New users can't create sites

[bmk0220]

Running WP 3.12 Multisite and the latest s2 free version...

Just Installed s2, signup and activation look fine, initial site gets created as well. However, there is no option under "My Sites" for the user to create a new site.

The user is a paid level 1 user - which we have set up to create up to 10 sites.

Any ideas? Thanks for the help.

[Cristián Lávaque]

if you let users create a blog with you, the most important thing to do when setting up a Blog Farm with s2Member is to add this line to your /wp-config.php file:

Code: Select all

define('MULTISITE_FARM', true);  

That will add a default layer of security to all blogs within your network, with respect to s2Member. Does that make a difference with your problem?

If you'd like full details along with support for Blog Farming, please take a look at our Network Support Package. http://s2member.com/prices/

[bmk0220]

Thanks for the reply. I tried that after seeing it posted on another thread. The only thing that did was gray out and deactivate the drop down with the multisite blog farm settings. It did nothing to place the create new site link back and allow a user to create a new site.

I just don't understand why s2 has taken a feature readily available in wordpress and deactivated it, then (judging by the price list you asked me to view) charge over $600 to unlock it. I thought this plugin was to add capability, not remove it.

I don't mind paying for a Pro, in fact, we have several sites and wanted the unlimited sites version. However, this doesn't seem to be working out like we had hoped. I've got say...we've tried many others and we keep coming back to try s2 because we really think it has the most potential, but there is always something major like this that stops us. This is the third time we've tried over several months, but we never feel comfortable enough to go live with it.

We simply want to allow guests to signup, pay, and get instant access (as we have been able to do to a point), then have them be able to go to My Sites and create more sites if they wish, such as Silver Member (10 sites), Gold Member (20 sites), etc. It looks like s2 could do that easily, but it deactivates that capability. As it stands, we would have to create the sites every time a member wants one, that would cause a huge time problem. We're better off not using the plugin in that case and spend our time just keeping up with only the users and their payments as before.

Before, we had the default of our WP install as "Logged in users can create sites". That's still what we want to do, but with a fully automatic Membership capability. s2 gave us the Membership part we wanted but took away the "Logged in users can create sites" capability we already had.

Can we do what we want with s2 without paying over $600? Are we misunderstanding something? Please let us know. We'd love to finally get this resolved and go Live with our membership sites.

Thanks.

[Cristián Lávaque]

s2Member in a blog farm adds some security measures to prevent problems, that's what that setting in wp-config.php enables.

I'm not the most familiar with the multisite settings, but I know that the multisite license will give you the specialized support you need to prevent trouble, set up everything correctly (more documentation, configuration options, best-practices) and even professional installation.

If you look at it, since you also get the Unlimited Sites license included ($129), the multisite part is $500. Considering the cost of having a security problem in your server because of a bad configuration in your blog farm, I think it's a good price.

About the setting that you say was disabled, I don't know, I'll send Jason an email asking him. Have you checked the s2Member area for multisite settings? WP Admin -> s2Member -> Multisite Config

[bmk0220]

Hello Cristian,

Yes, we're familiar with how it works. We've been to the area you mentioned WP Admin -> s2Member -> Multisite Config. As we mentioned previous, We've tried s2 in our testing for months now as one of several plugins we are considering. See, we are trying to settle in on one membership plugin and then just start implementing that plugin and with our planned procedures to all of our future sites and get out of the "testing" mode, to all live mode. We're IT people too. We certainly don't know everything but just to save us all some time we will tell you that we are not beginners, we build sites, mostly wp sites right now. The wp-config.php line define('MULTISITE_FARM', true);, as we mentioned does not solve the problem we are having. The problem is due to s2 taking over the signup process and the permissions a user has. It's taking away our ability in our Network Admin settings to allow "Logged in users can create sites" as is the precise setting in WP. That may be called a "security measure", but it's a WP feature that we no longer have the option of setting it or not. With "Logged in users can create sites" that means only a member can create a site, that's what we want to have happen. We are fine with s2 taking over the signup process as a security measure, in fact, we prefer it. The payment process and signup being handled by s2 should prevent splogs and spam users, and certainly bots from creating fake, unwanted accounts. That's great. That's worth $129 for all of our sites.

But even free s2 has features to allow you to set levels and how many blogs users of that level can create. When we set up say, level 1 can create 10 blogs, then do a signup and transaction of a paying level 1 user, the process works fine until we login to see that the user cannot in fact create any more sites at all, because the "Create New Site" link under "My Sites" has been removed by s2. That's the issue. There is simply a setting that would have to be changed to NOT take this away and to read the setting for that level user (how many blogs can that user create?) and that would be the solution.

I don't doubt at all that it's worth $600 to some people, and maybe even us at some point, but we don't have that kind of money to spend on testing to see if this is the right plugin for us. We build and run websites for living so we are fairly familiar so I guess it's a tough sell for us at this point during testing, especially when we know that the problem we are having is due to the plugin disabling a feature we use. That's what makes it tough for us to see paying that kind of money right now. We have at least 3 other major subscriptions (to plugin and theme developer sites) that we use so we're not opposed to paying. As we mentioned we wanted to buy s2 Pro, unlimited sites, $129. That would be great if that package would simply add a fully automated membership site capability, without taking away our core WP features.

Thanks for the reply Cristian. Sorry to ramble on, but this has been a long few months trying to find the right membership plugin to roll out to several sites. It has to be the right decision BEFORE we go for it because once we do, we can't turn back.

We will wait for Jason's reply then. Thanks

[Cristián Lávaque]

I can perfectly understand your position. I'm sorry I can't help you better with this particular aspect of s2Member, but I hope Jason will get to my email soon and come help you sort this out the way you need it.

[bmk0220]

Thanks alot for your help. We appreciate it.

[Jason Caldwell]

Sorry, wrong thread. I'll reply here momentarily.

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks for your inquiry ( @bmk0220 ).
~ and thanks for the note Cristián.

We simply want to allow guests to signup, pay, and get instant access (as we have been able to do to a point), then have them be able to go to My Sites and create more sites if they wish, such as Silver Member (10 sites), Gold Member (20 sites), etc. It looks like s2 could do that easily, but it deactivates that capability.

Yes, that is correct. s2Member disables the default option for this behavior, and instead provides you with a greater level of control over this. To configure this behavior ( under s2Member's control ), please check your Dashboard under: s2Member -> Multisite (Config) -> Registration Configuration.

I'm attaching a screenshot for you ( click to enlarge ).

Please let us know if you have any other questions. Also, please note that s2Member is free, so we consider this to be your free trial before implementing s2Member's Multisite Blog Farm functionality. If you require support and/or installation assistance with s2Member on a Multisite Blog Farm, we ask that you purchase our Network Support Package. After purchasing our Network Support Package, you can use the PDF file provided in your s2Member.com account to obtain further details. My personal contact information is also included in that PDF file ( for Network Support Packages only ).

Multisite Blog Farms require special security considerations and are often complex in nature ( i.e. requiring additional support on our part ). A Multisite Blog Farm running s2Member, also poses some potential security issues that are addressed in the PDF file that comes with a Network Support License. The PDF file also includes a full list of issues that define("MULTISITE_FARM", true) affects.

s2Member Licensing Options:
http://www.s2member.com/prices/

[imaginonic]

This is a bug, I believe. I don't know if bmk0220 solved it, but then, here's another thread I started to reproduce this bug:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=10307#wrap

P.S - We have the exact requirement as bmk0220

[Jason Caldwell]

Let's continue this thread here please:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=10307#p32614

[frankscott39]

okay then I will be join you on there side !