I remember when “portal” websites were the thing online. Everyone wanted to be the next Yahoo!, and every other website was powered by PHP-Nuke.

Of course, it was the community aspect of these so-called portals that made them so popular- and that hasn’t changed, except that now we call them social-networking sites.

BuddyPress is an add-on to WordPress MU that gives you the ability to grow your own social-networking site. It’s actually a suite of plugins, and a niftily-tweaked WordPress theme, offering up member profile pages, private instant messaging, groups, forums and blogs at the click of a button (or, in this case, the activation of one plugin). Because it uses WordPress MU, you already know it’s on a great system- plus your members blogs can use any WordPress theme they want (depending upon whether you, the admin, install it, of course).

Is BuddyPress for you? Check these out:

BuddyPress.org
The official BuddyPress site, and where you want to go to check out the demo, read the FAQ, and look through the forums.

Buddy-Press.net
All you need to know about BuddyPress, including a really simple installation guide, and ten reasons to use BuddyPress (that I wrote).

BuddyPress DEV
This is where to go if you want to learn how to extend BuddyPress, or see how others are doing it. Lots of good stuff here, especially on their plugins page.

Have you tried BuddyPress? Like it, hate it? What do you think?

One of the trending topics on Twitter lately is the #moonfruit hashtag. If you’re aware of Moonfruit, you probably know about their promotion to give away 10 MacBook Pros to random people who mention the hashtag–one each per 24-hour period. So far a lot of people have participated, and the topic has been among the top mentioned. Who wouldn’t want a free MacBook Pro, after all? I, myself, joined in.

But apparently, promotional campaigns like this don’t sit very well with the folks from Twitter, who seem to have taken off the #moonfruit hashtag from the trending topics list, even if it’s still, to this time, a popular mention on Twitter. Hashtags.org says it’s about three times as popular as other trends this week, even surpassing other, probably more relevant, topics like the Iran Election and whatnot.

Twitter and marketing

What does this have to say about marketing on Twitter? Is Twitter’s marketing potential diluted by the fact that the powers-that-be seem to frown upon the idea of the system being gamed? Is Twitter’s marketing potential affected by the negative image put forward by aggressive affiliate marketers (or even spammers)?

I often tell people that I think the best way to market on social media is by really connecting and interacting. In a way, the people behind Moonfruit have connected and engaged their audience, and with valuable incentives to boot. Perhaps the only mistake here was that their popularity took the better of them, and they were viewed as having gamed the system. That is, they have taken advantage of the numbers on a system where numbers play a big part in saying what’s important or not.

Twitocracy?

What’s wrong with this concept of “Twitocracy,” then? Maybe it’s the fact that any numbers system can be gamed. Think of Digg. Think of Google. In the olden days, people used to be able to easily game these two, and other similar services. For instance, Digg is quick to update and refine its algorithm for pushing articles up to front page. But in its early stages, just a hundred or so votes within a given period of time will be enough to frontpage an article. The administrators probably thought marketers would easily take advantage of these to drive traffic to their sites.

Google is another example. While their algorithm for PageRank and search engine results is probably more secret than the formula for Coca Cola, the search engine optimization industry is still thriving. Some Google insiders openly speak against SEO, highly favoring what is thought of as a more natural or organic way of optimizing webpages, which is by creating good content and a good information structure.

Twitter is, undoubtedly, a simpler and more straightforward platform than the two above-mentioned online services. You post “tweets” or updates. You get a network of friends and followers. Popular keywords get trended. But it doesn’t stop there. The wide array of third-party applications and services that build upon Twitter take advantage of the fact that the service is such a rich ocean of data that the possibilities for mining these are practically endless.

And then there’s the issue of things being a numbers game. He who gets the most followers would be considered god-like. The keyword or topic that gets discussed by the biggest number of people deserve a mention in the veritable trending topics list, whether it’s an important world event or simply a trivial word or phrase. Or worse–an explicit or obscene word. And if abused, this could render the entire thing useless, or at the very least less usable.

It’s like saying open comments are good. But when you get deluged by spam, you start moderating.

So does Twitter have marketing potential, even with the problems posed by playing the numbers game? Yes–and as I earlier mentioned, it’s about connecting and engaging your audience. And this is among the things I’ll be discussing on this new weekly Tuesday Tactics column.

image credit: flickr/mfilej

Design usually means arranging things in an orderly, meaningful manner, but this week we’re throwing that out of the window and going for chaotic and whimsical sites. Happy 4th of July weekend, everyone, and welcome to this week’s Friday Focus!

Designs of the Week

The left-aligned layout works well here. I love that in the inner pages, the background changes, but remains “chaotic”.

I’m not sure what this design style is called, but it always catches my eye. Another left-aligned design with a touch of opacity and great use of repetitive graphical elements.

I love the header. And the custom illustrations for for each featured artist. And the bright color scheme—light blue, pink, and yellow for a hip-hop magazine? With a perfect-cursive font for the headers? Now that’s what you call adventurous!

Here’s a one-page portfolio designed like it was a storybook. I particularly like the use of textures on the illustrations.

Now this site takes a similar approach, with the airborne objects found all over the place. It’s not quite as grand and playful as I would have liked, but a great look for a serious institution.

I love the crazy lines and color combination. It’s not a complicated layout, when you look at it closely, but it certainly looks extraordinary.

I’m not sure if this design is a result of cramming everything above the fold, but it works! It showcases the artist’s versatility and his portfolio’s diversity at one glance. And given that all the illustrations look whimsical and fantastical, it gives a very interesting personality to the website. What I’m not sure about is the big default image in the center, and whether it’s competing fiercely with the already strong background.

Another foreground-background competition here. I’m not sure if this design will sit well with everyone, especially since it’s already dark, but the background looks pretty interesting and it’s a quick way to add interest to your site.

Social Media Weekly

Programming – Maintainability Guide (Beta)
An interesting guide on how to write maintanable code.

Usability – Keep Users Updated During Long Load Times
Tips so they won’t just go away.

CSS – CSS cascade – a simple step-by-step presentation
A great tutorial on mastering the CSS cascade.

It’s been a while since I posted one of these, but believe me when I say that the gorgeous free fonts to be had online just keep coming. It makes me wonder if one can ever have too many fonts. Check out these beauties- all downloadable right now, and all free:

First up is Cursif, which I’ve described as pretty- because it is. It’s a darling of a font, all curves and swirls. Great for girly or homemaking-related designs.

Rough Draft is a free font that I’ve only just discovered, and now I can’t imagine not having in my font arsenal. Its all caps, and certainly makes a statement.

Lilly is another delightful free font. It does make me smile, and would be lovely in designs for children- much much better than Comic Sans. Then again, almost anything is better than Comic Sans.

I don’t go much for handwritten fonts, but The Quiet Scream is among my favorites. It reminds me of the graffiti we used to put on our binders in high school. Trapper Keeper, anyone?

And finally, I’ve kept the best for last. Goudy Bookletter 1911 has joined the ranks of my all-time favorite fonts. A variation on the classic Kennerly Old Style, this is a font that looks just as home as a website header as it would on a classic book cover.