug-ins. Tell users what they are intended to do – but make it clear – just like your explanation above.

    Suggestion – perhaps a blog list (reverse chronological order) for each plugin so people can see what is the latest issue – rather than hunting for posts. That would make more sense and put things in date perspective at least.

    I hope that info helps someone else as well.

    Thanks again.

  • aristath
    • Recruit

    1. If that is the case why not REMOVE the old posts if they are no longer relevant. They are still turning up as “related posts” so why wouldn’t a new-to-WPMU Dev site reader think “related posts” are relevant?. There are NO DATES on anything so until you scroll down and see “two years ago” etc you have no idea they are old.

    2. People new to your site do not know all the ins and outs of what has gone on in the past (nor do they care – they just want answers to what is going wrong now) -so they should be removed. It would remove some of the confusion.

    Because there are old members on this site.

    Or even members that are no longer members and are using old versions of WP, BP and Membership.

    Pleople that for their own reasons don’t update their plugins. Having a reference to old posts is useful. It might not be for you, but it is to others.

    3. PS Why isn’t your simple explanation anywhere in the manual? That is what the manual needs …basic explanations like that.

    I believe that it’s so simple that noone even thought of adding it to the docs. I have notified the documentation writer about this post, hopefully we can add it in future versions.

    Suggestion – perhaps a blog list (reverse chronological order) for each plugin so people can see what is the latest issue – rather than hunting for posts. That would make more sense and put things in date perspective at least.

    We already have that!

    On your original post simply click on the “Membership” link right above your title to see them.

    Another way to see these is to click on the “More Membership discussions »” link in the sidebar right next to this post.

    I hope that helps!

    Cheers,

    Ari.

  • Karen
    • WordPress Warrior

    Ari

    Thanks for the tip about how to see all the Membership posts – that is great to know.

    I am now going through those for clues on things others have figured out and issues that are cropping up so I am not surprised if they happen to me.

    Take your point about old posts being useful – but I would still put a note somewhere so newbies realise that. FYI.

    Thanks.

  • Karen
    • WordPress Warrior

    Ari

    Just a comment regarding your comment above ie

    Both BuddyPress and Membership are evolving.

    I don’t think there’s a single line of code in the BuddyPress plugin that hasn’t changed since those posts were written. So naturally they are conflicting and not functional, since they are in essence talking about completely different plugins!!

    This is what your marketing says:

    “Buddypress..the most buddypress integrated and compatible plugins you will find…”

    on wpmudev.com/ page (at the bottom).

    This implies it all works together – with no problmes.

    FYI I have a third party plugin – that works with my BP theme and I have NEVER had an issue. I have had issues with every WPMU Dev plugin, so that is an incorrect statement.

    People sign up based on what the marketing promises and that lays the groundwork for their expectations. The business rule of thumb is – underpromise and over deliver. WPMU Dev does it the other way around.

    FYI In case you are wondering why people have expectations that the plugins will play nicely with each other and actually work.

  • aristath
    • Recruit

    Both BuddyPress and Membership are evolving.

    I don’t think there’s a single line of code in the BuddyPress plugin that hasn’t changed since those posts were written. So naturally they are conflicting and not functional, since they are in essence talking about completely different plugins!!

    If you read it carefully you’ll see that I’m not saying the plugins are conflicting… The posts are.

    Cheers,

    Ari.