Things that you don't see on mu installs.

[drmike]

The spiky-haired mistress of homeschooling has given me permission to write up some articles for her wpmu-tutorials site.  I've come up with the idea of some "Things you should be doing with your site" articles.  ie list and describe 3 suggestions that I've seen folks not doing on their own sites.

I'm sure you folks have tested other mu sites, made opinions about what you've seen and the like.

Just throwing out a list that I wrote up last night.  Anyone else want to add in suggestions:

(I know some of these don't make any sense to you.  I'll describe them later on when I write the posts)

- Test other mu sites to see what they do and what they don't do.  Look at their support forums as well.
- Make demo blogs with demo content, one for each theme.
- Keep track of the basic colors for themes that you add in. (I saw a site once with 12 blue themes.)
- Describe new features and give examples on how to use when you announce new features.
- Encourage volunteers and thanks them. (heh heh)
- A better "This blog had been archived...." page
- Install a support forum. (I have planned a quick "How to install bbpress" article.)
- Sign up link in the meta widget and wp-meta/sidebar of themes.
- Hosted by link in the footer of themes. (Seen too many "Hosted by wp.com" links)
- Start a faq blog and where to grab the beginning content from. :whistle:
- Documentation/codex
- Simple promotion (Like blogging about it on your own blog...)
- "Any questions?  Here's a link to our support forum" in announcement posts. (Seen many sites that don't include a link to their support forums that can me found quickly.)
- Backup Backup Backup.
- Test Test Test.
- Update Update Update
- Interact with your clients on their blogs and even blog about it.
- Business cards.
- Rewrite your signup email
- Rewrite your first post
- A better first comment
- Easy ways to deal with spammers
- Keep notes
- Every week, try and do something
- Steal from wp.com
- Stick to theme days
- Announce if you go on vacation.
- Default themes
- Don't use Kubrick for your main site theme.
- *cough* Stuff folks miss from the readme file.

Anyone else have anything they want to throw in?

[Andrea_R]

I need to step up my posting schedule too.

- changing default blogroll links
- customizing the footer & dahsboard (hey there's hooks in there now)
- monetization or premium features? ie; what will users pay for?

[drmike]

I need to step up my posting schedule too.

I'm currently still stuck on these 1 hour a day terminals at the county libraries.  CPCC screwed up their reimaging of the library computers and IT and the library staff are pointing fingers at each other.  UNCC is just too far to walk to with temps in the 20's in the morning.

- changing default blogroll links

Noted.

- customizing the footer & dahsboard (hey there's hooks in there now)

Footer is on the list.  Dashboard feeds was one that I thought of as well.  Not sure why I didn't list it.  Thanks.

- monetization or premium features? ie; what will users pay for?

I'd have to describe how to write a program to do that though.  More of an extra feature over a "You should have done this" item I've seen.  Hmm...

[Andrea_R]

Well, everything I can think of as a "shoulda done" basically is covered by "change all the defaults".

Maybe top plugins to use? must haves?

[drmike]

Maybe top plugins to use? must haves?

I'd rather stay away from that list as the topic's been covered a number of times on the forums.  My first post over there is going to be a quick "How to install and merge bbpress" though.  I just did it on a test install and had to look at four places over on the bbpress forums to find what I needed to do.

Adding:

- Multi page the themes page
- Make theme screen shots into *.jpgs

[Andrea_R]

Your turn! 

I just posted a bit on usign the custom login plugin and changing the favicon to "brand" your install. I'm thinking you might wanna whip up a quick "don't use kubrick" lesson.

You'll see where I went with that, and led into a series. Should help you narrow down a topic. Ideally, I;d like to see the next one go up within a week.

[Luke]

I still don't get what's so darn hard about a login form?

It's a form, it submits information via post to a location. Nothing magic about it whatsoever, yet it seems very few people can grasp such a simple concept.

Hell, I even put mine in a lightbox, running a custom login page that's slimmed down for basic usage, and gee... everything works just dandy. Including bringing back users to the page they are currently on (like to login just to comment) or shipping them off to their own admin area, or profile.

When I see such posts in some places where it is obvious there isn't a very good fundamental knowledge in place, especially when its basic html/xhtml, it really bothers me.

Maybe it shouldn't bother me, but it does. So I had to take a look at why it really bothers me. Well, I found the answer.

It's their end users.

The folks who rely on and trust these folks to make sure that when they want to post to their blogs, or someone wants to read it, or someone wants the RSS feed, that whatever it is they want that person is served accordingly.

That includes being able to handle support, and fixing things in as expeditious manner as possible when trouble arises.

That doesn't include something breaking, and the "host" having to run to a forum for answers to things that should be easily accomplished with the basic skill set. Then, in turn, that forum taking hours, days, weeks, or longer to answer because the post is just so noob simple it gets ignored.

Those posts should be skipped, IMHO, as it takes focus off of real issues which need to be addressed.

In the long run, that end user suffers but has no idea as to the real reason they suffer so. They in turn place blame, and in the wrong place, and their end user experience suffers a great deal in an unwarranted fashion.

Maybe it sounds like I'm pissed off and grumpy, and maybe when it comes to these kind of "hosts" I am. Why anyone can want to play with the big boys, but won't learn the skills, buy/lease the equipment, expect to be waited on and supported hand and foot, and then whine and bitch when they are told to search or read something, and all at the expense of their end users is a complete mystery to me.

You either provide a service, or you don't. There is no half-ass trying here.

If you have these big pipe dreams of money, but are willing to throw your clients/users/customers to the wolves, then no, I don't have a shred of patience or respect for you.

[drmike]

I still don't get what's so darn hard about a login form?

We're having the login cookie issue as well on all of our installs.

Gotten to the point that folks are just linking to the form page now.

[ron_r]

My login widget returns the user to the page/post they logged in from.

[drmike]

- Turn on object cache (Just looked at a site and it had kicked out 103 queries.)

In that list up above there, does anyone see any 3-5 items that stand out above the rest?

[drmike]

We're having the login cookie issue as well on all of our installs.

And a quick check of the mu forums shows that folks are still having issues with the cookie issue.