BuddyPress has recently unveiled it’s survey results for the year 2014 which was held from Jan. 7 – Feb. 10, 2014. Three hundred thirty-eight developers from fifty-two countries completed the survey.

The main goal behind this survey was to guide the direction of BuddyPress plugin development in 2014.

Main objectives of the survey as confirmed by BuddyPress was the following

Objectives:

1. Discover current and actual BuddyPress usage.
2. Provide users the opportunity to post their feature requests.
3. Identify key areas for improvement.
4. Prioritize areas of BuddyPress development.
5. Set benchmarks to streamline development processes.
6. Identify volunteers who are interested in contributing to BuddyPress development.

The concept of an all-out BuddyPress survey began with @djpaul’s suggestion during an IRC devchat to embed a mini-survey in the plugin’s admin “What’s new” panel a week before BP 1.9 was released last December. The idea was to engage users in BP development for version 2.0.

Key findings

bbPress (2.x) is the top forums solution for BuddyPress sites

More than 50% of BuddyPress sites are on the latest versions of WordPress and BuddyPress.

The top features wanted in a BuddyPress theme are:
• Compatibility with the latest BP version
• Responsive
• Light and Fresh Design

The top 12 BP-specific plugins and plugins with BP support activated are:

• bbPress
• BuddyPress Activity Plus
• rtMedia
• BuddyPress Group Email Subscription
• Invite Anyone
• Buddypress Docs
• BuddyPress Activity Privacy
• Buddypress Xprofile Custom Fields Type
• BP Labs
• BuddyPress Custom Profile Menu
• BuddyPress Pending Activations
• s2member

The majority of users are satisfied with all BuddyPress components except for Site Tracking which can only be activated for multisite installations.

Sixty-five respondents from 31 countries submitted their email addresses to get involved with BP development.