The Chemistry Book has finally moved to some of the latest technology available on the Internet: social networking streams, activity streams, and improved forums.

What software packages are behind the changes?

The software behind the new features is BuddyPress, a plugin available for WordPress. Complementary plugins include Welcome Pack and Tweetstream. Other plugins are being tested.

What are the benefits?

BuddyPress provides the new forums, groups, and activity streams. Tweetstream allows you (you don’t have to!) sync your tweets with your activity stream here. The Welcome Pack allows me to modify the backend and clean up some of the messages, eg. signup email.

The BuddyPress theme includes a sidebar widget, linking to other sections of the website. Yes! The Learning Guides, Labs, Lecture Notes, etc are now available with a clear link on the right side.

Why do I have to register again?

Yes. It is true. To get these new features you will need to register with the WordPress (WP) portion of this site. Even though WP was installed a year ago, no students were required to register. The WP registration is different from The Chem Book wiki and requires a separate database.  During the upgrade, only one student’s information was removed (Sorry Anthony).

Why can’t I upload an avatar?

Avatar upload fails. This is an issue with the current BuddyPress version. Developers expect to have a new release in a few weeks and hopefully this will be fixed. Until then, go to www.gravatar and upload an image. Use the same email address you use on this site – and this site will pickup your gravatar.