WordPress MU

just wonder how much people like subdomain blog more than subdirectory, or there is no much difference for you.

my current hosting provider (Bluehost) does everything greatly except wildcard dns support, that means I can not run subdomain mode, should I move to another hosting? I do know there are some people like subdomain more.

would you like to join this thread to discuss the advantages of subdomain? what is your opinion?

Funny, I just came to here to ask this same question. But what I wonder is if anyone has experience with what most USERS like.

Everything being equal, I think I personally prefer subdirectories, but I also realize most people might not. This is not for any technical reason as a webmaster - I don't know if there are advantages one way or another for a webmaster. Those with more experience here can answer that.

I think I prefer the subdirectory because the blog address feels more like it's part of the site. As the webmaster, of course I would want that. But when I think of the average person telling their blog address to someone else, my gut feeling is that most would feel more comfortable with a url that is abc.com/xyz than xyz.abc.com. I have no actual evidence to back this up, just my hunch.

Some users on my site told me they prefer subdomain because they think it is "shorter" and easier to remember, furthermore, it sounds and looks like his own website (weblog), that is what users think differently with webmasters, they like personalization, not just one part of your site.

just my 2 cents, I am a webmaster too, can not think in user's way completely. Moreover, I am facing the problem I can not run subdomain on my current hosting provider, to be honest, I do not wanna move, moving site is always a pain...

btw, a technical question comes up, for the domain mapping service, like they provided on wordpress.com, is it available for subdirectories too? if yes, I think I can provide such service to let those users who like personalization to try the domain mapping, so that they could use their own domains, it will be cool for them, and it is also a good solution for me if it is feasible.

We had a previous discussion on this but I can't find it right off. Came down to use subdirectories if having more search engine juice and PR on the main blog is more important to you and to use subdomains if having your clients feel like they actually had a separate site of their own was more important. At least that's how I remember it.

From a user perspective, most people I've seen, and most blogging sites, use and prefer subdomains.

And I still think you'll run into more technical issues on subdirectories.

most blogging sites

What's strange about that is that most blogging software, like LifeType and elgg (or whatever else they're calling themselves this week), I've seen work only with subdirectories.

I do notice that a lot of "big sites" that "kind of" let you have a blog (like fox sports, for example) are not only subdirectory structured, but buried a few levels down as well.

To me, it's all about the end user experience. That being the case, having their own subdomain seems to "make them feel more special" than just being another directory on your site.

If you're "compensating for other things that are lacking" with google PR juice, then, as it was said above, subdirectories would be more to someones liking.

However, you have to know your target audience too.

Do they really care, or do they just want something to call their own?

Why do users seek out free blogs? It usually is one of 3 reasons, although there can be others as well.

1) They don't have a clue how to get a domain, a host, and set up their own.

2) They don't want to pay for it when they can get something for free.

3) The site they are joining is a large community, of which they wish to be a part of. (Rare for a lot of MU installs out there, but we're not just talking about MU.)

Sure there are other reasons, like they're friends did it or whatever, but those 3 things are the most common overall.

At that point, do they actually care (or have the knowledge to care) how they're site is accessed? Probably not, but depending on how you market your structure can go a long ways towards how those who could care less otherwise would feel.

See, I'm thinking of places like livejournal, vox, blogger... places where general net users go to get a blog.

Quick question though... If I decide to use subdirectories, which is what I'm leaning towards, is there anything special I need to do post-install to make that happen? The install docs discuss procedures for subdomains, but not subdirectories. Is there a procedure for placing each blog in a separate subfolder? Is that all in the admin?

You will just have to make sure that your directory is writable. Also, there are no actual user "subfolders" created.

I've used subdirectory install for over 18 months now. It didn't need any special set-up, and I think the only downside has been the very occasional discovery of a plugin which was written for sub-domain only sites.