Tis the season for special posts and have we got a selection for you!

We’re working with wpmu.org to release a series of posts from those in the WordPress and BuddyPress community.  For 12 days from the 12th December you will see on this blog BuddyPress posts and on wpmu.org WordPress posts.  We’ll also link to wpmu.org each day so you don’t miss out on any of the goodness.

The posts will be anything from tutorials to articles or opinions from prominent names in the WordPress and BuddyPress community.  The aim is simply to celebrate the great community and provide some Christmas treats in the form of posts.

So from the 12the December join us in the 12 days of WordPress and BuddyPress.

Currently we have a lot planned here are just some of the new things:

1.  New clothes – BuddyDress is having a complete new look we’re hopeful you will love as much as we do.  We’re keeping it under wraps for now but we’re sure you will love the new look we’ve got cooking up.

2.  Better documentation and FAQ – we’re going to be increasing the documentation for you adding to manuals and videos.

We’ve got other plans but these are our some of the big changes.

So, what would you like to see happen in the next version of BuddyDress?

In conjunction with WPMU DEV we’ve released this site.  Just check out the BuddyPress themes we offer right here.

Beyond a simple demo

We have made sure that Themetastic has great content to show off the themes and shows you exactly how using our theme options you can create your own site.  We encourage you to have a wander around the sites and see each section.

Beyond theme switchers

We took the advanced theme switcher plugin and created the drop down bar you will see allowing you to easily switch between themes.  We hope you enjoy this easy to use feature.

Just check out our themes right here on Themetastic.

We’ve had a soft launch going on for a week and already seen some of you early birds come and join us, today though is our official launch date :)

So, what’s new?

Put simply BuddyPress is now a theme club with benefits… access to everything, support you can trust and a forum where you can interact with other BuddyPress users.

All for a seriously affordable price.

At launch we already have 8 themes available for you and as a member you pay a low one off joining fee followed by a teeny monthly subscription.

Unlike other theme clubs we don’t have hidden costs, don’t tie you into buying just one theme and of course all our themes are GPL – meaning you can use them for as long as you want, membership or not.

We’re also constantly adding to our themes with new releases so our selection is always growing.  You can even keep up to date with what themes we’ve got coming up by checking out our in development page.

At BuddyDress we’ve got so many plans our heads are spinning so expect to see this site growing with each day.

We want to listen to our members and make this truly the resource you want and deserve so just let us know here what you want from BuddyDress using our contact form, via the new forums or4 leave us a comment below.

Here’s to a bold new BuddyDress future :)

As you can see we haven’t exactly changed much – er – anything yet around here, but needless to say we have plenty of plans to do so… starting with fixing up FaceBuddy, DarkPress and Shouty!

So, stay tuned for more news, info and great BuddyPress themes!

Developing themes results an hard work because every release of BP require us to update the code (and Firefox 3.5 adds new problems too), but we never surrender! In the next autumn we are seriously intentionated to give out some new kickin’ass themes, but please don’t forget to donate something through PayPal. And so, see you in september and have a good time!

I’ll check FaceBuddy and Shouty themes in these days, too see if the new RC2 is fully compatible with them (in the future i’ll reupdate DarkPress Theme too). Thanx to Andy Peatling, and now it starts the testing period. Please remember that you need the 2.71 version of WordPressMu in order to running the RC2.

Special because it is strongly hardcoded and maybe could not be suitable for all Buddy Press communities, but for a niche segment: let’s try and see, we’ll call for beta testers when it will be out. Both the works will run on the lastet trunk of BP and so update your installations!

Important: if you are not going to use the latest trunk, but you are using older trunks or the RC1 version, don’t download this file! Remember also that the member themes have changed folder in the new trunk, and read here for more instructions. If you want to donate something for this extra work, we’ll appreciate (just click on the paypal button down in this post).

Note: there a little issue with the position of the ajax loadings that has not been fixed yet

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The download numbers are great: Facebuddy was downloaded from more than 265 users, and DarkPress is following its success. Don’t be shy: if you like our themes please donate: we really will appreciate that!