So, there you go, that’s our big news – say hello to Blogs.mu.
This has been a whopping project in terms of conception (I’ve been tossing this around for the last two years!) and execution for which I personally can’t thank Barry and Andrew enough.
And yet (I hope) it’s a really simple concept – we’ve basically MU’d MU so that now, rather than getting a blog, you can get a blog hosting network.
Rather than using WPMU to get WP, you can use Blogs.mu to get WPMU to give WP :)
It’s completely free to set up and manage unlimited blogs, but if you want to run your own advertising / use your own domain / get extra storage etc. then there’s a cost ranging from under $1 to a measly 5 cents per blog (depending on volume).
Am sure we’ll be talking lots more about it as it unfolds and develops and gets used – so I won’t harp on here too much, suffice do say… do ya like it?
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May 11, 2009 
i actually don’t like it, like i don’t like the possibility to create stuff in one minute by anyone… as we’ll see a lot of incompetent people to create stuff and let they think that they’re the best because have opened a community/something by themself…. and i know a lot of people like this (that they’re the best just because they’ve a blog…installed used fantastico…). sorry guys
That’s a really interesting perspective, hadn’t thought of it like that, I suppose barriers to entry can certainly improve the quality and consideration people give to things… but at the end of the day making something that has been hard for people, easy, is generally a good thing (unless it’s criminal etc. :)
james, usually yes, it’s a good thing. and this is a great opportunity (as ning is for social networks), but there is also to consider that if i create a blog community, and ask friends to join, they’d see that they could create their blog network too so easily that they wouldn’t join mine and create theirs instead…. with the result that would be a lot of communities (that’s not a bad thing, but i think it’s better one big “edublogs” than 1000 little blog networks like it, don’t you?).
btw i’ve to admit that it’s a great project anyway ;)
@x Look no further then ning for an example of a low barrier of entry, and huge (micro) networks. There are some with several thousand people there. Web 2.0 in my mind means that anyone can roll out a great idea, with a low barrier to entry.
Your analogy is kind of akin to not using a chainsaw when you have an ax. Is the incompetent person the one that uses the ax, or the one that uses the chainsaw?
@jake, i like your analogy…. and i’d like to add just one thing to it….. if you’re using an ax it’s probably a good idea to move to a chainsaw, it’d save time with a less effort…. but you know how to use an ax… or btw you know how to saw a tree, so it doesn’t matter if you use an ax, a chainsaw or a ultra technology laser which cut everything, because you know how to do the job….
Now let’s take someone who lived in a big metropolis for all is life… and put him in fron a tree, with a chainsaw and tell him to cut a big tree with around other trees, an house, people, an other stuff…. we probably have someone who’d cut it perfectly without problems….but someone would crash the tree over the house, someone over the people, and someone over himself…. so ok the chainsaw, but i think that with every tool it’s just a need to be careful, and having a little knowing of it because if you don’t know it you could be dangerous…..
p.s. with a chainsaw more than anything…..you just need someone like leatherface and you have a texas massacre ;)
Great work folks… and I have to say — that design is jaw dropping. Really well done.
Who did the front end work?
Glad you like it – design and development by http://incsub.com :)
I love analogies :) And in one sense I agree that being able to create something almost instantly could, in the eyes of the creator, diminish it’s value. However retaining the high barriers to entry that have traditionally existed with WPMU isn’t going to be possible forever.
A key point here, I think, is that there is no lock-in. Why this is key, I will come to it in a moment?
Previously a person with an idea for a “blog community” would be faced with the task of researching the software to use, find hosting (and all of us within the WPMU community know shared hosting doesn’t cut it) set up their servers, databases, install the software, get together all of the plugins they want, find, test and customise themes (if they want to run adverts / stats), learn how to administer the system, promote it and then monitor the servers and databases for load, problems, support their users problems, fix any bugs found, etc…
For the non-technical person with a limited budget, that’s a bit much and could truly put off all but the most commited, at the detriment to all of us.
With a blogs.mu type approach, the idea and the implementation are closer together, allowing the user to get their site running and promoted as quickly as possible. If they make their community a success and want more control over the installation – the export facility is there, just as it is in WPMU, and they are free to export their site and blogs, get their own server and run everything themselves.
Of course the opposite is also true, If I had previously set up my own WPMU system, maybe on a shared host because I had no other option or the finances for a more robust server, or no longer wanted the hassle of running a server, then I can export my current blogs and bring them into blogs.mu and let someone with more server side experience handle all those worries, and of course pass the support burden over as well.
Let’s take this argument back a level, did the arrival of WordPress.com prevent or help the creation of quality blogs? There are more than a few who used the low barrier to entry that WordPress.com provided to start up their own blog, then get a domain and finally move to their own hosting and a single WordPress install.
Of course, blogs moving in the opposite direction is also true, a good number of the high profile, traffic heavy blogs have moved onto WordPress.com if for no other reason than to take advantage of the WordPress.coms servers, bandwidth and support.
Content and community creators shouldn’t need to worry about the ins and outs of servers, bandwidth limits, overrun charges and coding. That’s what techies are for.