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  • John James Jacoby

    I ask that you excuse the general tone of this post as I’m dealing with a next-door-neighbors dog that has been barking for 3 months straight morning, noon, and night, but at the risk of sounding like a snot, I think I’ll become a fan of bbPress once integration works correctly.

    My opinion on this matter is that maybe your efforts could have been better focused elsewhere.

    I know that we all need a break from the grind, but if one of my clients had an integral operation issue with my product, even if it was free, there’s an obligation to resolve it. Just because it’s the best thing out there doesn’t exactly make the lack of response or attention to the broken integration acceptable.

    I’ve checked the trac and scoured the forums flailing my arms all the way, and so far no one seems to have figured it out or given a time-line to a resolution. I would settle for a quick and dirty fix or even someone that could point me in a more obvious direction on how to resolve it myself.

    That this is what the bbPress development team feels is the most important thing to do just seems like bad timing on someones part. In a time where world economies are suffering, I think it’s probably more important now than ever before to stay focused on the task at hand, because there’s always someone waiting to do a better job at your job for less pay.

    And lets face facts, everyone that is a fan of bbPress, is already here. I personally don’t think we don’t need another place to go quite yet. I don’t disagree that it’s a good idea, but maybe get a working 1.0 version out there first?

    I have no use for facebook myself but johnjamesjacoby I think you are missing the point that bbPress is not even a 1.0 final product yet and should not be used on projects if that can’t deal with bugs and problems. You should never install a pre-1.0, alpha or beta product unless you can handle bugs.

    bbPress like WordPress was not developed for the heck of it to give out for free, it was written for and just happens to have free source available.

    (and you need to call animal control if there’s a dog barking for that long, most towns have anti-noise ordinances to protect you from that kind of annoyance)

    John James Jacoby

    Well, I’m not missing the point of final products, but WordPress is at version 2.7 and isn’t quite a final product either. The result of the community driven open source product is that pre 1.0 alpha/beta software isn’t really any more or less stable than the next “stable” version, because even if development stops for a moment to celebrate the next milestone, there is still more to do.

    I also get how bbPress was introduced and how the developers have chosen to support it. I just disagree with promoting a product before it’s even usable. I guess I take more pride in my product than that. I run the trunk version of both WP and BBP on a relatively small website. I update them nightly. It’s really the best way for me to stay involved and report back problems. I just feel this integration issue is way more important than the attention it gets. It just seems to me like it’s never really worked right ever. :/

    And I also choose personally to not believe that just because a product is graciously delivered to someone for free, that there aren’t certain expectations placed on the quality of that product. I could give someone a cookie, but if it’s stale or poisoned doesn’t really make me a good friend.

    Also, the last thing I want to do is bite the hand that feeds me. I really love bbPress and WordPress, promise. I just find the development cycle frustrating some days.

    (Off topic: We’ve called animal control, the police, and the condo association. The police say they can’t give her a ticket if she isn’t home, and when she’s home the dog doesn’t bark so they can’t ticket her then either. They’re useless. Animal control told me that if I do not have proof of cruelty in terms of the dog not having adequate food and water, they will not pursue the owner. The condo association is writing her their third letter asking her to correct the issue. Writing a letter is less effective than posting on a forum. ;) )

    I just disagree with promoting a product before it’s even usable.

    bbPress is very usable, just not finished. But it’s certainly *not* being promoted. All we have is this support forum. If it was being promoted, it would be listed on and there would be hundreds of thousands of users. bbPress currently has less than 10,000 active installs. That should change by this time next year.

    bbPress was originally written by Matt to simply give a support forum for WordPress ( Everything from there was just Matt releasing the source. There never was a general plan after that until Matt started talking about TalkPress which is still very far away by my best guess.

    bbPress’s greatest strength is it can be integrated in many websites easily and made to look like them easily. But it’s still a growing child and very young. If you are looking for a polished product, you need something with over half a decade of development like phpBB, vBulletin or SMF. The downside to them is they are very rigid and hard to develop for. bbPress is incredibly easy to develop for, I only learned PHP a few years ago and look what I’ve managed to do. Just imagine what a person who knew what they were doing could do ;-)

    I will chime in with my thoughts.

    1. Most people who find bbPress do so because of its integration capabilities with WordPress. I would say that is the most common non-problem question on these forums. How do you integrate the logins so you can log in at either bbPress or WordPress and the login carries across to the other side. Integrated; seemless.

    2. The other common thing people want to be able to do is make their bbPress install look like their WordPress install. Loading WordPress inside bbPress is not recommended, but it’s the easiest way to accomplish including the header, sidebar, footer, etc. But, that seems to break other things. Regardless, I would say that’s the second most requested feature, how do I get my bbPress installation to look like a WordPress page. I know it’s not a WordPress plugin, but, this is what people want.

    So, 1) integrated logins and 2) making bbPress look like WordPress. If it can’t do those things easily, then it’s just forum software. Maybe it’s better in the things it does and doesn’t do, compared to other forum software, but we should stop saying you can integrate bbPress and WordPress because it just doesn’t happen easily. So, it’s forum software from the people who make WordPress.

    Also, WordPress 2.5 is recommended by bbPress for integrated logins. 2.5 came out around April 2008 IIRC.

    You know, I thought the same thing as johnjamesjacoby when I saw this post: how about fixing what’s broken and leave Facebook alone. Then I thought Facebook doesn’t take much time to set up and it might be a good diversion. So, it’s harmless in and of itself, but, really, I would prefer to fix these two issues and then see the volume of support requests here drop off a cliff.

    Just my $.02.

    John James Jacoby

    I think you summed it up awesomely. I know that I’ve only recently discovered bbPress, and that right now my contributions are minimal and certainly don’t justify the attitude that came out of my fingers. I do sincerely apologize for venting my frustrations, but Chris is totally right as far as login and theme integration go.

    I graduated to WordPress from phpBB and the CHBB categories hierarchy spin-off of phpBB2.x. What I love about WP, I hate about phpBB, and what I love about phpBB, I hate about WordPress. What the phpBB team always did well, was catalog and document their code and coding guidelines, almost always and from the start. Even though different authors wrote different pages, the code always looked the same and worked the same, but WP and BBP aren’t like that. Finding and repairing WP/BBP issues is becoming increasingly difficult as there are functions hidden within functions that add one extra capability just to echo other functions.

    If I could have a dream job right now, it would be to get paid to be the code janitor to the automatic teams code for the wp3.0 and bbpress 2.0 milestones. To refresh the codebase for the major revisions. Also coming from phpBB, I’m surprised to see WP uses so many echo statements all over the place. I feel the template engine that the phpBB Categories Hierarchy uses was just so amazing and worked so well that moving to WordPress felt like a step sidways.

    Anyhow, I’ve taken this topic way off topic, and I don’t mean to vent my ill feelings in what should be a celebration topic. If you mods want to clean this up or split this apart I would totally understand.

    Sam Bauers

    Setting up the Facebook page took about 15 minutes. It was just a whim. Part irony… :)

    The “deep” integration you talk about and have had trouble with is a known problem. But it is not the focus of my development time at the moment. There is also a chance support for it will be dropped completely if there are too many blockers leading up to 1.0, I’m not a fan of the method which is basically only accidentally a possibility at the moment. I’ll look into it but I have to warn you, it will be last on my list leading up to 1.0

    Integration of user tables and cookies is a priority on the other hand, as is creating a full XML-RPC interface for those who want to pull data into a WordPress install. I know of only one problem with cookie sharing which has no solution at the moment (admins who login via WordPress have no access to bb-admin), and I will be working on a solution for that soon (it requires a WordPress plugin to be authored, which opens up the possibility to make a few other steps during integration on the WordPress side easier).

    Integration only became a real “feature” of bbPress with 0.9 when it was brought front and centre during install and got it’s own admin options page. Unfortunately WordPress is a moving target and it is difficult to keep up with all it’s changes (especially when internally at Automattic we still use 0.9). It’s a little unfair to say that bbPress isn’t usable. We use it for some very big forums ourselves, all of which have some level of integration going on.

    Anyway, don’t get me wrong, your comments are welcome here and I’m glad you are a real fan and not just a Facebook fan.

    John James Jacoby

    I am curious if uses a “deep” integration? I’ve compared the sources and it really appears that they have similar <head>’s.

    Even if theme integration isn’t possible, I like where you’re going with getting the cookies and admin panels working cohesively. I would actually really like to make a plug-in for WordPress to integrate the bbPress admin panel into it. I feel like it wouldn’t be too difficult since most of the code already exists.

    I suppose “unusable” is a harsh description, but considering the audience and what they’re chanting for, if it won’t handle sessions and can’t integrate the theme and functions, then what looks like your girlfriend actually ends up being your sister. If it wasn’t for the integration, we could use fluxbb or any other minimalistic semantically focused forum software.

    Me wonders if it wouldn’t hurt to have two versions of bbPress. One stand-alone, and one WordPress plug-in. Hmms…

    I actually had the same reaction the JJJ had, and i feel that Chris Hajer did a really nice job in summing it up. My initial thoughts were, so Sam is posted missing for 2 months and when he reappears he’s made a facebook page??? (it’s hard to think that automattic got $29million in January to pay for sucj development but i digress).

    Sam, i think that maybe you cant see the wood for the trees here mate.

    I know, you know, JJJ and CK knows that Matt wanted XML-RPC controls in BBpress. Which is ofc all and well as he pays the bills. But as i’ve said before, there is NOT ONE post about it (request, bug, questions, comment) on this forum or on _CK_’s showcase forum, because it’s frankly of little or not use to any of us. That is not to say developers cant see it’s value in the long run, it’s just that when you say that WordPress is a “moving target” we kind of think… Yeah, but you’ve had 8 months to hit that target and instead you’ve developed a feature that no-one wants or uses. Heck you folks at WP dont use it (it’s THAT bloody useful).

    I, and everyone else, understand the way in which this software came about. We also understand that it’s officially ‘beta’ though lets be honest you guys call 0.9 stable. But that’s not to say that maybe, just maybe, if you want this software community to thrive then listening in some part to the concerns of the community who are doing our best to help is a step in the right direction.

    “Integration of user tables and cookies is a priority on the other hand, as is creating a full XML-RPC interface for those who want to pull data into a WordPress install”

    So what you’re saying is that you have two priorities. One which has a forum full of people pulling their heads out and screaming over. And one that no-one is needing straight away. Why, oh WHY, is the later being worked upon first?

    Surely, and i’m worried this might cause personal offence where none is intended, ANY IDIOT can see that logging in and registration is, i dunno, VITAL to a forum?!?!?

    So why is it not the TOP priority?

    And if it is the top priority, and its so unbelievably complex that making BBpress integrate with WP 2.6 or 2.7 in the 248 days since the cookie processing change was announced, is it likely that we’re going to have it fixed any time soon?

    ” Integration only became a real “feature” of bbPress with 0.9 when it was brought front and centre during install and got it’s own admin options page.”

    Yeah, but that was 8 months ago. It’s not like it’s a massive shock we’ve all just got over. 0.9 was stable 8 months ago.

    “Unfortunately WordPress is a moving target and it is difficult to keep up with all it’s changes”

    But in terms of a moving target mate, 1) its well documented 2) you work for the company 3) we dont need to keep up with ALL the changes, and 4) it’s been 8 months!

    I know that may look like i’m labouring a point, but its more to clarify. If 0.9 nor 1.0alpha cannot integrate with wordpress 2.6 (which has had 3 betas and 4 point releases) in the last 7 months, is it even likely that we’ll get it in the next 7 months?

    I, and everyone here, realises that wordpress is changeable, we accept that totally, but if what we’re saying is that BBpress will release 1 stable version ever 3 versions of wordpress (and it will only integrate with the first version) , then really, i think it’s time for me and the others to say goodbye.

    “It’s a little unfair to say that bbPress isn’t usable. “

    Yes, that’s true.

    I think it’s best we say its… Not fit for purpose.

    Let me show you how mate, with the blow coming from your own BBpress website:

    “bbPress is focused on web standards, ease of use, ease of integration, and speed”

    See any of my posts last month bout how web standards are not being met.

    And, ease of integration, really? I’m hoping that as funny as the irony/joke of the facebook page.

    “our extensive plugin system”.

    Half of them dont work. Most of the Authors have long since left the sinking ship. 0.9 was a milestone, and you folks all did such a stellar job; but man has the side been let down, and infact gotten alot smaller. Where would we be without _CK_?

    “is highly customizable.”

    This made me laugh too. Have you ever wondered why all BBpress forums look the same? No different icons, layout, DT/DDs, OL/LIs, etc. Every single one looks like the bog standard one, with the exception of the logo and border/background colours. This either means that everyone loves their website to be identical (hmmmm, no) or maybe hardcoding alot of things into a non template-able file is actually a stupid idea.

    “Easy integration with your blog.

    WordPress and bbPress are siblings, and they get along together “

    “bbPress integration should work with most recent version of WordPress”

    Honestly, cant make this up.

    And so the list goes on…

    We like bbpress Sam, otherwise we wouldn’t be here. But currently, it’s not Fit for Purpose, and it doesn’t do what it claims to do. When you add into that the widening gap between WordPress and BBpress we as a community start to get a bit perturbed.

    If you take away all those claims above, the claims that brought us to this site and to this software, then we’re left with a rather generic bit of forum software, that (plug-ins or no plug-ins) doesn’t have the same features or options as other software out there. If you’re a big multinational with millions of forum posts, then maybe that’s ideal, but maybe, just maybe, its not what everyone is after.

    This is the crux of the issue. If you’re building something that is purely aimed at being the forum software for, then lets take down the bullshit on the website, and we’ll all skuttle off.

    If we’re all helping Automattic in making BBpress an amazing alternative in to bloated forums, then you have to realise that living up to your bbpress’s own website’s statements of fact is simply the least we expect.

    John James Jacoby

    Could not have said it any better… If Matt was paying my bills, I would be the first to step up and commit myself to making bbPress exactly what the audience of WordPress wants it to be and still make Matt happy…

    Matt, are you listening? :)

    I think it’s best we say its… Not fit for purpose.

    Well that entirely depends on your purpose.

    I agree with many of your points but you can make them of many other (if not all) bb sites. The majority of sites look similar because of usability. People are used to things working a certain way, and they expect familiarity (which is how many many people out there define ‘usability’). That’s why car design doesn’t change much. It’s not perfect, but people like it. That’s why people cried bloody murder over OS changes from Windows 3.1 to XP, but they got over it. Change is hard for users to accept. They don’t want to learn how to drive, again, they want to get on the road and talk about STEAM, damn it!

    Yes ‘easy’ integration with your WordPress site is a misrepresentation at this time. But the rest? That’s all perception and usage. You CAN redesign the hell out of a bbPress site. If you want to. The base code IS customizable, there ARE a lot of plugins. These are facts. What you do with the options is up to you, though.

    I don’t think bbPress is perfect, but after spending years trying to mesh my site with other forums out there, I’d rather have this than them.

    (Steam is a joke from which is my favorite thing ever)

    Hi Ipstenu,

    I’m going to disagree with you a little mate, and try not to take it off topic too much.

    Yes, each adjective is subjective to ones perspective. “easy” and “alot” etc. can mean different things to different people. That said, lets look at them a sec.

    “extensive plugins?”

    There are just under 120 plugins for BBPress.

    Over 1/3rd haven’t been updated in a year. I’d wager a good few of them don’t work anymore.

    And the ones with latest comments 6-12 months ago, usually don’t work either.

    Also from what i’ve seen about 1/4 of them are redundant or useless in 0.9 / 1.0alpha.

    So we’re looking at maybe 40-50 plugins.

    Does anyone think that’s “extensive”?

    I know it’s subjective, but, um, well you can make up your own mind.

    “You CAN redesign the hell out of a bbPress site”

    To a certain extent i’ll agree and disagree with it. To redesign a bbpress forum so that it doesn’t look like this theme actually takes a bucket load of work. I’ve done it for 3 websites, and every time it’s involved me writing full on plugins just to output the right code, or W3C acceptable code, or overwrite the damned code thats stored outwith the templates (why is that btw?).

    Can i stop and ask that? WHY does a theme designer NEED to write alot of non basic php code as a separate to their theme plugin, just to over write HARDCODED design output? Since when was hardcoding design output into the core of a theme-able piece of software a good idea?

    What you can’t do with bbpress, is hand a Designer/ HTML coder your template files and expect to get anything back that’s not a flat output of a table. It’s a point I raised a while ago (and i’ll not bang on about it) but BBpress works at doing one thing. Outputting a flat list from a database.

    In terms of your all forums kinda look the same , i have to agree in this instance. Most forums, ipb/vBulletin/phpBB etc do all look the same. but guess what. bbpress doesn’t look much like them. I’ve stated before BBpress’s horrific handling of parent/children with categories etc. is bloody woeful; but if you’re talking about usability, then bbpress starts to fall down a little.

    What it outputs is simple, yes, to the user, but it’s not very perceptive. Finding a specific post or vital information (say that 0.9 = WP2.5 – you know , something you’d expect to be on the documentation or download page but is actually on page 3 of a topic started 1 year ago) , is a disaster. It’s reliant on the user

    who posted the content using TAGS appropriotely and ofc it requires a better search function.

    Lets not forget that ‘tags’ are fairly new, and really only web savvy people use/know about them. A huge chunk of this software’s cross-pollination and iteration is taken out of the developers hands and placed smack bang in teh hand of the end user (whom we know nothing about nor can reply on).

    Just because something is simple/plain, does not make it inherently usable.

    Anyway, there are a number of things we’d all like to see fixed in bbpress. Some more vital than others. we’ll all agree and disagree on many, but my over riding feeling is this:

    Our Clients, customers, friends, colleagues, schools, own sites, will at some stage like to, nah need to, be updated to the latest version of WordPress. it will vary from person to person, but at some stage you know that a wordpress upgrade is probably in the pipes.

    But if you’re using BBpress, then you’ve been forced to hold off upgrading for over half a year. We will be/are a whole version behind, and surely someone can see that it’s got to be an issue.

    I suppose what i dont understand is, and maybe i’m the only one, so please 100% feel free to explain it to me like an idiot.

    if The most requested topic on this website is “wordpress integration”, and the singular fail point of the software is “wordpress integration”, and teh company that owns this software also own wordpress, and it happens to be your singular initial selling point of the software, um, well, WHY THE HELL HAS IT NOT BEEN THE ONLY PRIORITY AND FIXED IN THE 3 MONTHS SINCE 1.0ALPHA CAME OUT?

    We’ve had other fixes, new code, new features, a facebook page (see i hadn’t forgotten), but yet without even a hint of when this base level feature might appear, we’re told it’s a moving target.

    Please, explain it to me like a 5 year old, that hasn’t read the blog posts linking to the $29 million dollars investment, that also lead to Sam being taken on as a full time developer on bbpress (i.e. dont say no time/resources).

    It’s been a few years since Matt’s been around here…

    Member Since

    April 4, 2003 (5 years)

    Maybe at, eh?

    Last post around October 2006:

    I don’t think the Facebook page setup stole any time away from bbPress development.

    I’m a big fan (and now a Facebook fan) of bbPress and don’t want to come off as ungrateful. But I’m definitely concerned about how long it’s taking to get WordPress integration going. Am I wrong in assuming it would be one of the highest priorities?

    I recognize WordPress has been in a state of flux regarding logins and I likely don’t know all the deep developer details, but it’s getting difficult to maintain confidence in the project. Will the 2.7 release make things any easier?

    I’m a big fan (and now a Facebook fan) of bbPress and don’t want to come off as ungrateful. But I’m definitely concerned about how long it’s taking to get WordPress integration going. Am I wrong in assuming it would be one of the highest priorities?

    Sambauers agrees with you. How do I know? #1007

    I’m not sure how many more times I can repeat that bbPress is pre-release software.

    Automattic isn’t making a dime off it, it’s not being promoted, there’s no guaranteed support, all assistance, plugin development is completely voluntary. Every part of bbPress is subject to completely change and break overnight. There is no timetable, there are no feature or bug priorities. Assume you will be on your own.

    If that bothers anyone, or they feel the need to rant about it, please stop using it asap and go get SMF – I am completely serious about that. I’ve sent several people about here to vbulletin where money was no object and they could afford it and all the extra hardware it requires when they grow. It has every feature you could possibly want after 10 years of development and all the bloat and price tag to prove it.

    If you want forums directly integrated with WordPress and don’t like bbPress, you can go use one of the several discontinued single-developer plugins available for WordPress. They are all slow and buggy and break with every wordpress upgrade, but there you go.

    Integration is tricky because it was not a priority for bbPress in the first year or two and there is no such thing as a “standard” wordpress install, everyone has their own weird configuration. The radical changes to WordPress security in the past year have not helped at all with integration ease. Sam is going to try to make integration easier in a future version by creating a plugin for WordPress that assists with the process (in fact a WP integration plugin has now become a requirement because of some recent changes with WordPress).

    I suspect bbPress will become much more of a priority for Automattic in 2009 but there’s no guarantee about that of course. So weigh your options and either stick with it or move on but please don’t rant against the very people trying to help the project.

    I’m really disappointed in this response actually. _CK_ is without a doubt the person who carries the most weight around here these days given her exceptional and continued support and development.

    Whenever we, as a community or an individual, say something that is negative about BBpress it is because we want to make it better. You said yourself in October that Sam wasn’t on the forums much, and as time goes on, mostly because of wordpress moving forward, BBpress has looked more and more stale/abandoned. I appreciate it’s a perception rather than reality, but surely you can see by the response that Sam’s first post in months was met with this reaction, is down to that feeling that’s been growing in the community for months now.

    Its not an attack on Sam, as a person, in anyway. It not an attack on BBpress or its code, its people who read one thing (or multiple things) and then find them out to be not true. its people who read new posts daily about “wordpress integration”

    “I’m not sure how many more times I can repeat that bbPress is pre-release software.”

    We know this, we don’t expect everything to work, we expect bugs, and we’re trying to report them back and be helpful. But we’ve been reporting 1 particular ind crucial bug back for over half a year now, with no info being forthcoming.

    “Every part of bbPress is subject to completely change and break overnight”

    We get this too. But, um, it broke over half a year ago!

    If it broke last night, last week, or last month then yeah i’d get it.

    But it broke a long long time ago.

    “there are no feature or bug priorities”

    Sam said there is (read up).

    You said there was last month (about XMLRPC – will find link to post).

    “If that bothers anyone, or they feel the need to rant about it, please stop using it asap”

    TO Be Honest, that sounds childish in my opinion.

    And not what i’d expect _CK_.

    “Integration is tricky because it was not a priority for bbPress”

    It wasn’t? wow.

    Ok, it wasn’t. Can we ask why?

    Again, it seems like the most asked about thing on the forum. Not just in terms of how often people ask, or that fact that there is a sticky on it, or that it’s the biggest word on the tag cloud by miles or… (i could go on, but i think we all know the point i’m getting at).

    “there is no such thing as a “standard” wordpress install”

    Yes there is. Download wordpress. input your database and password. hit install.

    Famous 5 min install remember.

    There is a standard wordpress install!

    “The radical changes to WordPress security in the past year have not helped at all with integration ease”

    We get that _CK_, we do, and we totally understand.

    But the change happened in WP2.6, then we had 2.6.1, 2.6.2 , 2.6.3 . 2.6.5, and now 2.7.

    BBpress / Automattic have had 7 month (minimum) to realise and fix this issue.

    I mean, and correct me if i’m massively wrong, but did security change in 2.6, or did it change drastically in every release? If it changed drastically in 2.6, 2.6.1, 2.6.2 , 2.6.3 . 2.6.5, and now 2.7; then yes i can see how that would be a huge issue and a moving target. but if it has stayed the same for 6 months (in all the WP2.6 releases) then frankly, it seems crazy to me that NO-ONE at automatic can be asked how security has changed.

    “So weigh your options and either stick with it or move on but please don’t rant against the very people trying to help the project”

    We’re not ranting against the people _CK_, there is nothing personal here.

    We want to help.

    We want to use BBpress, spread the word, fix bugs, make it better.

    But with this HUGE issue over our heads, we can’t, and thats what we’re trying to put across.

    How is repeating that you’re not happy with integration, that it doesn’t work, that it fails, over and over again helping?

    Ticket #1007 has been opened, by SAM and that means developers agree. It is highest priority and flagged as critical. So look, they know, they agree, and they’re working on it. Can they tell you how long it will take? No. And instead of doing what my office tries to make me do (make up an answer) they gave you the truth. It will take as long as it takes. If that doesn’t work for you, then you should move on to something else. Because those are your options, unless you want to write the code yourself and offer it up.

    There are a lot of tickets (see ) and a small amount of coders. If you want to (and can) fix bugs, fix bugs. If you can only report on them, report. But once the report is there, badgering the techies to be smarter faster doesn’t help anyone. It pisses off the techs who are trying, but honestly, you can’t inspire creativity any faster than it naturally comes

    So thank you for reporting that integration sucks, and that the website implies something that isn’t exactly true – bbPress .9 works with WP 2.6, but it’s not full integration. That should probably be modified to say ‘shared login’ or such. There’s a ticket up for fixing real integration, so that is something that the dev team is aware of.

    Sam Bauers

    Kevin, the cookie and login integration that works with BB0.9 – WP2.5 also works with BB1.0 – WP2.6 or 2.7. The only issues remaining arise when you login via WordPress instead of bbPress, the simple fix for this is to redirect WordPress logins to bbPress, but I will be building a plugin to make this (and some other things) easier.

    The “deep” integration issues where people load WordPress inside bbPress are still outstanding, and as I said may never be resolved and might eventually be unsupported. The XML-RPC functionality being developed is intended as a launching pad for people who need bbPress data inside their WordPress installs, I also expect that there will be some functionality written to get data going in the other direction as well. We are using this already “internally” with the BuddyPress forums component which communicates with bbPress 1.0 to provide group forums and eventually other functionality to that software. There is also already a plugin to pull some basic data from bbPress to WordPress widgets.

    I don’t think you should blame Matt for XML-RPC being added either, I think it was mdawaffe who wanted pingbacks and I think I was the person who liked the idea of a complete XML-RPC server enough to actually write it.

    Features tend to forge ahead when they have a champion for them and as the only major contributor to the code at the moment that kind of leaves it up to me as to what gets done. There has only been a small amount of thorough and reported testing of deep integration done by users so far who are actually trying to make it happen (see #972). That doesn’t exactly excite me to work on a feature that neither I nor the company I work for particularly need, especially when I already have a low opinion of the technique in the first place. In the same breath though, I understand that others may want it and I’m not actively trying to stop it from happening either. If someone fixed, patched it and put it in Trac, I would commit it with a smiley emoticon and a “props” in capital letters.

    So in short, it needs someone to take the lead on it, if you want it done sooner rather than later.

    Talking about community discontent by referring to the contents of these forums seems a bit disingenuous. These are support forums which by their nature invite people to announce their problems, all we can tell by it is that some people have problems with the software, sometimes. I’m pretty sure we aren’t getting every user coming through here. It’s not a gauge, and perhaps the dreaded Facebook page will help us find the people who don’t post here a bit more easily, perhaps it is something that can be used to gauge what the community mood is like. If anything it might give me a little comfort to know that a few people out there like what we’re doing here. My development time isn’t a zero sum game, I didn’t steal 30 minutes from my “writing code” time to setup that page. I need to enjoy myself while I work, maybe doing that helped me get through that particular day. At the other end of the tubes is me, a person. Hi. Nice to meet you.

    On that personal note it isn’t nice to be blasted for something as cursory as not initiating topics in the forums for two months. I’ve been contributing to bbPress for almost two years now. There have been times when I’ve taken close to the full burden of support here, even before I worked for Automattic. Recently we got two community moderators who are very competent. _ck_ and chrishajer have been outdoing themselves around here. I have taken it a little easier for the past month while I focused on some other tasks.

    I’m really only catching up on some of the more recent goings on around here, including your very interesting threads about the overall direction of bbPress. I completely want those conversations to happen, you make good points there too and I like the general direction of what you are saying, even though you make incorrect assumptions about some details. I wish I had been there in real-time to discuss it, but I will try to respond where I can.

    Finally, bbPress is important to Automattic at the moment primarily as a tool for it’s own uses. Thus there is little or no promotion of it at this stage. If we gain some traction in the real world one day it might be treated like WordPress, but for now it will basically be whatever the people who contribute to it want it to be, and as usual when resources are limited, those who can write good bug reports or contribute real code will get their needs met first.

    @Ipstenu: that ticket was opened two days ago. This topic was started three days ago. I’d say people bringing integration up here brought attention to the issue. This thread has been good for that reason alone.

    I was going to sit this thread out, until I saw some of the recent comments.

    I understand that there is frustration over the WordPress integration issues (I share them as well). But I don’t think it’s fair or productive to lash out at the very people that make this community move forward (Sam and _ck_, among others).

    The motivation and energy of key contributors is the most precious asset of an open source community, as they are what keeps the community forward.

    The feedback and ideas of key users is also hugely important, as they tell the community where to go.

    But when feedback attacks the motivation and energy of key contributors, I’ve learned not to just sit back. Because even if the feedback is 100% dead on, if the key contributors are hurt by the way it’s delivered… then as a community, we have been stopped dead in our tracks.

    I think we all agree that full integration with a shared signin is a priority. If we unite behind that goal, maybe we can achieve it. I just think that the motivation and energy of key contributors is key to our getting there.

    One last thought: Sam appears to work mostly on bbPress, whereas the integration work needs to be done on the WordPress side. So if we want to advocate for full integration, maybe we should organize as a community? If you look at the most popular “ideas” for WordPress, full integration isn’t on the list:

    I am probably missing it, but I don’t even see full integration as a submitted idea here:

    If we could agree as a community on the wording, I’m sure we could all vote it up. We only need 159 votes to get onto the list of Most Popular Ideas. Maybe that would help Sam’s ticket get some developers assigned to it.

    I would rather focus our energies there, especially since I don’t believe that our discussions here are going to change the priorities of the WordPress development team (which is what we need to move forward).

    @chrishajer, I know it was a recent ticket. I posted about it above. And yet the folks who are complaining about it never say thanks for agreeing it’s an issue. Which yeah, pisses me off, I admit it and I probably was a bit more bitchy than I should be. For that I apologize. I was grousing, in general, of the fact that people expect miracles. This isn’t an excuse for my attitude, and I’m not gonna delve into how I’m on Sam’s end of this at work right now. It’s a case of feeling the pain and wanting to defend my fellow techie sorts.

    To anyone who felt I was attacking you personally, I didn’t mean to, and please accept my apology. Like you, I feel strongly about things, and disagreements come when people feel strongly.

    To the developers: Thank you for raising a ticket on integration.

    For those that haven’t been around awhile, code development on bbPress tends to happen in bursts. There will be little or nothing or just trivial bug fixes for a few months and then BAM, Michael and Sam will post a whole bunch more code.

    Just because you don’t get feedback on a problem from a developer doesn’t mean they don’t think it’s important, it just means they can’t make it a priority right now for some reason or another. Everyone would love bbPress to have every feature and every feature work amazingly but there simply aren’t enough people or hours available to make it happen. Every feature one person insists is absolutely critical is quite trivial to another person.

    Last but not least, be careful what you wish for. If bbPress had all the features like the more mature WordPress does, it would also share the same number of problems, backward incompatibilities and constant changes. If they did to bbPress what just happened in WordPress between versions 2.3 and 2.7, I would not be making plugins for it anymore (because they all would be broken). Since bbPress takes a slower path, it tends to get things more “right” the first time around.

    I think 2009 holds big things for bbPress.

    Someone new to bbPress a year from now might wonder what some early adopters were complaining about.

    may I ask what the beta part of bbpress actuall is? is the “beta” thingy core related or more 3rd party related?

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.htaccess/Cookie woes!

  • I am currently having a problem where when I log in to wordpress (or bbpress) at, then click a link that is directed to, then I am no longer logged in. (Cookie issues). I am trying to figure out how to define either * (preferably), or if that won’t work then AND

    Give it a shot here:

    and the forum is here:

    PLEASE CREATE ANY ACCOUNTS WITH THE WORD “TEST” AND ANOTHER WORD/NAME IN THE ACCOUNT NAME, unless of course you intend on keeping the account.

    My wordpress options blog url (in the wordpress admin panel) is listed WITH the “www” in front of the domain.. I am digging into mod_rewrite directives, but to be honest, I’m not really grasping it. Right when I think I have it figured out, it throws me. I have been able to get requests going to to redirect to using mod_rewrite in the .htaccess files. However, when I try it out in the forums, ( it just resolves at that address, and doesn’t insert the www. Any ideas?

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • You should need to use .htaccess. Best thing is to override the way cookies are created. For WP these are in wp-settings.php around line 185. To have a shared cookie for the whole site I changed the cookie scope replacing:

    codeif ( !defined(‘COOKIEPATH’) )

    define(‘COOKIEPATH’, preg_replace(‘|https?://[^/]+|i’, ”, get_option(‘home’) . ‘/’ ) );code

    codeif ( !defined(‘COOKIEPATH’) )

    define(‘COOKIEPATH’, ‘/’ );code

    Setting the www bits etc can be done in a similar way. Assuming you’ve integrated your users, if you set the cookie path to ‘/’ with domain you should be fine.

    Thank you so much for your reply. I think this is really the solution that I have been looking for. It just doesn’t make sense to me to only have one subdomain registered in the cookies, and I wasn’t sure how wordpress handled the adding of a subdomain.

    I am still moderately new to php, so I’m not sure I follow the last paragraph in terms of proper form and syntax, and so I’d prefer to ask that “stupid question” rather than sound smart and fail. ;). Can you let me know exactly what you think should go there, in terms of syntax? That would be greatly appreciated.

    P.S. It sounded like you meant to say “You should NOT need to use .htaccess? Just checking to be sure…

    Thanks so much for your help.

    You’re correct I missed a word out – htaccess isn’t be needed.

    I’ve not got much experience with bbPress but recently integrated WP and Vanilla. To confirm, are you intending to have 1 user table shared between your blog and forum? (so users can move seamlessly between the two)

    Yes, that’s how I have it set up now. It works quite well, and cookies are shared. The only real problem is the www vs the non www addresses.

    Ok, I got it figured out…I’ll post a more full breakdown tomorrow when my heads about me. Thanks for all your help, everyone.

    I had a look at the WP code but haven’t had a chance to look at bbPress’ yet. Would like to hear your solution. One thing I noticed was when you try entering www on here it filters them out.

    I’ll preface this by saying that I love Ahi Tuna dishes at restaurants. What is it about that huge hunk of raw fish meat that’s only seared to (probably) keep men’s wives from refusing to share a bed with a man who would eat a classic “dry heave” food. So, why do I like it? Well, it’s not the big chunk of meat that draws me in and pleases my palate. It’s the simple glaze that I often find on top; the light, sweet sauce that perfectly compliments the fish. As they say, “The secret’s in the sauce.”

    So, the “sauce” for this problem was the secret, and the sauce ended up being all too simple. Ziyphr first directed my friend and I to wp-settings.php. (He said to check out line 185, but mine was around 151-160). I found the code that called the siteurl and home, both of which would have returned, as that is what I have listed in my admin panel. I thought I needed to modify those to somehow spit out two domains, with the www and sans.

    My friend also informed me that he believed that cookie domains really need two dots, the first before the domain and the second after the domain but before the ‘com’. In my case it would be How to get ‘siteurl’ or ‘home’ to reflect that was a challenging thought.

    One side-note for anyone trying this same thing, DON'T CHANGE YOUR SITE ADDRESS OR HOME ADDRESS TO ANYTHING OTHER THAN \"WWW.MYURL.COM\" OR \"MYURL.COM\" IN THE ADMIN PANEL. Doing so will cause you more headaches than when you meet your mother in law for the first time. (Ok, that was an exaggeration, but only slightly).

    Once I got that mess sorted out, we tried to hard code in the, replacing

    define('COOKIEPATH', preg_replace('|https?://[^/]+|i', '', get_settings('home') . '/' ) ); with

    define('COOKIEPATH', '');

    This didn’t work, and all hope was lost. Curiosity getting the best of me, I opened up my preferences panel in Safari and pulled up the list of all my stored cookies to see if there were any similarities/discrepencies between my cookie and other sites’ cookies. This is where I saw my cookie had the value “” under the heading “website” where most other sites were listed as “”, missing the www that seemed to be plaguing me. I decided that was what I needed changed, and when I looked back at the code in wp-settings.php, I discovered that line 160 was unique from the others.

    if ( !defined('COOKIE_DOMAIN') )
    define('COOKIE_DOMAIN', false);

    I decided to change this to this:

    if ( !defined('COOKIE_DOMAIN') )
    define('COOKIE_DOMAIN', '');

    What do you know…I dumped my cookies for my site, refreshed the page, logged in, checked the cookie, and there it was, ‘’. Now for the true test, I got rid of the ‘www’ in the address bar, hit return, and VOILA! I was still logged in. Everything was seamless. I was now the owner of a spiffy wordpress/bbpress integrated site that shared cookies across sites and subdomains. No crazy .htaccess directives, no checking and double checking every last link in my site to reflect my choice of domains.

    This is the way it should be done. I’m quite surprised it was such a simple solution, and that nobody seemed to be aware of how simple the solution is. I hope this is helpful to someone else trying to share cookies across multiple subdomains.

    Ok I’ve been working on my site for an entire day and can’t seems to have things figured out.

    I’ve been trying to get bbpress and wp to integrate or share cookies with no luck at all. I’ve got wp in and bb in

    I would run and install bb first and after I changed the password of my key master I would run wp but upon login I cannot logout!

    I’ve tried many reccomendations I found in the forum but none work. Anyone with any idea what went wrong?

    note: .htaccess is in /bb folder

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The Mechanic is the Message captures and expresses difficult experiences through the medium of a game. Much like photographs, paintings, literature and music are capable of transmitting the full range of the human experience from one human to another, so too can games. Due to their interactivity, the installation suggests that games are capable of a higher form of communication, one which actively engages the participant and makes them a part of the experience rather than a passive observer.

The Mechanic is the Message is composed of six separate non-digital games that experiment with the traditional notion of the word “game”.

  • The New World, 2008
  • Síochán leat (aka “The Irish Game”), 2009
  • Train, 2009
  • Mexican Kitchen Workers – in prototype
  • Cité Soleil – in concepting
  • One Falls for Each of Us – in concepting

Brenda Brathwaite is the designer of these games. Inquiries may be directed to the game designer at her full name at

The New World, 2008

Game Designer: Brenda Brathwaite
Release Date: February 2008

  • Testing: Maezza Brathwaite

Train, 2009

Game Designer: Brenda Brathwaite
Release Date: April 29, 2009

  • Design Confidante and Sounding Board: Ian Schreiber
  • Testing: Christopher Schmidt, Michelle Menard, Laura Beukema, Ian Schreiber, Darren Malley, Tyler Hawley
  • Thanks to: Ian Schreiber, John Sharp, Ian Bogost, John Romero, David Dirlam, Rabbi Belzer, Steve Meretzky, David Fox, Dan Cook, Jason Rohrer

Síochán Leat (aka The Irish Game)

Game Designer: Brenda Brathwaite
Release Date: June 8, 2009

  • Testing: Ian Brathwaite, Ian Schreiber, Christopher Schmidt, David McDonough
  • Thanks to: Paddy Donovan, Michael Collins, Ian Schreiber, Ian Brathwaite, John Sharp, John Romero, Ian Currie, Connor Scott, Anne Dirlam, David Dirlam, Dominique Elliot
13 Comments leave one →
  1. November 4, 2010 4:36 pm

    Train is one of the most inspirational things I have ever seen. I have started to think about game design in a totally new light after watching the GDC video of it. I also think an interesting extension of The New Wold would be to see how people might play with and react to using the slaves that they got to the new world in a reconstruction of slavery. In other words using the people they brought over as slaves given the parameters to make money through cash crops. Just an idea.

    • November 12, 2010 6:35 pm

      Thank you!

    • James Blair permalink
      December 1, 2010 7:35 pm

      Sounds a bit like Puerto Rico, in which you bring over ‘colonists’ to do just that.

  2. christopher permalink
    April 29, 2012 10:16 pm

    any hints on being able to get a hold of the New World game? I am not coming up with very much through a net search….

    • May 3, 2012 7:25 pm

      There is only edition of each game. I generally encourage educators to work with children to make games about difficult topics to help them broaden their understanding of these things while simultaneously working on a game which they love.

  3. Chris permalink
    May 3, 2012 3:47 pm

    Ms. Braithwaite,

    I just learned about Train via a TED talk you gave last year. Are any of the games in your Mechanic series currently touring as installations at any museums? I’d be very interested in studying the impact of these games on unsuspecting patrons.

  4. May 6, 2012 4:23 pm

    Sorry, I’m confused – is this an art installation, using board games?

    • July 6, 2012 6:24 pm

      It is a board game, but there is only one of them in existence. It is not an art installation.

  5. Kathrin permalink
    May 10, 2012 1:09 pm

    I also have just watched the TED talk and was browsing around here to find out if the “New World” was on sale here. But of course you are right, Brenda, in saying that (re)creating these games with students might have an even bigger impact.
    I teach German students in English, so slavery is of course an issue in my classes. But I will definitely point my history collegues to your talk and may contact you via email to find out more about the “Train” game.
    Thanks for sharing and inspiring!
    Best regards,

    • July 6, 2012 6:22 pm

      Thank you Kathrin! Feel free to contact me about the games in the future.

  6. Tonya F. permalink
    May 14, 2012 5:09 pm

    Hi Ms. Braithwaite,
    I’m very interested in The New World game. Where can I purchase it?

    • July 6, 2012 6:21 pm

      The game is unfortunately not available for purchase. All of these games are one-of-a-kind games.

  1. Novel breakage | Digital Ephemera

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New Stepmom Circles Podcast: Ron Deal and StepDads

21 04 2011

Finally!!! A new Stepmom Circles Podcast is ready. Ron Deal is one of my favorite guests. In this show we talk about Ron’s new book, The Smart Stepdad. There are even fewer resources for stepdads than there are for stepmoms. Ron always has so much wisdom to share and this podcast is not just for stepdads. It’s for moms who have kids and married a man who became a stepdad to their children. It’s for stepmothers because is the advice he gives is applicable to all of us. Find Ron at http://www.successfulstepfamilies.com

Stepmothers: Forgiveness

9 02 2011

Yesterday afternoon I watched Oprah. It was a heart-stopping show about three young girls who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of their father and older brothers. At the end of the show Oprah passed along advice to them that she received from one of her mentors. She didn’t mention who it was but it took my breath away so I wanted to share it here. She said, “Forgiveness is letting go of the hope that the past could have been different.” Whoa. It’s not about condoning anyone’s behavior or inviting them back into your life or even wishing them love and peace.

Does that resonate or what?

Forgiveness is letting go of the hope that the past could have been different.

For us stepmothers perhaps one place to focus this powerful thought is on our husbands. (Do you secretly wish he’d never been with another woman or had children with anyone else?) Another place: Our exes. Another place: Our own childhoods.

This week I’m meditating on that phrase: Forgiveness is letting go of the hope that the past could have been different.

Marriage: A Petri Dish for Personal Growth

2 02 2011

When you meet the love of your life, it’s freakin’ great, isn’t it? My husband and I had so much fun in those early days before the pressures on us built. Little did we know then that our relationship would lead us to the darkest places we’d ever been. And how great we’ve been able to descend to the depths of ourselves to excavate all those unhealed places!! Marriage really is a Petri dish for personal growth. As a fellow stepmom said recently, you can grow disgusting moldy junk in there or a cure. You decide.

I also write novels (to be published soon, I hope!) and while taking an amazing seminar with Robert McKee, he said, “True character is revealed under pressure.” Isn’t that true of life, too? My character has certainly been revealed to me in the past few years as life pressed. And I’m so glad.

As another fellow stepmother friend once said, “Will you become bitter or strive to be better?”

Stepmothers: Getting to Yes

30 11 2010

I saw this today and thought of stepmothering. William Ury is the author of Getting to Yes and has helped navigate some of the most difficult conversations happening in our world today. His advice is something that we can use in our homes, my ladies! Conflict in your home? With a stepchild? An ex? Your partner? Then watch this. Ury believes the secret peace is to take the third side. Love it.

“In the last 35 years as I have worked in some of the most dangerous, difficult, and intractable conflicts around the planet, I have yet to see one conflict that I felt could not be transformed. It is not easy,  of course, but it is possible.” –William Ury

Stepmoms: Have you transformed conflict in your home? Share with us!

College-Aged Stepdaughter Moves in for the First Time

11 11 2010

Dear Jacque,

In your research and visits with others, have you come across the issue of a 21-year-old stepchild moving in for the first time after 18 years???? She is living with us while going to college part time. My step daughter and I have had a strained relationship for a LONG time. I gave it an honest effort in the beginning, but she and her mom have been best friends ever since she was in elementary school, besides the lack of boundaries between my husband and the ex. I won’t go into all the details of the strain things have been over the years. I just know that my husband is THRILLED to have his daughter living here on a daily basis and treats her like she is a china tea cup. Our 2 daughters get treated like the solid cappuccino mugs by dad. He even acknowledges that he treats her differently. He has much higher expectations of our daughters than his oldest. She only talks to me when I say “Hi” first or if I ask her a question. Other wise, she easily walks right by me without a word, or just leaves the room when I walk in. I am trying to be open with my husband on the issues at hand, but it just ends up putting a strain on us. I feel like I have to revert back to just not saying anything about his daughter, other than to my counselor. Working outside the home, or times when she is gone, has been my sanctuary. Thank you for your time on the website and podcasts. A friend of mine told me about them both, as well as the Stepfamily Letter Project.

Dear Stepmom,

You’re going through what many stepmoms endure during the first years of a new marriage but at a different stage in your life! Thank you for your letter. It’s a wonderful reminder for all of us that the most important thing in stepfamily life is: Flexibility. You just never know what’s going to happen. Once the first years of a new stepfamily are worked through, there are other challenges that will arise. That is the nature of life. How you respond to them is the real question.

In your case, I would go back to the basics of stepfamily development. Even though you and your husband have been together long enough to have two children together, you’re really back in the early stages of stepfamily life since your stepdaughter has never lived with you. Here’s my advice:

  • Work together. I know this is challenging territory for spouses. Dads get defensive. Stepmoms get hurt and angry. It can turn into a nasty cycle. But I believe it’s critical that the two of you work on this together. The Smart Stepmom by Ron Deal and Laura Petherbridge has devoted several chapters just to dads. It’s my favorite tool for dads who are having a tough time discussing a child with a stepmother.
  • Understand your stepdaughter. It is not unusual for stepdaughters to move in with their dads at some point during their teens or early twenties. In fact the research about this is pretty incredible. Dr. James Bray saw this in his work, which he describes in the book Stepfamilies.  It is a time in their development when they need a connection with their father. My guess would be that your stepdaughter has some emotional healing to do and that’s why she’s living with you right now.
  • Define boundaries. You have every right to define the boundaries in your home to a 21-year-old girl who has just moved in. Have a discussion with your spouse about the rules. You might have to bend on some and he might have to. But make them the house rules so that they can be upheld by anyone. You might also discuss how long your stepdaughter will be staying with you.
  • Focus on your relationship with your stepdaughter not the rules. You’re not ever going to be a parenting figure to this girl so instead, why not turn on your curious mind? Consider what it’s like to be her. Find out what she likes/dislikes. You mentioned there has always been tension between you and that’s usually due to one party feeling like the other party has taken something away of value or is threatening to. What kind of relationship could you develop with her if neither of you felt threatened?
  • Take responsibility for your responses to tough situations. When my stepchildren don’t say hello to me, I sing out, “Hello!” like I’m living in a musical for the day. It’s so ridiculous that I avoid getting mad and spiraling into toxic rumination (negative thoughts that repeat over and over and over again). And sometimes the kids will say “Hi” back or they will roll their eyes or whatever, but it doesn’t matter as much to me because I kept my body and mind in a calm place (on my good days).
  • Chill out! Have some fun with your spouse. Get a babysitter for ALL the kids and take a night off every single week so you are continuing to build a strong marriage despite the difficulties occurring at home. I MEAN IT. This is tough. You need to have a lot of fun to balance out the hard parts.

Thank you so much for your wonderful question! Hang in there!

Stepmothers: Do You Turn Toward Or Away From Your Partner?

28 09 2010

We all know that conflict is a normal part of any long-term relationship. You’re going to fight. You’re going to get on each other’s nerves. You might even call each other a few choice swear words in the privacy of your own heads.

But at the end of the day, do you turn toward each other or away?

Over the last three months my husband and I have been stressed out. Big time. A whole bunch of challenges hit us at exactly the same time. For the first month, we turned away from each other. We were polite, but we suffered from the stress in our own little worlds. The second month, the stress started coming out in arguments and nasty comments. This month, we turned toward each other.

We acknowledged that we’re both stressed and began exploring some questions. How can we address this together? How can we feel proactive instead of reactive? And most importantly, how can we protect our marriage from the outside stresses it must endure? That is the challenge many stepcouples face. Scratch that. It’s a challenge that ALL couples face.

We came up with some things that are working for us:

  1. Be aspirational. Work toward a goal together that is fun and exciting. We decided to meet once a month for a day to visualize our goals for our future.
  2. Deal with the stress head on. We didn’t just sweep the stressors in our lives under the rug. We built strategies to help us manage the stress and move to a more easeful place with benchmarks so we can track our progress.
  3. Take a break! I know I’ve nagged you all about this one before, but my gosh–having fun is so important. We certainly can’t talk about our problems all the time. We need breaks! We decided that our breaks should include activities that build a positive emotional connection between us.

How about you? Do you have any strategies that you and your partner use to keep connected during challenging times?

Stepmothers: Protect Yourself

14 09 2010

There is a lot of advice out there on blogs and in books (including my own) that tell stepmothers what they need to do to make a stepfamily run more smoothly. There are lots of people to tell you how to make things easier for the kids. There are experts to show you how to co-parent more successfully. I, myself, have given you some of that advice. I’ve told you to cultivate an open heart and let go of anger. This is all good. However: You must also protect yourself.

It goes against our expecations of what family life is supposed to be like to think that we should protect ourselves from our family, but in stepfamilies it’s a skill you must learn.

When you’ve given your all to your stepkids and they turn on you it hurts like hell. When you’ve busted your butt to make your home a wonderful place to be for everyone and they hate it, it stings. When you’re ignored for the billionth time or your birthday is forgotten or your meal is hated or your help is denied, IT HURTS. In those times it is CRITICAL that you protect your lovely heart. Arm yourself. Do the personal growth work it takes to have a healthy and strong self-esteem. Surround yourself with friends who remind you who you are. Go on those date nights with your spouse. Read books. Take breaks. Go out of town.

A caveat: I’m not talking about total emotional disengagement. I’m talking about being more proactive in situations you know are going to hurt you. If you know you’re going to get angry tonight because you’ve cooked a beautiful meal and the kids are going to complain, ask your husband to cook. Get takeout. Tell the kids to trade off nights and let them cook. Order pizza. Make peanut and butter a jelly sandwiches and save the cooking for nights when they’re not with you.  See what I mean?

Some very well-meaning people call this owning your emotional response or taking responsibility or acting like an adult, but using those words can make us feel ashamed or silly for feeling what we feel. I call it protecting yourself.

Protect yourself, dear stepmother. You’ll be a happier human being, a more loving wife, and a far better stepmother if you do.

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Posts Tagged ‘city beer festivals’

Its Beer Week Time…..Get Your Liver Ready

February 22, 2011 Leave a comment

Seattle Beer Week is coming!

***Yikes. I jumped the gun and didn’t look at the dates on the Seattle Beer Week website – only the logo which has yet to be updated. The actual dates for the 2011 event are May 19-28.***

I’m not beating around the bush – its beer time. With a full spectrum of excellent city beer festivals right around the corner, your liver best get ready. Here’s a short preview of what’s up.

San Fran is tapped out, but Sacto is just getting carbed.

San Francisco just killed the final keg of their beer week, which spanned through February 20. While the city dries out over the next few days, beer geeks have something else to celebrate – Sacramento Beer Week!  That’s right, Sacto is tossing out its second go round of beer week fanatics with a whole eight days of beer craziness.  The festival officially spans from February 25, 2011 – March 6, 2011.

Sacramento Beer Week kicks off with the Sacramento Brewers Showcase on February 24, 2011. From that point on, the event organizers have over 300 events planned. They will close out Beer Week over at The Capitol Beerfest, which will take place at Cal Expo on March 5. Fifty-nine breweries are expected to attend that event. Giddy up.

Do not forget two of the biggest brew experiences on earth – Philly Beer Week and Seattle Beer Week. These two events are certain to shock and awe the senses. Both are worth the flight, regardless of where you are. Luckily, we just so happen to be in both places while the events go down.

Seattle priming up for 3rd annual beer adventure.

Seattle Beer Week is in its 3rd year, and will span from May 19 – 28, 2011. This year, the event planners have hooked up with Maritime Pacific to craft the festival’s annual brew.

While the past two years have yielded double IPAs from Hales Ales and Pike Brewing, this year promises a Strong Ale brewed with rare Falconer hops. According to the site, “Falconer’s Flight™ Hops are an exclusive proprietary hop blend created to honor and support the legacy of Northwest brewing legend, Glen Hay Falcone.” Cannot wait for that grog.

Keep up with Seattle Beer Week, and its information guru and co-founder, Ian Roberts, via their Facebook and Twitter pages.

The self-anointed original American beer week gets ready for #4

Philly Beer Week is in its 4th year, and will span from June 3 – 12, 2011. The founders of this event consider it to be the original city beer week and boast that it attracts more visitors than any other beer festival.

We know from experience that Philly Beer Week is one hell of an attraction. Over the past years, I have paid attention to the Twitter updates of festival goers with great jealousy. Hopefully this year, we will be joining the experience.

You can follow the event details on their website.

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Home > Desktop User, Releases > OpenSUSE 11.3 Released

OpenSUSE 11.3 Released

OpenSUSE 11.3 Default DesktopWhether you use OpenSUSE or not you undoubtedly have heard what today is. And if not, it’s the release of OpenSUSE 11.3! OpenSUSE uses the KDE desktop but presents a nice version of GNOME, XFCE, and for the first time in version OpenSUSE 11.3 you’ll find a LXDE version. Before you install OpenSUSE 11.3 you’ll need to download or buy OpenSUSE 11.3 on DVD or CD. XFCE is only available on the OpenSUSE 11.3 DVD release. During Installation you’ll find a new feature that allows the use of the the BtrFS filesystem which is a cutting edge option with several high end features and advantages. BtrFS is a highly experimental feature however, so use it with caution.

Here’s a list of the other popular features you’ll find in OpenSUSE 11.3:

  • GNOME 2.30.1
  • KDE SC 4.4.4
  • Btrfs filesystem
  • Netbook support
  • the 2.6.34 Linux kernel
  • SpiderOak file syncing
  • Rosegarden audio editor
  • Mozilla, Firefox, GoogleCL and Thunderbird Updates
  • And Much More. (Read the official Release Announcement)

You can find a full OpenSUSE 11.3 Review over at EasyLinuxCDs. Don’t forget to share your comments and opinions about OpenSUSE 11.3 in the box below.

Categories: Desktop User, Releases
  1. February 2, 2011 at 9:20 am
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Donald McCain: Don't give up on Cinders And Ashes

Cinders And Ashes was beaten at Newcastle last week but Donald is attributing it solely to the heavy ground.

Donald reflects on Cinders And Ashes' defeat at Newcastle - a rare reverse in a week in which everything else has gone according to plan.

"The plan is now to go for the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton – the ground there should be better and, even if it’s soft, it won’t be anything like heavy going at Newcastle!"

Donald McCain

Donald McCain

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text: Repositório Comunidade: Produção e Tecnologia Vegetal Produção e Tecnologia Vegetal Tue, 01 Sep 2015 16:13:57 GMT 2015-09-01T16:13:57Z Biological control of chestnut blight in Portugal Título: Biological control of chestnut blight in Portugal Autor: Martins, Luís; Castro, João Paulo; Gouveia, Eugénia Resumo: Hypovirulence is a specific biological control method of chestnut blight, a lethal disease of American and European chestnut. The causal pathogen of chestnut blight is Cryphonectria parasitica, a fungus of Asian origin and an A2 quarantine organism in Europe. The disease has been reported since 1990 in Portugal, one of the last European countries where the pathogen was introduced. The chestnut blight fungus is now well established and widespread in Portugal with fast expansion in all chestnut regions. Biological control with hypovirulent strains of C. parasitica is considered an efficient means to control the disease and improve chestnut recovery. One of the goals of this study is to apply hypovirulence as a biological method for chestnut blight control and produce a solid scientific base to extend the treatment method over the country's chestnut areas. A successful biological control program will have a very high practical impact on crop productivity and on the social perception of applied research. Field records and studies included parameters related to trees (dendrometric parameters and plant health status) and the physical characteristics of the plots (type of soil, exposure, geographic coordinates, age of trees, actual management of soil, etc.). Other scientific issues related to population structure of the pathogen include evolutionary forces that are present or dominate at population level (clonality, selfing, self-incompatibility, vc type structure, vc type segregation, CHV presence, CHV species). One of the goals of this study is to generate data that can answer questions dealing with the effect of the founder population and the driving forces on actual and future chestnut populations. The study also can produce an innovative and a realistic approach that has potential for large and extended field application with a positive impact on chestnut production. Wed, 01 Jan 2014 00:00:00 GMT 2014-01-01T00:00:00Z Detecção de adulterações em produtos alimentares contendo leite e/ou proteínas lácteas Título: Detecção de adulterações em produtos alimentares contendo leite e/ou proteínas lácteas Autor: Veloso, Ana C.A.; Teixeira, Natércia; Ferreira, Isabel M.P.L.V.O.; Ferreira, Margarida A. Resumo: A critical review of the most relevant analytical methodologies for quality and authenticity control of dairy products and foods containing milk proteins is presented. Chromatographic, electrophoretic and immunological methods are used for: detection of cow's milk in ewe and goat milks, detection of whey added to milk, detection of caseins and/or whey proteins in non-lactic foods and study compounds resulting from milk proteins degradation. Techniques based on polimerase chain reaction are also suitable for detection of cow's milk on cheeses of ewe and goat milks. Tue, 01 Jan 2002 00:00:00 GMT 2002-01-01T00:00:00Z Biological control of Prays Oleae (BERN.) By chrysopids in tras-os-Montes region (Northeastern Portugal) Título: Biological control of Prays Oleae (BERN.) By chrysopids in tras-os-Montes region (Northeastern Portugal) Autor: Bento, Albino; Lopes, J.; Torres, L.; Passos-Coelho, P. Resumo: A study was carried out in an olive grove in the Tras-os-Montes region, in the period 1993 to 1996 to establish the rate of predation of chrysopids on Prays oleae (Bern.) eggs. Data on a trial conducted in 1996 to evaluate the effectiveness of field releases of Chrysoperla carnea (Steph.) in controlling eggs of the carpophagous generation of the pest are also reported. Six species of Chrysopidae have been collected. The most abundant were C. carnea and Mallada flavifrons (Brauer) which together represented about 74% of total captures. The main period of adult catches occurred between July and October. The rate of predation by chrysopids on P. oleae eggs varied among different generations of the pest and in different years, reaching 34% for the carpophagous generation in 1996. The potential damage that might be expected from the studied population of P. oleae was almost halved by releasing 360 larvae of C. carnea per tree. Fri, 01 Jan 1999 00:00:00 GMT 1999-01-01T00:00:00Z Produção de snacks de castanha Título: Produção de snacks de castanha Autor: Delgado, Teresa; Pereira, J.A.; Casal, Susana; Ramalhosa, Elsa Resumo: Os consumidores procuram cada vez mais produtos saudáveis e de fácil consumo. A castanha apresenta-se como um fruto seco saudável mas não é reconhecido como sendo de fácil consumo. A castanha é um fruto seco com propriedades nutricionais interessantes devido ao seu baixo teor em gordura,elevados níveis de amido (açúcar de absorção lenta) e quantidades significativas de fibras. Além disso, a castanha não apresenta glúten,sendo ideal para doentes celíacos. Por outro lado, a maioria dos snacks vendidos no mercado são ricos em gordura e são feitos de farinha de trigo (que contém glúten). Deste modo, o desenvolvimento de novos snacks à base de castanha poderá ser inovador e apresentar-se como uma forma prática de consumo deste fruto, para além de permitir o desenvolvimento de novos produtos para pessoas sensíveis ao glúten. Thu, 01 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT 2015-01-01T00:00:00Z


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GIMP Test Suite / Bundle-GimpTest /

Filename Size Date modified Message
40 B
840 B
127 B
378 B
493 B
Bundle::GimpTest - A bundle to install CPAN modules used by the GIMP
Testing Framework (

Version 0.2.0 - 2005-02-21

Bundled by: Shlomi Fish <>

This is not a module that people generally need to download
and install locally. This Bundle is meant to live on CPAN so
that people can use magic to automagically download and
install modules.

The syntax for doing this would be something like:
$ perl -MCPAN -e 'install Bundle::GimpTest'


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Posts Tagged ‘BBB’
March 9th, 2012

This time, the bad guys want your tax accountant

While taxpayers are the regular target of springtime malware schemes, this year the bad guys are aiming for the accountants.

A series of imposter emails are threatening recipients with the removal of their professional accreditation if they fail to respond promptly. The tax-phish appear to be from organizations such as the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants(AICPA), Better Business Bureau(BBB), and Intuit tax services.

After clicking on the email, users are redirected through a hacked legitimate site to the final malware distribution center where their computer can download fake antivirus or another malware package selected by the bad guys.

This spam campaign started in the last week of February. A tax-themed attack is a traditional feature of March and April as Americans prepare their income tax returns.

The tax-time malware is the latest example of the BlackHole Exploits Kit at work – and shows that the bad guys’ graphic and language skills are improving. Read more…

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