WordPress 3.0 Beta

Last week I installed WordPress 3.o Beta on a new space for my family. We have been using a WP.com site for about two years and everything is running smoothly. I know, I know it wasn’t broke but I still decided to fix it.

The reason is my sister is going to Uganda this summer for a mission trip. When I asked if she would like her own site to share photos and news I didn’t really want to start a new host just for this summer project. Fortunately this is where twitter steps up.

Enter @FunkyDung

In between me agreeing to do a site for my sister and now, I asked twitter if anyone is using WordPress MU (multi user). I was asking for reasons completly unrelated to my family site but this is where the story really begins. FunkyDung lets me know that he has been using Mu for a few years and we set a lunch date so I can pick his brain.

Here is how I thought Mu worked; ran a “super” wordpress in the root directory, created a sub directory for each blog in the network, install many instances of wordpress in every sub directory on the network, take a T3 level networking genius with a leprechaun to make it all work. I was so wrong.

Here is how Mu (3.0 Beta) actually works; one, generally normal, install of wordpress in ideally your root directory, uses your database to seperate each blog on the network, uses wildcard DNS to execute sub domains (different than sub directories), there are no sub directories, yes even with sub domains, it took only a slight amount of googling to find a fix to the wildcard DNS which I’ll tell you about in a later post. Oh and no leprechauns only Keystone to get the puppy working.

Setting up the multi user aspect of 3.0 takes a little bit of advanced knowledge but it is quite simple. Especially if you are comfortable with your FTP client and notepad.

So Get to the Point

I’m able to run a multi user site on Tubu’s basic blog plan for $10 a year. Now I can create a site for everyone in my family where they can have their firstname.huelsman.org for free and it runs flawlessly. I suggest everyone who manages their own wordpress installation take a look at this feature. WordPress 3.0 is going to really give us the ability to start and stop projects on a whim. No more endless registering of domain names.

In a future post I’ll write about the more technical aspects of the install and the really easy fix for wildcard dns.

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