[ANDREW GREEN]

Might need a real multisite and buddypress expert for this one. Are you ready?

I think what I am creating is a ‘multisite multisite’ (or I could be just confusing myself by not seeing an obvious solution – I am a noob to multisites and buddypress, but loving the challenge).

An example might help explain what I mean. Let’s say I want to set up a site for weekend sports enthusiasts, weekendsports.com (not the actual name). Weekendsports.com would be the domain name and the probable entry point for users who haven’t visited the site before.

Here they will be able to select their zipcode and land in the site that talks about all the sports going on in their local area (an area overview if you like, using multisite), e.g. Weekendsports.com/zip94123. (For the purposes of this, let’s assume that people visiting the site are actually interested in an area overview, even if that might seem unlikely.)

After finding getting general area information about sports, most will naturally want to dive into a specific sport, say weekendsports.com/zip94123/soccer.

I thought about making this a Group of the multisite (…/94123), but that means that soccer players in that zipcode won’t be able to form their own soccer-related group within the group (e.g. Women soccer players in 94123) – something I want to offer users – and any discussion by that group will appear in the Activity of the much larger zipcode group, which should be limited to just broader area sports discussion as individual activity within the specific sports will be irrelevant/dull/too much.

The soccer fan will bookmark the ‘homepage’ of their sport within that zipcode, but will dip into area discussion regularly.

I guess I could set up weekendsports94123.com, weekendsports94124.com, etc., but expensive and hopefully not necessary.

That’s why I say a multisite of a multisite: Fully operating community sites for the broader area for broader discussion and then a fully operating community site for the individual sports.

Again, I am new to this, so be gentle if this isn’t as hard as I have made it seem. I am grateful for your guidance.

[amylaneio]

Hi Andrew. You would probably want to make the zip94123 a separate site within the network, then soccer would be a group on that site only. If you need more cross posting, you would probably need to work with a developer to come up with a custom solution (if it’s even possible). I’m not terribly familiar with BuddyPress, so hopefully someone else can chime in that might know better than me.

There is a Multi-Network plugin that might be of use, too.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-multi-network/

[ANDREW GREEN]

Thank you for the suggestion. If I understand correctly, this is where I am currently with ‘soccer’ as a group of zip94123. The trouble is that this doesn’t allow me to make a subgroup of the soccer group.

I fear that you are correct that I will need to create a custom solution with a developer.

Thanks again,

Andy.

[Dr Ron Suarez]

Andrew, we can offer help with this. There are plugins for group hierarchies, but with all the complexity you are creating, it is important to avoid conflicts caused by too many different plugins.

You also need to think about your information architecture (IA) and ensuring that people will be able to find their way around your site. In addition, you should strive to avoid the “empty room” phenomena, that no one wants to enter. If you launch with a lot of empty rooms, then people will not be very interested in your site.

From IA and user experience to help with tweaking PHP in plugins and customizing themes, we can be available to help you. Learn more about us at:
http://services.loudfeed.tv/

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