[wp-forums] Doing it for free.

[Michael Niziol]

Podz,

I think that is a fantastic idea! There are many would-be bloggers who would
probably love to use WordPress, but the thought of the install and all of
that is a little scary - it took me awhile to finally give WordPress a try!

Not only would a free installation service help get the none technical
people going with blogging on WordPress, once one gets a taste of something,
they'll always want more, so I think it would be a great way to further
expand the WordPress community - it needs the least technical people as much
as the technical. Also, this would certainly make WordPress stand out among
blogging tools, an open source tool, coupled with fantastic community
support AND the one thing that very few open source communities offer -
installation!

The concerns you mention are all completely true and I would share them as
well, but I think this is definitely something that should be explored.
Perhaps some kind of official installation request system could be put in
place, a user would sign-up and the message would get routed (by some magic
of course) to a "trusted techie" for the install. Having a formal request
system would also make it easy to have a clear agreement from a user and a
formal process for collecting information and keeping things kosher.

Cheers,
Michael.

On 19/04/06, Podz <podz at tamba2.org.uk> wrote:
>
> This is something I've wanted to do for ages and in the light of a
> certain post or two..
>
> Could we offer - through the forums - free installation?
>
> The user gets:
> - one fresh WP installed
>
> We get:
> - less frustrated users
> - more information between us about hosts
>
> WP gets:
> - a little chunk of PR (if anyone notices)
>
> But........
> - we would need an 'approved' list of people who we absolutely trust to
> have access
> - we would need to be firm about the 'deal'. No follow-on asking please.
> - we do no security stuff. Permissions stay as is.
> - we do plugins unless we agree a 'package' of some sort which we all
> follow.
> - they would have to post, someone respond. There is a chance someone
> not so good could jump in and cause problems.
>
> - the only condition is they post back to the thread in the forums.
>
> I would really like to do this, but is it realistically possible?
> Where are the flaws?
>
> P.
> _______________________________________________
> wp-forums mailing list
> wp-forums at lists.automattic.com
> http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-forums
>