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Website With Two Types of Members? (Kinda long)

by CJWrite
10 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
I'm attempting to redo a current website to make it a memberships website with two different types of members. These wouldn't be paid and unpaid members, but members looking for two different types of things.

For the sake of this example, let's call the different types of members A and B.

Member / Visitor A = Writers looking for writing gigs
Member / Visitor B = Clients looking for writers

This would be the basic layout of the site:

Splash Page
Are you...
- A?
- B?

Member / Visitor A Section Home:
- Blog
- Writing Job Leads
- Forum
- Post a Writer Bio
- Browse Job Board

Member / Visitor B Section Home:
- Blog
- Post a Writing Job on Job Board
- Browse Writer Bios

The two bolded parts would be where the memberships A and B would need to intertwine...if that makes sense. I need writers (Members A) to be able to post a bio and browse the Job Board; I need clients (Members B) to be able to post a job on the job board and browse the writer bios - from their respective website sections and preferably without seeing the other side's "post" and "browse" sections. For instance, I'd prefer writers didn't the "Post a Job" page and Clients didn't see the "Post a Writer Bio" page.

Everyone I know has told me to go with Wordpress, so I finally broke down and tried it. I've tried WP and WP Multisite, and I can't seem to get the membership types to stay on separate parts of the website where they're supposed to and intertwine where they're supposed to. I had to build a whole separate section with a "Job Portal", which I don't wanna do.

Am I missing something in WP? Or is there a better alternative to WordPress for this type of website??? Something like Drupal, Joomla, Text Pattern, Life Types, b2evolution? These are a few of the ones I know of and that are available for install on my Host Gator cPanel. If it's the right one, I would also consider uploading / installing it manually, if necessary.

I'm not a complete idiot when it comes to building websites, but I'm not an expert either. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks!
#kinda #long #members #types #website
  • Profile picture of the author lollobrigida
    I think I would use WP for the blog part and Joomla for the rest.
    Joomla is very good for different user levels with different rights...
    there's probably ready made job boards, if not you can use one
    of the cool content construction components... there's definitely
    free forum software that runs in Joomla.
    All you need is 2 identical themes/template for Joomla & WP...
    but that should not be a big deal.
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    • Profile picture of the author CJWrite
      Originally Posted by lollobrigida View Post

      I think I would use WP for the blog part and Joomla for the rest.
      Joomla is very good for different user levels with different rights...
      there's probably ready made job boards, if not you can use one
      of the cool content construction components... there's definitely
      free forum software that runs in Joomla.
      All you need is 2 identical themes/template for Joomla & WP...
      but that should not be a big deal.
      Thanks... now all I have to do is figure out how Joomla works. Oh, I hope there's a bit of a learning curve with this. From what I've read and seen, I think it will work, but I just cant wrap my head around it and put it all together for some reason...
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      • Profile picture of the author lollobrigida
        Originally Posted by CJWrite View Post

        Thanks... now all I have to do is figure out how Joomla works. Oh, I hope there's a bit of a learning curve with this. From what I've read and seen, I think it will work, but I just cant wrap my head around it and put it all together for some reason...
        I came from Joomla and learned WP...they are both easy.
        Once you understand one concept it's easier to learn the next. IMHO.

        Joomla has pretty awesome help forums...
        and you can also always ask here if you get stuck.
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  • Profile picture of the author OmiTaylor
    I think there are plugins to put WP in Joomla or Drupal, so you can use both together.
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    • Profile picture of the author lollobrigida
      Originally Posted by maybornstar View Post

      I think there are plugins to put WP in Joomla or Drupal, so you can use both together.
      I found pretty much all I ever tried in that direction either unstable, complicated or crap*y... but must admit I haven't tried for quite a while.

      Since it is no problem to have Joomla and Wordpress side by side...
      that's what I do... keeps me independent from plugin developers too.
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      • Profile picture of the author ronc0011
        You might want to have a look at s2Member I think it will do everything you want to do without the multisite business. Really it sounds like a lot of what you want to do is a function of site structure i.e. some content in folder "A", other content in folder "B". s2Member would allow you to control access according to membership level which you define according to your needs
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        • Profile picture of the author LADWebDesign
          Boonex has an excellent multi-membership script built into their Dolphin script.
          I would also recommend taking a look at Joomla.
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          • Profile picture of the author CJWrite
            Originally Posted by ronc0011 View Post

            You might want to have a look at s2Member I think it will do everything you want to do without the multisite business. Really it sounds like a lot of what you want to do is a function of site structure i.e. some content in folder "A", other content in folder "B". s2Member would allow you to control access according to membership level which you define according to your needs
            The multisite might come in handy for something I have planned later.

            And I think you're right about the site structure. Currently, I'm trying to figure out a way to have only child/sub pages display on a parent page navigation menu (NOT sidebar widget), which would suit my needs. Or even only pages in certain categories displaying in the nav bar.

            Originally Posted by LADWebDesign View Post

            Boonex has an excellent multi-membership script built into their Dolphin script.
            I would also recommend taking a look at Joomla.
            I actually did consider Boonex and Dolphin. I'm not so sure about Joomla, though....
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  • Profile picture of the author JamesColin
    Banned
    I use Drupal nearly exclusively since 2004, so you can guess which one I'm biased towards :-)
    It would be very straight forward with Drupal.. Basically you create ROLES and then each user would be affected a role, either one or the other, or both.
    And then you would create two BLOCKS in the sidebar (or anywhere on the page where you want your menu) and one of the block would be visible only for users of that role, and the other only for users of that other role. So if you have users who have both roles, they will be able to see both blocks.
    You should also create another block for the role anonymous which are the non loggued in users, the visitors of your site. So that loggued in users won't be able to see that block (or they can, depends on what you want)

    Drupal's main point is its flexibility, it's simple I haven't yet found anything that would not be possible to do with Drupal. I don't know if it's the same for wordpress or joomla, and surely I'm not asking for a lot either, but I have never found a limit to my imagination with drupal :-)
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  • Profile picture of the author ellaqueen
    It can be done in many ways. You already have got good advice here (WP - Joomla)
    I think using Joomla for the job marketplace section is good idea.

    I've thought you might like to take a look to MembersGear (free) and HQFusion and see if any of them fit your needs and can make things simplier.

    It can be done 100% in WP too, but the way I think right now I would do it doesn't seem to be very neat to me.
    However, what i think I would do is I would use subdomains (one for writers and the other one for clients) and install WP and a Membership WP plugin in each of them.
    So from the root domain you lead writers and clients to the corresponding join/login page (subdomain)
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