The situation
Ride to Remember is built around one question: what makes that one ride epic? Members share a ride with its state, its type, a story, photos or a video, and a route on a map. Visitors browse the rides by state and by ride type.
Most of the people who post are not technical. Sharing has to be easy, signing in has to work with the accounts people already have, and the feed has to stay tidy as rides, posts and conversations pile up.
Where we started
In September 2024 we took on the site, which ran on BuddyPress and the Reign theme. The first job was the “Share Your Ride” form: what a visitor who is not logged in sees, how they sign in or register, and what happens to a ride once it is submitted. From there the work moved to the ride feed, sign-in, maps and video.
What the site has
- A Share Your Ride form. Visitors who are not logged in get a clear message with login and registration, and members add the state, the ride type, photos, a video and a GPS file.
- A ride feed of its own. Recent Rides sits apart from Recent Posts, with filters for state and ride type, and approved rides appear in the activity feed.
- Route maps. GPX files show as maps on the ride.
- Video. Embedded videos and uploads, with YouTube posting handled through Zapier.
- Easy sign-in. Single sign-on and social accounts, with the member’s profile picture carried into their profile.
- Moderation. New rides can be approved first, and trusted members can skip the queue.
- Pinned posts and reactions. Sticky posts for what matters and reactions for the rest.
- Photos from any phone. HEIC images from iPhones are handled.
- A blog and events. A calendar of events and a blog beside the rides.
- A tuned mobile layout. Header and footer behave on phones.
Plugins behind it
BuddyPress on the Reign theme, BuddyPress Reactions, Sticky Post and Verified Member, WP GPX Maps for routes, The Events Calendar, miniOrange single sign-on, Advanced Custom Fields Pro with a reCAPTCHA field, Elementor Pro, WBcom Essential, and a custom plugin that holds the ride posts.
What it makes possible
A community where anyone can post a ride in a minute, other members can find rides near them, and the people running it spend their time on the content, not the plumbing.