WordPress MU

Working on an academic site where we have lots of blogs (on a single server) in lots of configurations:

In various subdirectories off the main domain:

domain.edu/projects/something/blog
domain.edu/projects/otherthing/blog
domain.edu/media/blog
domain.edu/jobs
(there are a dozen or so such scattered blogs)

We also have a few custom domains for various professors on the same server (as vhosts) that either are blogs or that have attached blogs, and these are configured out of user home directories rather than out of the main docroot:

a-domain.org
b-domain.net/blog

Now a professor wants every student in his class to have their own blog off a custom domain:

c-domain.com/student1
c-domain.com/student2
c-domain.com/student3
....

We've been using Movable Type for years, and MT makes this kind of blog scattering trivial, since it just spits out static files to anywhere on the filesystem. Its multi-user/multi-blog capabilities are deeply integrated, with a great management interface.

Trouble is, I've fallen out of love with MT for a bunch of other reasons (available themes, rebuilding of pages). I want to switch to WPMU or Lyceum for future blogs, and to convert some of the older blogs over as well. Experimenting with WP-MU and Lyceum today, I'm starting to realize it's going to be pretty tricky to just plop a blog anywhere I like on the server, regardless of directory or domain. Both platforms assume either a directory structure or a subdomain structure, while I need a combination of directory and alternate domains. And the management interface for both of them feels pretty alpha/beta compared to MT.

So, the question is: Is all of this do-able with MPMU or Lyceum without incurring all kinds of pain? Or am I better off sticking with MT for another year?

Thanks for any feedback.
Scot

Honest answer - not really. Moving from MT to WP and WPMU is pretty easy and the importer does a fairly decent job. Comments and categories come over fine which is usually the biggest issues with importers I've noted.

It's pretty much either/ or when it comes to subdomains vs subdirectories with the WPMU platform. Don't know about Lyceum though.

Well, from the setup you have alreayd, switching over to anythign seems liek it;s goign to be a pain. :-/ Is everyuone going over to a default format of subdomain or subdirectory? You may wind up with one install for subdomains and one for subdirectiores.

Oh, and I should point out with WPMU, none of the blog posts/comments live on the server like they do in MT. there's also better spam controls - I much prefer this.

drmike - Thanks for the honest response. I have lots of experience with the importers, no worries there. The only issue is getting wpmu or lyceum to play nice in locations other than rigid pre-defined directory structures. I think I've come to the same conclusion - that MT really is the right tool for the job. I really do hope WPMU/Lyceum gain more flexibility in this department in the future (and I hope their back-end management interfaces mature to the point of MT's).

Andrea_r - No we don't want to move directory locations / URLs. I know that posts don't live on the server with WordPress (I'm very experienced administering both platforms). I prefer WP for a dozen reasons, but it seriously falls down when it comes to multi-user/multi-blog management compared to MoveableType. So it looks like we're sticking with MT for another year.

Thanks for the feedback.

i install wpmu but do not know how to make it work with multi-domain .. can any one help