Wordpress as a members area cms?

[thebes]

Hello, I was wondering if anyone had used wordpress as a members area cms?

Obviously the template would need to be specially modified, and perhaps a plugin written for galleries, but wordpress is a popular and powerful blogging cms, has a large community for support, and most importantly I know it fairly well having worked on around a dozen mainstream and adult blogs with it.

In my case I am planning (and producing content for) a small niche paysite. I know about several paysite cms's and actually have a license to one (though their techs never got it installed right before I went out of the biz). But, this will be a small site, I generally prefer to cut my own thumbs, and I know and am comfortable with wordpress. Actually, the primary reason I am interested in a dynamic site for this project is so I can pre-schedule updates, though there are some plugins which looks useful too.

So, anyone done this? What has been your experience? Is there anything I am just completely missing as a reason not to try it? My biggest concerns would be tracking the dynamic links for 2257 and security. This is for a site in a small niche and I suspect the cpu load from serving dynamic content would be trivial.

[Lipshtich Lady]

for what you want to do - might be a better option to make a subdomain with a Ning

[thebes]

Ning, that is sort an adult myspace clone, right?

I can't possibly see why I might want to use somebody's free hosting on a domain I don't even own to build a paysite. Especially not with the efforts going into content production and me having all the hosting this project could ever want and more.

No, I am looking for a lightweight, easy to tweak cms to use on my server. I could just go with one of the commercial cms's, but I really like wordpress and how flexible it is. I also generally prefer open source software if it provides a practical solution, then I can always do the geek stuff myself if I want or need to.

Also, I am of the opinion that one should never put a significant amount of effort into a site they don't actually own. And, generally, free hosting is worth less than you paid for it, thats why someone wants to give it to you as their business model.

[seven]

the dynamic links for 2257 could be done with "custom fields". This way you can add separate 2257 links to each post from the admin area's "write post" panel. There is a nice little plugin to display the custom fields you want somewhere in the bottom of the post, I even managed to get them in the sidebar. Little programming needed to do this.
The wordpress code for "custom fields" shows all the fields and that's not that good, because voting for example has some custom fields you don't want to display to users.

Wordpress is indeed more powerfull than a simple blogging system

-it has user area - members can join your community
-it has plugin for forum (never really tried it, but I know a forum plugin)
-it can be integrated with photo gallery
-users can vote (with a plugin)
-you can specify if a post should be only for members or for general public and so on
- can be set up for future posts, so if you are out of town for a few days the members still got their stuff,
-has notifier plugin - to notify them when there are new things added

there are many many things that could make wp a good general cms with not to many tweaking but I wouldn't trust it to use it as a serious members area cms.

-it has way to many bugs and security risks,
-the code changes way to often (updates) and you need to upload the whole package in most of the cases, and this can fuck up all your custom editing.
-changes in the code sometimes are not "backward" compatible (some template elements doesn't work in the new version for example)

I would use it maybe for a hybrid site. Not paysite, but a wp blog where registrated members get a bit more, and when you have enough members you can start your real paysite with secure scripts.
Something like Free membership for pictures (the actual blog) -and paid membership for more videos and more goodies(the real paysite).

[Lipshtich Lady]

Originally Posted by thebes

Ning, that is sort an adult myspace clone, right?

I can't possibly see why I might want to use somebody's free hosting on a domain I don't even own to build a paysite. Especially not with the efforts going into content production and me having all the hosting this project could ever want and more.

no you can install a ning on your own domain - create a myspace for your domain. you can have www.thebessite.com and then www.myspace.thebessite.com

you pay a small licensing fee (it was around $25)

you can place ads on side bars - members upload their own pics and content depending on how you set the admin controls

but in actuality re-reading your post - a ning would not be what you are looking for - I thought you wanted an area for members to interact.

[Hentaikid]

I use wp for my whole site. Nothing fancy. The content is posted and linked to a protected directory when it's members only. Then the member area has a link category with thumbnails pointing to the relevant posts

[Senwolf]

Thebes yes this can be done while I do not have a pay section at the moment I could easily incorporate one with a recently gotten plugin.

I make galleries that are hosted with html and also with WP. You can see my latest WP one here.
Hot Little Brunette Amateur shows you her ass, tits and pussy |

You can get a Authentication plugin here
WordPress Authentication Plugin · Xavisys