Hi,
I've been running a site for young writers with some 3,500 users in Vermont and part of N.H. This site is extremely active.
Skipping detail (explained below), we've seen a community behavior that we think calls out for a siginficant change on the site -- and we need the ability to have users have much more control over their "blogs" -- the ability to set their own visible theme, to control some of the blocks, etc. in other words the features that are seemingly exactly what your project offers. Before we get into testing it though, I have several questions:
- Can the modules in DrupalMU be used in an existing Drupal 5 site to have the same desired effects or does the DrupalMU concept require a brand new installation?
- If it can be done on an existing site, what are the steps for putting it in place; what are the potential module conflicts (i.e., one of these modules does not work with another module); and is there any documentation outlining how to do this? (We would start with a local test site, of course.)
Thanks so much. I had been hunting around a year or so ago for this solution and, frankly, had not checked back in a while.
FYI: For those of you who want more information about the concept behind our desired change on the site, here it is. Others can skip this:
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Our main student site is http://youngwritersproject.org The concept of our project is to get kids to write, to help them improve and to publish their best work. We have several content types that are widely used: One is called an "entry" which is finished work intended for consideration for external publication (onsite display, newspapers, stage) and we have judges read and select from this work and also provide college mentors who give feedback on this content. The second major type is the "blog" entry type which we intended the users to invoke for drafts, casual writing, writing about their lives, journaling etc..... What has happened is that the community of young writers has an intense sense of ownership about the site and its content and see the site as a place to improve their writing. They discourage chatting, implore each other to provide constructive feedback. They see our "blogs" as where they post serious writing -- perhaps in draft form -- and are seeking feedback. These "blogs" are mostly poetry, stories and essays and do not consist of journaling, or opining or writing about experiences. LATELY, some of the users have started to create blogs OUTSIDE the site for writing about their lives -- more casual writing. This is how one writer describes it: "(I just choose not to display my awesome writing powers on my blog. Because that just isn’t what this blog is for. This blog is for me to write about life and comment on things and NOT worry about all the technical aspects of writing. I have YWP for that.)" Interesting phenomenon.
We run a nonprofit organization that tries to evolve with the community, so I think we need to redefine the content types to create a "notebook" content type for the more serious writing now done as "blogs" -- drafts, poems, stories, etc -- and then turn the "blogs" into exactly that -- life journals -- very casual writing that is not expected to be at the same standards as the other writing. Drupal MU seems a perfect solution -- students could set up "blogs" that have different titles, looks, blocks, etc that would give everyone a visual understanding that this type of writing was
different and would, at the same time, keep this type of writing on the site for all to see and emulate....THANKS SO MUCH for any assistance you can give us.
Geoff Gevalt
http://youngwritersproject.org
http://ywpvt.net
http://ywpblog.ywpvt.net