WordPress MU

hiya,
as i am using wordpress-mu for some time now, i wanted to use it in a bigger project, where i would also have time to make additions and bugfixes to the core code. my question now is, how to help, how to access the svn and what rules/guidelines are there?

greetings,
parasew

i would like to know as well.

looks like nobody wants help... sad though. as only very few changes and bugfixes that are reported in this forum ever make it to the SVN. i still want to use wp-mu, but the community here seems to be very small and closed...

it's pretty much been like that ever since development of WPMU was considered as an "official" branch of wpmu. I've also heard that the regular wordpress is the same way but that's just what i've heard.

The wpmu community might be small but I would not call it closed. True is there is no SVN or bug tracking system available for WPMU. It has been asked several times but no developer ever responded to it or gave a reason, as far as I know.
A reason I could image is that wmpu is based on the new WP 2.0 (beta, just out of beta) and that starting bug tracking for WMPU could get confusing because a lot of bugs might belong to WP 2.0 itself.

For the regular WP is
SVN http://wordpress.org/download/svn/
trac http://trac.wordpress.org/
available

I understand the SVN and all but there isn't even a way to report bugs for WPMU. Yes, I know that we have the forums but how often do you see a developer here. Once a week at the absolute most.

Now, what if a buzilla install just popped up somewhere, and we started using that to submit bugs reports. The developers may be able to start using that if they wish... If I see some interest in that, I would be willing to put it up and host it. I would like to hear from the developers on this to see if they would even use it though before I put the time into it. Just a thought...

It seems the wordpress developers are already into using Trac.

Maybe if you were to set up a guerilla bug tracing for wpmu it might help to use Trac instead.

That way if they do decide to take on something a bit more organized they'll already have a head start on something consistent with the trac.wordpress.org

it's pretty much been like that ever since development of WPMU was considered as an "official" branch of wpmu. I've also heard that the regular wordpress is the same way but that's just what i've heard.

That is exactly why I haven't been around here lately, it seems everything is focused on Wordpress.com these days and single user Wordpress development seems more & more just like a vehicle for WP.com, Akismet and friends...

a vehicle, and a boat, and a house, and a car...

If wp 2.0 is released with a 'for profit' plugin for a 'for profit' spam service from the main dev of an open source project I'm going to pitch the biggest fit you ever saw.

Matt has been trying to make money from wordpress since day one, then has the nerve to call US skeezy for trying to make money from it.

First Matt is selling backlinks to spammers (even now on this forum there are 'overlooked' spams), then bundling his own spam service into wp, and I can only imagine what his high and mighty plans are for wp.com. Yahoo and MSN sure seem to be getting alot of attention lately.

All the while, WPMU is intentionally broken to keep competition at bay (i.e. us) while wp.com has all the bugs fixed to impress investors.

Someone had to say it.

-skeezy

I'm not too worried because even if matt or whoever tries to take wpmu closed source or whatnot there are still enough of us around here that know enough about wpmu to start our own version. For example, b2 was going downhill and b2evolution popped up and has been going just fine since. So I guess what i'm saying is that if there ever comes a time when we need to take control and develop our own, free, open source version of wordpress mu, i'm 100 % onboard. Hell, if this ever happens we should all team up and give wordpress.com a run for it's money.

btw, has anyone else noticed that wordpress.com makes little or no mention of the fact that wpmu exists?

First Matt is selling backlinks to spammers (even now on this forum there are 'overlooked' spams)

Please show proof of this or shut up and go away.

btw, has anyone else noticed that wordpress.com makes little or no mention of the fact that wpmu exists?

The target demographic of of WP.com is people who aren't skilled enough to set up WordPress, much less MU.

Also please note that even though under the GPL we are NOT REQUIRED to share the changes we're making, like many other WPMU "hosts" like Blogsome aren't, we still are giving them back to the community. I'm sorry if we're not doing it exactly the way you want or if you think the code is bad or whatever, but please at least be nice about it or don't post at all.

nosmoq.com, friends of yours?

It's hard to be nice when so many of us want to help but we get blown off. In the meantime EVERY problem EVER mentioned on this forum gets fixed on wp.com within minutes of a post while wpmu is still borked. I'm upset because I have to fix the same things over an over and over...

True you don't have to share your code, but it's too late, you already did while saying that wpmu would run wp.com, but that is not the case. Instead you use everyone here as your beta test team so you can fix wp.com and make it all shiny and leave the rest of us hanging.

Put up svn/trac and we would not be having this conversation.

• The target demographic of of WP.com is people who aren't skilled enough to set up WordPress, much less MU.

Got a point there, I'll shut up now. sry about the bitching.

ITD, I'm really appreciating the work that you're doing with WPMU, really! And I understand your frustrations with the builds of WPMU - interaction with developers here, it can feel a bit non-responsive at times...

But (to get all point by point cos I don't think that well in paragraphs):

-in the end (and over the last 12 months) everything has been gotton back to and sorted out, I feel like I owe a debt of gratitude to Donncha & Matt for dragging WPMU through some hard times to an excellent place.

-I think the spamming thing is wrong in the first instance and unfair in the second I appreciate the issues that went on a while back but I reckon that was dealt with honestly, openly and admirably by all concerned, I reckon we've all made some pretty big mistakes (I've certainly made far bigger than that and I still ask people to trust / love me!)

-In terms of making money, I'm also at a bit of a loss (and this could be as I'm no dev and pretty new to the OS community). I understand that Akismet is a commercial operation, and yeh it irks me a bit that it's not openly available to WPMU, but fer crissakes somethings gotta put bread on the table hasn't it? I really do hope that they do well to be honest.. we still get WP, WPMU and a host of other great stuff, and it's not like there's a shortage of WP spam blockers around... and we could always just build our own (OK, well, I probably couldn't but y'know ;).

I do think that it needs to be said that the development / community of WPMU would be improved by better communication between devs, tracking, bug fixing etc. and that it'd be nice to have a bit more communication. But at the same time I reckon it needs to be virtually shouted that this is a great great project and a wonderful group of people who have put it together and to be frank I'm just happy that it exists.

And this is a conversation which would be so much easier over a beer or two!

Well said farms :)

I too have made mistakes when it came to certain situations and for them I apologize.

However, I think we all agree that there should be more dev / user communication. Just plain ole WPMU users have been pretty much answering 95% of the support related questions and it would be nice if a developer would pop in every once and while. Also, if the developers are too busy to help out with support threads (completely understandable) then how about selecting three or four guys from around here and making them "official support reps"? I for one would nominate itdamager for first pick. Just a thought.

If we are not going to get svn access to the wpmu repo, I think matt can just say so in the forums.

Why keep things under the table ?

It just makes it seem fishy ...

I guess we could say that beggars can't be choosers... that leaves us (the beggars looking for free software) with little choice but to grab whatever is given to us.

Having said that, if in fact what is being said in this thread true: that we are guinea pigs in someone else's testing lab... then that would be wrong if we are not told about it. It would be unethical to not be told about it.

If we are told about it then we have the choice to graduate from guinea pigs to suckers! Or the choice to branch out and do it on your own.

I do ask one thing ... please answer the questions set forth in this thread and let the guinea pigs be at peace!

This may shed some light on what the devs' plans are:
http://www.podleaders.com/matt-mullenweg-podcast/

And as for another comment above, [T]he target demographic of of WP.com is people who aren't skilled enough to set up WordPress, much less MU.

Well this forum exists because some of us, ME at least, aren't skilled enough to set up and manage WPMU without troubleshooting, problem solving and bug squashing. I've always felt WPMU was treated like the red-headed step-child at a family reunion. But I'm fascinated by it and its awesome potential.

I'd love to see more activity in this forum. And a central repository for things, just like at WP.org. In fact, the whole structure of this site should probably mirror that of WP.org to be effective, and why it does not (no wiki, no solid documentation, etc.) is beyond me. But what is stopping any of us from setting up a wiki for WPMU? That way, it's out in the open for one and all to see and contribute to.

I'm beginning to think that this is a lost cause myself. The sad thing is that it's pretty much been like this since day one.

However, if you have the time and wish to setup a site for what you mentioned let me know and i'd be more than happy to donate the two domains listed above. i'd like to see them go to good use.

I can give time, bandwidth, space or anything else within my abilities to help out (my only constraint are my technical abilities)... but I have a desire to help and make this better since I believe in the enormous opportunities that blogging has both for social networking and political activism (alternatives to mainstream media). The concept of localized networks of bloggers (commnuity blogging) truly intrigues me and WPMU could be a wonderful tool for that...

Who takes the first step? Or should we just let it go and hope for the best?

w00t!
http://mu.wordpress.org/forums/topic/783