staff.bilkent.edu.tr is a Multi-Site WordPress site (also called a “WordPress Network”). This means there is only one instance of the WordPress software which serves multiple sub-sites; that is “blogs” in WordPress parlance.

Advantages of the Multi-Site WordPress are

  • the site administrator ( “network administrator”) has to maintain (upgrade, etc.) only one WordPress instance,
  • templates and plugins can be managed from a single panel for all sites at once,
  • saves resources.

However; there are disadvantages too:

  • Administrators of sub-sites (blogs) are not allowed to install templates or plugins,
  • administrators of sub-sites have limited rights to change template or plugin settings,
  • if the server is down for some reason, many sites are effected.

Given these ups and downs, we have decided that a Multi-Site WordPress installation is much better compared to having independent WordPress installations for each user in Bilkent community.

Limitations

For security reasons, site administration is only allowed if the administrator is using a computer located on Bilkent network. In other words, no site updates will be done if the user/admin is using a computer which is located on a network other than Bilkent campus network. If you need to administer your site while you are located outside Bilkent; you should use our VPN services. Once you establish a VPN connection, the computer you are using will be a part of Bilkent campus network and be authorized to edit a site. Click here for information on Bilkent VPN services.

File uploads are limited to 150 MBytes per upload and the total size for all uploaded media is limited to 5 GBytes per site. For special cases requiring more disk space, please contact us.

We had to disable visitor comments on sites due to security reasons. The chances that a site will be flooded by spammers is too high. Yes, there are plugins out there which claim that they’ll stop spammers but we’d rather stay on the safe side. Sorry for that.

Installing themes & plugins

Site admins are not allowed to install themes and plugins on multi-site WordPress networks. Only the network admin(s) can do that. Therefore, if you need a theme or plugin installed, please notify network admin(s) ( wpadmin @ bilkent.edu.tr) with the full name and URL of the theme/plugin on the WordPress.org site. For security reasons, we shall ONLY install themes/plugins that are available on the official WordPress repositories.

For the advanced users:

Themes

Although the staff.bilkent.edu.tr bloggers are confined to admin chosen themes, the “Custom CSS” functionality is available; i.e. one can change a lot of chosen theme’s visual attributes provided that user knows how to manipulate CSS (Cascaded Style Sheets) files.

Commercial themes: it is possible to install a theme and assign it to ONLY one site or to selected sites. Therefore if you wish to use your own commercial (premium) theme; just buy it and send it to us and we’ll install it just for you.

Plugins

It is also possible to install private plugins. If you wish to use your own commercial (premium) plugin; just buy it and send it to us and we’ll install it just for you.