WordPress MU

I've got several questions related to what I want to do. I successfully got MU installed. I'm a teacher exploring the possibility of having my computer app students complete blog entries and comments this coming school year. Obviously, due to it being a public middle school, privacy is an ever-present concern. Here's what I would like to have:

1) I will be the admin of all blogs (that doesn't seem to be too hard, think I've already got it).

2) Students will be able to author posts on their own blog and comment on other students' blog entries (I think this is set up through the settings as I've played with it. I just assign the student as an author on their own blog but what role will allow students to comment...but not author posts...on others' blogs? Subscriber or Contributor?)

3) Here's where things get tricky. I want to be able to add parents and teachers as users of the blog. But, I want teachers to be able to see and/or comment on all students' work while parents only see and/or comment on their own student's work. What role would that be? Together with this, I would like to put links on the homepage to each students' blog. However, my preference is that logged in users ONLY see the links to the blogs that they have permission to see. Non-logged in users would only see links to public blogs (i.e. mine and, as criteria are met, some students'). I've tentatively tried the Links section. I tried setting the link as private but then even I (when logged in as admin) can't see it...not sure on that.

4) This should be simple but I can't seem to find it. I want all blogs to share the same theme. I've got the home page theme set up with the sidebar, etc. but can't seem to get another blog's theme to mimic it. Related to this, is there an interface within the WPMU admin area for editing the CSS of the themes are does that happen directly through a text editor?

5) Is it possible to include an apostrophe in a blog title? When I set up "Allen M's Blog" the title shows as "Allen M\'s Blog".

I think that's it for now.

Thanks.
Allen.

http://premium.wpmudev.org/project/blog-types

I found one plug-in that might aid in this a little.... I'm not sure about user settings though.

1 - you're the Site Admin, you can get in anywhere even if it's not your blog.

2 - if they are a user on the system, they don't need to be added to a blog to comment. they can anyway as long as they are logged in.

3 - that'd be custom. There's no association built in between userA having access to userb's posts.

havign some section visible when logged in means you'll have to add code to the template. the function is is_logged_in.

4 - sure they can share the same theme. They do not, however, share the same widgets. If you want the blog sidebars to be exactly the same, then don't use widgets. Code it right in the theme's sidebar.php file. Tons of threads on this.

http://premium.wpmudev.org/project/blog-types

I found one plug-in that might aid in this a little.... I'm not sure about user settings though.

It doesn't do anything with the users, it just categorizes the blogs themselves.

Related to number 2, kind of, and number 3. When I was initially reading about Wordpress MU, I thought it said that there were three security settings: one that allowed search engines to see the blogs, one that didn't allow search engines but anyone could view the site and one that limited viewing of the site only to logged-in users. I can see where to set it between the first two but I can't see where to make the site completely private.

Those aren't security settings, those are *privacy* settings. Only two of them are built-in. If you want more, get this:
http://wpmudevorg.wordpress.com/project/More-Privacy-Options

Is there no way to get these plugins for this open source software without subscribing to the development team and paying the requisite fee?

Gah, turns out they've removed all the free ones they had and are redirecting to the paid ones.

Also, that site is not the development team. They are 3rd party.

Is there an official (i.e. non-3rd party) site that has the plugins for MU? And does it include one similar to the More Privacy Options plugin offered by the 3rd party site?

Now there are two to choose from:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/more-privacy-options/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/network-privacy/

Official is the repo. :) Just gotta search with the right tags. Gaps get filled rather quickly.

Also, these forums will be read-only later today. Please see:
http://ocaoimh.ie/mu-forums-moving/
and http://mu.wordpress.org/forums/topic/18502

Thanks!

Thanks. I found it and got it installed.

One (hopefully last) question: Is there a way to set up users without needing to have their email address? With working with students, many of them either don't have an email address or can't access them at school to get their passwords once emailed to them. I'd like to be able to use either fake email addresses or none at all (preferred).

Thanks again for your help.

You can set the user accounts for them, and reset their password for them. Then tell then in class what their password is.