KidSpirit – An Online Community Built with BuddyPress

We are proud to announce the launch of KidSpirit Online, a non-profiit magazine and online community for young teens who enjoy writing, creating, and exploring meaningful subjects such as spirituality, values, and life’s “big” questions.

BuddyPress Online Community

KidSpirit’s new website is powered by WordPress and BuddyPress.

Using WordPress as a publishing platform, KidSpirit Online now offers a more welcoming and secure environment for kids to interact with each other. BuddyPress powers the site’s social networking features, allowing young writers and artists to create groups and chat in forums. The BuddyPress registration process has been customized to comply with child privacy laws; comments, profiles, and other aspects of the site were all customized to protect personal information.

The project included the development of a custom avatar plugin that limits profile image selection to a handful of predesigned choices. The plugin integrates with existing WordPress and BuddyPress avatar functions to seamlessly display a users’ chosen avatar across the site, overriding both the Gravatar service and avatar features built into BuddyPress. This custom functionality prevents members from uploading their own images, ensuring child privacy and an appropriate environment.

The new site’s creative was designed by Mixit Productions and features a look that is colorful, kid-friendly and true to the spirit of the magazine.

C. Murray Consulting Goes To Camp

Last Saturday the C. Murray Consulting team spent the day at the first ever, sold-out and not to mention “Best Ever!”, WordCamp Boston. This event was held at the very high-tech and very cool Microsoft N.E.R.D. Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

First, a huge thanks to all of the organizers and volunteers behind this awesome event. They did a great job of keeping the whole event running smoothly.  The location was perfect, the swag was cool and the people were great!

The C. Murray Consulting team represented levels of WordPress expertise from across the spectrum. The conference rose to the challenge, providing sessions that catered to the beginner all the way up to the expert. Being a beginner myself, I loved the WordPress 101 session presented so well by Amanda Blum. In fact, the whole day was one invaluable lesson for me.

As for my more experienced colleagues – they too learned a thing or two. Here are a few highlights from their experiences.

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