I recently got a feed into my Facebook about this “BuddyPress 1.2” being released. I went to look at a demo of it and had a time trying to understand exactly what the benefits were of it’s usage. Could someone elaborate on this for this thick-headed kid? From what little I understand about it, it’s a way to implement a second layer of social networking into a website…? For example, I guess people could register to have their own blog on your website? Is that right? 
What can I use BuddyPress for?
BuddyPress is built to bring people together. It works well to enable people with similar interests to connect and communicate. Some of the fantastic uses might be:
* A campus wide social network for your university, school or college.
* An internal communication tool for your company.
* A niche social network for your interest topic.
* A focused social network for your new product.
If you’re using BuddyPress in a unique or interesting way, be sure to let people know on the forums. We’re always interested.
Thanks Ben.
Am I wrong in thinking that it’s more hype than anything else?
You’re not the only “thick-headed” one. 
I’ve seen mention of it here and there too, but never looked into it. Seems there’s lots of buzz about WordPress changes. WordPress <-> WPMU integration, WordPress <-> bbPress integration, and now BuddyPress.
I guess the folks at Automattic want WordPress to become all things. Blog(s), CMS, Forum, Social Network, …
I’ve never used it so I can’t say for sure what it is. I’m sure someone with more inventive ideas than I could come up with a unique use for it, but as far as I can tell it would be used to create your own “google groups” of sorts.
I like buddy press I used it once for <snip> but then took it down for the time being.
Hi,
Buddypress is AWESOME! You can make entire sites out of it that give it facebook like features. It’s really separate from the blogging and could almost run without it, but it is built on top of the functions of wordpress. It is highly extensible. Meaning you can add new features to it with ease. As far as using it it’s great. You can easily find people to talk to that have the same interests and do all sorts of things. Not sure if I can post urls in here, but I’m a huge fan:)
I’m using WPMU (which is WordPress Multi User) - it enables you to run x number of wordpress instances, with one common codebase, so I can have 4 blogs running with different admins, and their own sets of users, when a security patch comes along, I only upgrade the code once (simple explanation) - If you work in a large network with different interests or manage multiple word press blogs, you could consolidate the management of them by using something like WordPress MU.
I’ve not used BuddyPress and don’t know much about it. But I think it works off of WPMU … will need to investigate.