WordPress MU

For the fbxsquare.com project I am working on, I prefer not to use virtual hosts for my WPMU installation. It breaks the continuity of the project; because I have /forums, /photos, etc., I would like WPMU users to have blogs at /blogs/user1, /blogs/user2, etc.

So, I chose to install without the virtual host option checked.

However, the installation is riddled with inconsistencies and weird bugs. For instance, when I go to /blogs (without the trailing slash), I am redirected to /blogs/W/ and shown the "blog not found" page. This looks like a rewrite problem to me. And when I sign up for a new blog, the Username field has "(Your address will be username.wordpress.com. Letters and numbers only, please!)" as the help line underneath it. Obviously, this isn't true because I chose to install without support for virtual hosts. Also obvious is that the user's blog will not, in fact, be at wordpress.com.

My purpose for writing is certainly not to rag on WPMU; I'm very pleased with the product overall. But with that admiration also comes high expectation. Any product related to or involving WordPress I hold both in the highest regard and to the highest standards. So, I feel that issues such as these need to be addressed.

Now, I realize that I am likely in the minority here. Most people want their MU installations to utilize the virtual hosts option so that their users have accounts like jon.fbxsquare.com. However, there are certain situations where it is desired that users appear as subdirectories, not subdomains. Mine is one of those situations.

My questions: Are there plans to address these issues? If so, is there a time frame? What can I do to help? Am I on my own in fixing these problems because there is not enough demand to have them fixed? Have others experienced these frustrations?

After reading your post and then visiting your site and then reading your intro as to what you want your site to be, I can't help but wonder why you aren't using a CMS instead of WPMU? This package isn't what you need nor is it designed to fit your needs. (nor would/will it ever be I would imagine). A content management system (CMS) is probably better suited for your site's needs.

Although I like content management systems for their ease of use, I prefer the specialty applications for this particular site.

For whatever reason, every user may not want all that the site offers. Perhaps the user is a prolific writer, but does not have a digital camera. This user will probably only use a blog and the forums, and will not be interested in his own gallery. A photographer will likely be interested in posting his photos online, but not so enthusiastic about writing more than a caption to go with them, if that much. For this user, access to his own gallery is all that is needed.

And while CMSs are great for some purposes, specialized applications such as WordPress, Gallery and phpBB are usually much better suited for their individual purposes. So, I prefer the functionality found in combining many great systems to make for a better user experience.

The only reservation I had with using the multiple-system approach is that users must be logged in to the separate applications individually. This may be something that I tackle, but it is really not that large a concern.

But how does all that fit as an online entertainment guide?

I am going to have to agree with the original poster here. I've been using the MU system (and Wordpress in general) for a couple weeks now. It's really nice and really I'm not complaining but the subdirectory version really needs some work. There are a lot of little bugs and inconsistencies. I'm posting to try and get the major ones resolved but I keep running into lots of minor ones. It really does seem like the development has gone towards a subdomains version and the subdirectories version is getting left behind. I saw a post (from a developer?) awhile back saying he should change it to stable. Certainly not a present.

Regardless though there aren't a whole lot (any?) of free/open source options out there so happy to see this progressing as it is. For any newbies reading this - it is a working system but there are some problems - if you can handle a nonperfect system and perhaps can do some of your own coding then this still might be for you.

codesmith wrote: "..Regardless though there aren't a whole lot (any?) of free/open source options out there.."

There is one other open source multi-blog system project I found out there - pLog (http://plogworld.net/). It's different from WPMU but the final functionality is just this - multiblog system; and I think there are more developers working on it at this time and also has a stable version; and I find it a very good one.

excuse me wpmu developers for this post but it was the only way to give that info to codesmith and others as there's no a pm system around.
i use to keep my attention on both projects now and wish you all good work!

Well at the moment the core developers aren't that interested in getting subdirectories working as per the comments here so what is really needed is for someone that is using subdirectories to submit patches to get it working.

If I was using subdirectories then I would myself but I'm not so I want to concentrate on the code for what I need, the problem is most of the developer types around here are only interested in the vhost method so that is what gets the most active development.

Jaseone, the product already is an entertainment guide; it has a circulation of approximately 20,000 copies in print.

The site will have all the content that is in the print edition. The stories will be in their own WPMU blog and the photos will be in the G2 gallery.

In addition to this content, though, the site will also offer free, interactive features for users—free blogs, hosted photos, the forum, up-to-date movie times, etc. This has mutual benefits: the site is continually updated with users' fresh and relevant content and the users themselves have free Web hosting for their site. It is essentially a scaled-down, simpler version of mySpace, and much more than just an entertainment guide.

I have figured out how to get around at least one of the bugs mentioned above. See http://bourne.wordpress.com/2005/10/03/wpmu-rewrite-patch/

I thought I would add to this thread. I'm testing wpmu for Nicholls State University in South Louisiana. I doubt I will be able to do wild card DNS for this project, so I hoped to use the "no virtual host" option. I already use Wordpress for some individual project sites.

Upon installation it seems that WPMU either hates the .edu or hates the www. subdomain. for example using http://www.<root-domain>.edu resultes with many of the URLs in the database show up something like http://edu/<install-directory>/<root-domain>/.

I am also wondering it this would cause issues with sites further down the DNS chain. Like if you were going to do bobuser.blogs.myschool.edu?

I hope this is the correct place to report WPMU bugs. I hunted for other bug reporting , but didn't find any.

ev3rywh3re,

I am hosting this at the College of Wooster and it wasn't a big deal for our Systems people. They created blogs.wooster.edu as its own DNS zone so it wouldn't interfere with the wooster.edu zone and then put a wilcard on the blogs.wooster.edu zone. They need to know they are doing this for ANAMES and not for mail services. There is some sort of difference. Once they did that everything has been peachy. I don't know if things have populated in DNS but you can check http://blogs.wooster.edu and http://jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu. I didn't have any issues with the naming as you describe when I was trying a non-wilcard setup, but I did have all kinds of rewrite issues and logout didn't work.

The only thing I have noticed is that in my jbreitenbuch.blogs.wooster.edu blog the link to my homepage at jbreitenbuch.wooster.edu is translated to localhost. Not sure what that is about. I think it is a DNS issue though.