Understanding the Difference between Sites and Blogs

With the merger of WordPress MU and WordPress came a name change. Each additional blog under WordPress MU is now a site. But, what's the difference?

Largely, it's one of perception. Everything functions the same, but people can see greater possibilities when they no longer think of each site as “just” a blog. Now, WordPress can be so much more:

• With the addition of the Domain Mapping plugin (see Chapter 6 in this minibook), you can manage multiple sites with different, and unique, domain names. None of them has to be a blog. They can have a blog element, or just use pages and have a static site.
• The built-in options let you choose between subdomains or subfolder sites when you install the network. If you install WordPress in the root of your Web space, you will get subdomain.yourdomain.com (if you choose subdomains) or yourdomain.com/subfolder (if you choose subfolders). Chapter 2 of this minibook discusses the differences and advantages.

  After you choose the kind of sites you want to host and create those sites, you can't change them later on. These sites are served virtually, meaning that they do not exist as files or folders anywhere on the server. They only exist in the database. The correct location is served to the browser by using rewrite rules in the .htaccess file.

• The main, or parent, site of the network can also be a landing page of the entire network of sites, showcasing content from other sites in the network and drawing in visitors further.