<div class="rss-widget"><ul><li><a class='rsswidget' href='http://buddypress.org/2013/11/buddypress-1-9-beta-1-is-now-available/' title='The first beta of BuddyPress 1.9 is ready for testing! Whether you are a BuddyPress developer, or a tinkerer with a development/testing environment, or simply an intrepid soul, we’d love for you to put this latest and greatest version of BuddyPress through its paces before its general release in a few weeks. Major changes and features that could use attention:  The new Notifications component, which adds a Notifications menu to user profiles New widgets: Friends and Log In Dynamic BuddyPress links for nav menus created at Dashboard &gt; Appearance &gt; Menus Improvements in the performance of BP_ENABLE_USERNAME_COMPATIBILITY_MODE Improvements to the way that scheduled posts are handled in the Activity stream  For a complete list of closed tickets in the milestone, check out http://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&amp;group=resolution&amp;milestone=1.9. Find a problem or have a suggestion? Our development home is buddypress.trac.wordpress.org, and our support/discussion forums can be found at buddypress.org/support. A reminder that BP 1.9-beta1 is beta software. We don’t recommend that you run it on a production server. Get your copy today via Subversion, or via zip: buddypress.1.9-beta1.zip. Thanks for helping us move toward 1.9!'>BuddyPress: BuddyPress 1.9 Beta 1 is now available!</a></li><li><a class='rsswidget' href='http://www.wptavern.com/crowd-favorite-acquired-by-velomedia' title='PostStat.us is reporting that Crowd Favorite, the WordPress consultancy company created by Alex King has been acquired by VeloMedia. VeloMedia much like Crowd Favorite does most of its business within the enterprise sector. According to the report, Alex King will be the CTO of the company while Karim Marucchi will remain the CEO. In response to the acquisition, Alex King had this to say: I’m really excited to be joining forces with VeloMedia. I feel the culture and focus on craftsmanship at Crowd Favorite is special, and was thrilled to find that VeloMedia shares our values. We look forward to a continued focus on development excellence, employee culture and, most importantly, top notch service for our clients. Congratulations to Alex King and Crowd Favorite on being acquired. I hope this move allows Alex to continue doing what he loves with WordPress. This is one of the first major WordPress consultancy acquisitions in the WordPress community and it certainly won’t be the last. '>WPTavern: Crowd Favorite Acquired By VeloMedia</a></li><li><a class='rsswidget' href='http://www.wptavern.com/wpweekly-episode-128-catching-up-with-lorelle-vanfossen' title='Clark College WordPress Class of 2013 In this edition of WordPress Weekly, we covered the headlines of the week such as what features will be in WordPress 3.8, the default BuddyPress theme being retired in 1.9, and when to expect 3.8 to be released. During the second half of the show, we were joined by Lorelle VanFossen. We found out what she’s been up to during the past few years and learned about her new endeavor teaching WordPress at Clark College in Vancouver, WA. This episode is long in length and not edited but I encourage you to listen to the complete show or at least the interview with Lorelle as I believe what she is doing at Clark College to be very important. Stories Discussed: WordPress 3.8 Is On Schedule WordPress 3.8 Merge Window Closed: New Features Now Locked In Themify Announces Security Vulnerability With Fix WordPress For Android Gets a Major Update RIP BuddyPress Default Theme: Finally Laid to Rest in 1.9 WPWeekly Meta: Next Episode: Friday, November 22nd 3 P.M. Eastern – Special Guest Tom McFarlin Subscribe To WPWeekly Via Itunes: Click here to subscribe Subscribe To WPWeekly Via RSS: Click here to subscribe Subscribe To WPWeekly Via Stitcher Radio: Click here to subscribe Listen To Episode #128: '>WPTavern: WPWeekly Episode 128 – Catching Up With Lorelle VanFossen</a></li><li><a class='rsswidget' href='http://wordpress.tv/2013/11/15/gordon-wright-wordpress-goes-to-college-a-case-study/' title='    '>WordPress.tv: Gordon Wright: WordPress Goes to College: A Case Study</a></li><li><a class='rsswidget' href='http://www.wptavern.com/how-to-prevent-buddypress-from-changing-comment-author-urls' title=' Did you know that BuddyPress changes the URL for comment authors to point to the user’s BuddyPress profile? It does this by filtering the ‘comments_array’ in the bp-core-filters.php file to insert BuddyPress URLs for blog post comments: add_filter( &#039;comments_array&#039;, &#039;bp_core_filter_comments&#039;, 10, 2 ); For most BuddyPress sites this is a good thing, since it emphasizes users’ profiles and interaction on the site, helping members connect to each other on the social network. However, there are some WordPress sites that take a different approach to comments. People don’t always leave comments purely to join a conversation. Unfortunately, many users are motivated, at least partially, by having a link back to their own sites.  If you want to stop BuddyPress from changing the comment author URL to the profile link, it’s as simple as removing the filter: remove_filter( &#039;comments_array&#039;, &#039;bp_core_filter_comments&#039;, 10, 2 ); Add that to your bp-custom.php file or create your own little functionality plugin for it.  As noted by @modemlooper in the comments, if you go the custom plugin route, you’ll need to make sure that BuddyPress is active before removing the filter:  function remove_url() { remove_filter( &#039;comments_array&#039;, &#039;bp_core_filter_comments&#039;, 10, 2 ); } add_action(&#039;bp_include&#039;, &#039;remove_url&#039;); Once activated you should see that the comments now pull the url from the admin area profile.php page or the URL the user has entered in the comment form. '>WPTavern: How to Prevent BuddyPress From Changing Comment Author URLs</a></li></ul></div>