Making Wordpress More Social.

[jordanmcclements]

Do you know what I find *really* handy (and I'm sure millions of other people do too)....

If I want to comment on a blog, the ability to connect with twitter (or other social account), without having to create yet another new account, or enter an extremely difficult to read CAPTCHA.

On the site photos-for-you.com - this end of this end of things has been easily taken care of with Disqus.

But I want to go one step further.

I want people to be able to contribute to the site (i.e. add there own photos which I can approve before they are published).

What is the best way to allow people to set up a 'contributor' account in Wordpress automatically by connecting with their social account?

I've tried a couple of different social plugins - but as far as I can tell, there is no plugin currently that provides this functionality...

[antihero13]

I know this doesn't answer your question, but I suggest you not pursue it. It seems like your website is a social site itself, with people being able to share pictures and contribute content and such. Therefore, you should view your site as an alternative, competitor or even a replacement for places like Twitter, etc. There's a reason you don't see Twitter login buttons on LinkedIn or Google+ buttons on Facebook.

The whole point is to have people contribute pictures, right? Why does it matter how or where they log in from (securely, of course)? I just suggest you set up your own login system and let people add pictures, text, etc. from there. There are plenty of WordPress plugins that'll let you do that. Besides, if you have your own system you can collect the user information (emails, interests, etc.) which will help you determine the demographics of your visitors. If you allowed people to login through Twitter they might not share that information with you.

If you still want to allow people to login through other social means though, you're looking in the wrong place. Don't look on WordPress to find a plugin. Go to the social media site itself and see if they have a tool you could use. For instance, I went over to Twitter's developer's site and found this. I don't know if it'll help you, if it'll work or how it works though because I've never used it. I have seen it on other websites though.

[jordanmcclements]

I don't think this site is good enough to make people want to sign up for an account with it.

I might be wrong - but I think the standard Wordpress login is a big barrier to people adding content to the site...

By the way - looks like this was a bad time to post this, as the photo web site is having server issues still (I thought it would have been fixed by now)...

[jordanmcclements]

Anyone else managed to make their own WP site more 'social' ?

[alanf]

I haven't looked in detail at your site, but of course Buddypress is a pretty good Wordpress plugin which turns wordpress sites into social sites, with all the social features you might expect.

That said, you have to have a good complelling reason for people to use your site, after all anyone can create a 'facebook' or 'twiiter' nowadays with opensource solutions (e.g. Wordpres, Joomla, Elgg (is that still active?), and many have, but many get no visitors at all.

So ask yourself the hard questions. e.g. why would they visit photos-for-you rather than flickr? etc

[morestar]

Well I looked around for you and investigated some of what I found and the Wordpress Social Connect plugin seemed to offer what you're looking for. Try it out if you haven't already but it claims to give users a registration through one of the popular social media accounts.

[jordanmcclements]

Thanks guys.

I haven't looked at Buddy Press though I have heard of it - I'll have to read up on it (though I have a feeling it wouldn't be easy to implement on the current web site since I have modified it a lot from standard).

All the plugins I've looked at so far (Including social connect) as far as I can tell do allow people to register and leave comments etc - but do not facilitate the automatic creation of 'contributor' accounts which is what I would like.

I know it's probably a waste of time - who would want to post photos on my web site instead of Flickr or Facebook or Google + ?

But I'm thinking that if it wasn't a really arduous task - I would at least give it a go - and maybe do monthly cash prize for best photo / ask local people (N.Ireland) to upload landscapes etc. or something - at any rate it gives you a lot more options if people can easily post photos using their social logins.

[morestar]

Hey Jordan,

So I checked around further for you and found according to the OP's response on this page, that Social Connect will work the way you're hoping it does if you just change the registering user roles from subscriber to author in the Wordpress admin area under settings/general/New User Default Role. A responder said he used Social Login and that worked for him.

Now I can't quite remember if after a new user is created under the role of an author if you'll be able to approve his post before it goes live so try out Social Connect, create a test account etc., post an article and see if it has to be approved by the admin (you) first. If not, there should be a solution out there somewhere.

[jordanmcclements]

Hey Jordan,

So I checked around further for you and found according to the OP's response on this page, that Social Connect will work the way you're hoping it does if you just change the registering user roles from subscriber to author in the Wordpress admin area under settings/general/New User Default Role. A responder said he used Social Login and that worked for him.

Now I can't quite remember if after a new user is created under the role of an author if you'll be able to approve his post before it goes live so try out Social Connect, create a test account etc., post an article and see if it has to be approved by the admin (you) first. If not, there should be a solution out there somewhere.

Thanks - I'll give social connect a go (I tried and tried previously with login radius and just could not get it to do what I wanted...)

[Ravenhawk]

Do you know what I find *really* handy (and I'm sure millions of other people do too)....

I want people to be able to contribute to the site (i.e. add there own photos which I can approve before they are published).

What is the best way to allow people to set up a 'contributor' account in WordPress automatically by connecting with their social account?

I've tried a couple of different social plugins - but as far as I can tell, there is no plugin currently that provides this functionality...

Here are a couple of ways that might make things easier for you why not have a facebook fan page for the photos then bring them into your site using this plugin Facebook Page Photo Gallery http://wppro.ca/facebookphotoplugin

As for an easy way to login this is also a great plugin for that task Social Login, Social Sharing & Social Commenting, with User Profile Data from Login Radius http://wppro.ca/loginradius

these might help out..