I decided to take one of my sites, www.quiltingwithmoxie.com from a blog to a WordPress MU (WordPress Multi User) site. This way the readers can interact with each other in a more quilt guild type of feeling. Here is the steps required to set this up:

Installing WordPress MU

Adapted from Installing_WordPress:

Make sure you have already purchased a domain and changed the DNS settings to Hostgator before moving to step 1.

1.Download and unzip the WordPress MU package to somewhere on your hard drive, if you haven’t already. The unzipped files will be created in a directory named “wordpressmu” followed by a version or “wpmu” followed by a date.

For the sake of convenience, rename this folder “wordpressmu” before continuing as the spaces might cause conflicts later.

2. Create a database for WordPress MU on your web server, as well as a MySQL user who has all privileges for accessing and modifying it. I use Hostgator so here are the steps involved for this:

1. Login in the your Hostgator account http://yourprimarydomain.com/cpanel.
2. Scroll down to DATABASES and click on MySQL Database Wizard.
3. Step 1: Create A Database. Name your database something. Click on NEXT STEP.
4. Step 2: Create Database Users: Enter a Username and Password (or let the system generate on for you by clicking on the generate Password button). Click on NEXT STEP.
5. Step 3: Add User to the Database: Check the ALL PRIVILEGES box at the top of the table and click on NEXT STEP.
6. Step 4: Complete the task: gives you an overview of what you just did and then click on RETURN TO HOME.

3. Place the WordPress MU files in the desired location on your web server:

• If you want to integrate WordPress MU into the root of your domain (e.g. http://quiltingwithmoxie.com/), move or upload all contents of the unzipped WordPress MU directory (but excluding the directory itself) into the root directory of your web server.

1. 1. This was the method I chose so I used FireFTP and browsed to my file quiltingwithmoxie.com by
   2. In the upper left of the FireFTP window click on CONNECT
   3. In the right window click on Public_html/yourdomain.com (which should be an empty folder)
   4. In the left window browse to the location on your hard drive where you stored the opened WordPress MU files. Click on the top file, hold down shift and click on the bottom file as this will select all the files in this folder.
   5. Now click on the green right pointing arrow in the center of the windows to move the files into the Public_html/yourdomain.com.

• If you want to have your WordPress MU installation in its own subdirectory on your web site (e.g. http://example.com/blogs/), rename the directory wordpressmu to the name you’d like the subdirectory to have and move or upload it to your web server. For example if you want the WordPress MU installation in a subdirectory called “blog”, you should rename the directory called “wordpressmu” to “blog” and upload it to the root directory of your web server.

4. Run the WordPress MU installation script by accessing index.php in your favorite web browser by visiting yourdomain.com/index.php. For me this would be www.quiltingwithmoxie.index.php

• If you installed WordPress MU in the root directory, you should visit: http://quiltingwithmoxie.com/index.php
• If you installed WordPress MU in its own subdirectory called blogs, for example, you should visit: http://yourdomain.com/blogs/index.php

• Note: the Database Name field is case sensitive.

• If you fill in the form and get a blank page, with no errors logged, the first thing to check is that you have php-mysql installed.

Hostgator is already Apache ready so no need to change any of this.

More comprehensive instructions can be found on the Installing WPMU Codex page.

If you run into any trouble configuring your web server or WordPress MU, then read the README and browse the support forums.

TIPS

• Plugins: Many WordPress plugins and almost all themes work fine in MU. The best place to look for them is the WordPress Plugin Directory at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ The “WordPress MU” and “WPMU” tags list plugins made specifically for MU: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tags/wordpressmu http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tags/wpmu
• Themes: The only site you should download WordPress themes from is the Themes Directory at http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/. If you download themes from other sites, please make sure they don’t contain sponsored links that would put your site at risk of being banned by Google.
• News: http://ocaoimh.ie/category/wordpress/ http://planet.wordpress.org/ http://mu.wordpress.org/forums/

Okay, truth! I ran into some type of complication and I kept getting a redirect loop on the domain once I installed WordPress MU. I called Hostgator tech support and they had it fixed with me up and running inside of a couple of hours. I just love their tech support!

Voila! You’re done!

I am now going to make this a full blown Cyber Quilt Guild community by adding BuddyPress and bbPress to it too…stay tuned!

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