Although WordPress is without a doubt the best blogging platform on the market, how suitable is it if you\u2019re looking to create a site based on user-generated content? It\u2019s an odd question, to be sure, but it\u2019s one that\u2019s been at the back of my mind for some time now. Is WordPress usable if you\u2019re creating a content hub rather than a simple blog?<\/p>\n
The short answer is yes \u2013 just look at WPeddit<\/a> if you\u2019ve any doubts. The long answer\u2026yes and no. It\u2019s complicated. If you\u2019ve got the right plugins and enough programming knowledge, you can use the WordPress platform to design just about anything. The problem with that, of course, is that this doesn\u2019t necessarily mean it\u2019s well-suited for the task. At the end of the day, there are plenty of software platforms specifically designed for user-generated content, it could save you a great deal of trouble to simply use one of those.<\/p>\n For argument\u2019s sake, however, let\u2019s say you\u2019re dead set on using WordPress for user-generated content. How might you go about it?<\/p>\n Your first step \u2013 after determining the type of content you\u2019re going to manage \u2013 is to set up submission forms through which users can upload their content to your site. Gravity Forms is the perfect plugin for the task, and can be used and implemented without any coding whatsoever. As an added bonus, it can also automatically create new posts whenever a user submits something.<\/p>\n Depending on the volume of submissions you\u2019re expecting, you can either handle post moderation yourself or simply leave things up to your users. In the case of the latter, you could potentially implement some sort of ratings system into your site, similar to what you\u2019d see on Reddit or Digg. Readers should be able to like\/dislike posts and report any offensive content that might pop up (I can all but guarantee that something will eventually).<\/p>\n Assuming this isn\u2019t something you want to code yourself, there are several plugins you might consider; GD Star Rating and CasePress Upvote<\/a>, are both excellent choices, though I\u2019m certain there are more out there if you know where to look.<\/p>\n Now, once you\u2019ve figured out how your user content is going to be uploaded and managed, your next step is to track down a theme that\u2019ll work with your blog\u2019s new functionality. P2<\/a> works quite well for this. As a general rule, you want users to be able to access your submission form from your blog\u2019s main page, without making things too cluttered or confusing. Again, WPeddit is a good example of how to achieve this<\/a>.<\/p>\n WordPress is one of the most versatile platforms on the market. Though it\u2019s not necessarily built for user-generated content, it\u2019s definitely possible to use it as such with the right plugins and enough programming knowledge. That said, I\u2019d avoid rich media such as video and the like \u2013 WordPress definitely tends to work better with blog posts and text uploads.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll leave you with a few additional plugin recommendations for a user-generated WordPress site: BuddyPress<\/a> basically allows you to turn WordPress into a social network, while FV Community News<\/a> simply allows your visitors to add their own posts to your blog and User Submitted Posts<\/a> essentially does exactly what you\u2019d expect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Although WordPress is without a doubt the best blogging platform on the market, how suitable is it if you\u2019re looking to create a site based on user-generated content? It\u2019s an odd question, to be sure, but it\u2019s one that\u2019s been at the back of my mind for some time now. Is WordPress usable if you\u2019re […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[19,27],"class_list":["post-91","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wordpress","tag-content-marketing","tag-wordpress"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ahosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ahosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ahosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":265,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions\/265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ahosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ahosting.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}