WordPress MU

Hi there,

I've noticed that some of my users are not able to do a simple posting because they have too much to look at in the wordpress-dashboard...

Is it possible to provide a post form like the comment-form for logged-in users where they can enter a title, the post and tags just like creating a new posting here in the forum?

The post should go to their standard-category and they should be able to edit the post in the same form.

Wordpress MU is a powerfull tool, but for some out there just too much...

(Maybe this can be realized as a plugin to benefit the whole community?)

well there are severall things you can do:

a) do a google search for a plugin called something like: simplified admin it might have been by semiologic - I don't know if it is still out there, I remember having used such a thing to hide most things from the amin interface for dummy users.

b) give the person confused by too much options, a minor role, or use the rolemanager (don't remember how reliable it worked with wpmu) and take all capabilities from him except those needed for posting

c) if its not the entire dashboard confusing him but only the posting panel, there is a plugin called clutterfree that allows you to select which "objects" from the posting panel you want to see, so you can disable the categories, password, change data, etc, etc.

I mean this in the nicest way and this is not meant to be negative towards you Brux but if they can't find a simple "Write a post" link near the top of the page they're looking at when they log in...

*sigh*

Why note just write a simple howto with pictures? I did it for uploading an image over on wp.com.

Ovidiu, I tried a), b) and c) already - c) is the best one side by side with hiding some options in the admin interface. But I have to do it user by user in the database...

drmike, I know it's not negative against me (even if you misspelled my name :-) ) - but some users are stupid as hell.
I've written a bunch of faq's, how-to's etc. pp. It's still to much for them (even if they know exactly on which button they have to klick they are irritated by "all the others"...)

@bruz

can't you set some defaults (like deactivate all :-) for that clutterfree plugin? and then globally activate it with the plugin manager? just a thought....

I have it globally activated, but the options are stored in the db for each user / blog.. there is no way to disable some (or all :-) ) options in the plugin file before activating it

The "default" options have to come from somewhere, right?

What about editing the plugin so the defaults are what you want?

defaults come from the wp-admin/upgrade-schema.php file just for reference.

Bruz, why not just add in a small function to set those default and give it a hook into the blog creation? Or heck just add the MySQL lines to the blog creation function within wpmu-functions.php? thats what I do for the stats program.

Had a thought. Why not edit the the wp-admin/index.php file and change those four links near the top into images? Like a pen writing on some paper for "Write a post", etc.

i am like Bruz...I'd like to find a way to make it as easy as possible for visitors to the site to interact with it. i've been running a local portal site in Plone for about 2 years, and while folks did interact from time to time, it just wasn't getting the kind of interaction i felt it should be.

for one, just to add a comment, they had to actually "join" the site and log in. so now i've scrapped that whole setup and relaunched the site in Wordpress.

what i was searching for just now, when i found this post, was some sort of plugin that allows the user to select a Category for their comments when they post them. that way, i could just make a generic "Announcements" page, for example, and then have them select whether the comment they are adding to that page is an Event, Classified, etc.

after reading this thread, i am thinking my best bet may be to just "dumb down" the admin panel, and only beef it up for those users that can handle it. i'm also gonna try out the Global Categories and see how that goes. I'd like all the Categories that I add to be visible in everyone's blog.

anyway, i'm not sure i've really added anything of substance to this thread...just wanted to express empathy for Bruz. :)

Bruz....I've been teaching (educational) technology courses for a long time and I share your frustration. I've been using WordPress as an easy alternative to programs like FrontPage and Dreamweaver, for school teachers to use as classroom webs. When I first started, I naively thought that a default WordPress install with a couple hours of face-to-face training would be all that's required to get teachers "up and running" with their websites...boy was I ever wrong :-).

I've ended up, after a couple years of trial-and-error, customizing (hacking) the WordPress to the point of stripping nearly everything out of the standard install except for the very basics needed to post and create pages.

I'm having a lot more success these days in getting people started using my hacked version of WordPress as a website. My problem now is that I have hundreds of hacked WordPress installs that I have to maintain :-(

I'm trying to replicate what I've done with the standard WP install in WPmu...going slowly, but there's promise.

Like the previous poster, I'm not sure I've added much value to this discussion other than the fact that "I feel your pain" :-).

See some of my simple tutorials for my hacked WordPress installs at the link below. I personally like the full-blown version of WordPress, but is seems to me that "KISS" works for the population at large.

http://www.georgetownprofessor.net/podblog/?page_id=47

Steve

Thank you for the replies!

What I've done now is get rid of nearly everything in the wp-admin/menu.php (while keeping it for me through an if.. statement) and wp-includes/js/quicktags.js.

You can see what it looks like now on the following screenshots:

Dashboard

Write a post

Organize

Themes
(goes straight to the K2 options-page)

Users
(goes straight to the users profile)

I have to wait on user-feedback now, but I think it can't be easier...

(Every user has one single category - the "more advanced" :-) users get the categorie-list to choose from when writing a post back)

(I've also added a top-bar to every blog to login, enter the dashboard and visit the own blog)

Hi Bruz,

I am interested in doing something similar to your solution, can you give an example of the code modifications you did to achieve your changes.

bruz, stop being so stingy with the code. at least give us a hint :-) i've been working on a hack to help my bloggers who cant seem to let go of Blogger. :-( i've even set up autoblog so that they can dual post because the concept of importing was too much. most of them are my friends from other sites. so i dont mind going in and doing the work for them. but as more people create accounts, and my break-fix fills up with the silliest requests, i'm looking for a way way to dumb things waaaaay down.

I'm sorry you guys!

I've switched all my Blogs back to Wordpress single user for different reasons, but I'll answer all your questions if I can, just drop me a message at http://hausmitteilungen.com under "Kontakt"