Four Pre-Requisites to working with Wordpress MU
The forums over at Wordpress MU aren’t really the hand holding sort, the regulars are just too busy. However if one has done some background work first there are good solutions in the threads and the regulars are happy to assist someone who has managed to get a part of the way on their own initiative.
A lot of people however seem to approach MU without the pre-requisite skills suggested in the software’s readme (i.e being able to cope with server level software as opposed to a single cms / wordpress install).
For this reason I’d consider the four points below fairly essential if you want to work with MU (even if you have a technical background).
1. Use self hosted wordpress for at least six months - by “use” I mean creating a site installation you’re happy with and blogging to it regularly. Install via FTP or shell rather than fantastico or equivalent and install any security updates as soon as you can.
2. Be comfortable installing and fixing small issues with widgets, plugins and themes - be comfortable reading through the code and following the logic into the database if something isn’t working as expected. The wpmu forums are an invaluable resource but will often only point you in the right direction with a code snippet, you’ll have to apply the solution or follow the logic through so it fits to your site.
3. Ideally have written some plugins / widgets / themes for WP yourself - I hadn’t before starting to work with MU and I really wish I had as there is the added complexity of considering the multi user element when working with MU.
4. Be able to manage the necessities on a dedicated server or VPS - If you need to hire hardening or optimisation experts or have the budget to pay for management, fine. My own WPMU site is currently sitting on a shared host and will hopefully be fine there - once ready to deploy a site that will be for the wider public rather than just friends from reading the MU forum it appears that this is the ONLY reliable way to go. My experience at a shared hosting company completely backs this up - as a general rule users aren’t allowed to install server level software themselves as it puts far too much of a drain on the shared resources.
Rowan :: Jul.11.2007 :: Web Apps, Wordpress MU :: No Comments »