You should forgive me for this. This long entry was supposed to posted last year but due to procrastination...
If you really don't want to muck around with renting virtual private servers so as to run a powerful microblogging script, you can cheaply and easily create a microblogging service using Buddypress . Buddypress is a Wordpress plugin which you can easily install to your Wordpress blog to create a microblog. Twitteronia (service unavailable) is one such instance using this plugin.

Installing Wordpress

The first thing we should do is to install Wordpress. Hope you've got your domain name and hosting ready at this point! Now:

1. Download all the files that are required: the latest Wordpress release, Buddypress zip files or tarball, and Buddypress theme files.
2. Decompress the Wordpress zip file or tarball and upload the folder to your server.
3. Login into cPanel (I'm assuming your host is using cPanel). Go to "MySQL Databases".
4. Now let us create a database.Go to "Create Database". Give a name to your database plus a secure password. Click "Create" to create your database.
5. Go to "Create User" and create a user for this database. Ensure that this database user has all the privileges of accessing the database.
6. Now let us edit this file: the "wp-config.php" file that is in the Wordpress folder you just uploaded. Mind you, you'll be using a text editor here (Notepad++is my favorite). You can also use cPanel's File Manager application that has a text editor to do this.
7. To edit the "wp-config.php" file, involves answering 3 secret questions and also inserting your database username, database name and password. Do just that and save your changes. (UPDATE: If you are using Notepad++ to edit this file, you'll have to edit the file on your computer first before uploading to your server).
8. Let us turn to installing your script. Point your browser to the installer script. This should bring up a form where you'll have to fill in the name of your blog, your admin name and admin password. Click on the "Create" button. The installer will now connect to the database that you created and create tables and then populated it with data.
9. You have now successfully created your Wordpress blog. Hurray! Celebrate. You can now start posting, changing its themes and toying around with its widgets but....

Hey! Weren't we out to create a microblog in the first place. Oops, there is still some work to be done.

For the creation of your Wordpress database, you can use PHPMyAdmin too. Simply go to PHPMyAdmin. This will bring up the homepage listing all the databases on your account. Go to "Create Database". Chooser a name for your Wordpress database and then create it. You don't need to touch the other selection lists on this page. Now your new Wordpress database will be added to the others on your account.

Installing Buddypress

You are just close to having your own microblog.

1. Upload the Buddypress zip files to the "plugins" folder in the Wordpress folder.
2. Go to your administration's panel. Under the "Plugins" section, your Buddypress plugin should be available. Click on "Activate". Wordpress will first unzip the file and then activate it. To bypass this, just unzip your Buddypress download on your computer and then upload it to the "plugins" folder. If you go to the "Plugins" section, Buddypress should be available. Activate it. This is quicker than the previous step.
3. Unzip your Buddypress themes locally and then upload them to the "themes" folder in the Wordpress folder. Now go to the "Appearance" section in your Wordpress administration panel. Activate the theme that you want.
4. Visit your blog. OMG, it just looks like a microblogging site.... with your blog's name on it. Now you can post status updates. To post entire blog posts you'll have to go back to your admin section and create an entry. Woo hoo!

The beautiful thing about this plugin is that has got cool themes related to it. If you just don't like the default theme or if you want to clone Facebook's theme, take a look at the Fishbook and FaceLook themes. Above all, you can use this plugin to create a microblog on shared hosting. Cheap, isn't it? For those who would love to bring in their friends into the site for some action...

Wordpress MU

...Wordpress MU is just the script for you. With this script, you can let in more users onto the site with only a single installation. Couple that with the Buddypress plugin and we'll be talking of an online microblogging service like these 10 sites..

Permalink

Yup! That's from us. May be we should have said:

Happy Holidays

instead. But for us to convey the religious meaning of this occasion, we had to say it the right way. Could

Have a Merry Christ-Mass

conveyed it better than the common way? Anyway, that's up to you to decide. Now turning to matters of....

New Year Resolutions

Do you have any ready for 2011? Well, concerning about your microblogging activity:

• Have you planned to use content that is great and informative to woo more followers?
• Have you planned to tweet/post more often?
• Have you planned to revive that account that you neglected some time back?
• Or do you wish to have one in the coming year?
• Or may be you just want to engage more with those friends you followed/subscribed to this year.

Now I've added something on to your "Next Year's To-Do List". OUUCH!!!!

Enjoy your Christmas Holiday

Permalink

What’s your mission whenever you login into any microblogging site ? Do you ever have a sense of duty to your subscribers/followers and friends whenever you are sending out those messages? Let us put this way: what were your aims when you registerd an accounrt on that site? Was it:

1. To make friends or to maintain the online relationships that you have?
2. To solve people’s problems?
3. To promote some blog, website, product or service?
4. To just check out what the service had to offer?
5. To seriously spam or troll on the network (a serious #failure)?

Anyway, this article is not about that but on the little bright moments every microblogger experiences on any microblog.

Subscriptions

Do you remember the very first days after setting up your account on, say Twitter? Fresh faced with some subscriptions and NIL followers? It seemed quite strange when posting a message which you knew no one was listening to; all against the nagging thought at the back of your mind which was saying, “You are wasting your time here. No one is listening, buddy.”

What about that day when you saw that you had gained some few subscribers? You were over the roof. In your excitement you were ready to "fungua roho" (open up your heart literally) and share as much as you can with your new followers. This excitement is not only felt by the newest signups on the site only. Believe you me, I have followed people who seemed to have neglected their accounts but afterwards they came back and started posting again. It’s like they just saw that they had gained some new followers and felt the need to at least start taking their “networking” seriously.

On another note, are you obsessed (I’ve lacked a better word for this) with the number of followers/subscribers you have gained recently? You are not alone. I confess that on many occasions I usually visit Twitter, or Nairobi-stique for that matter, just to see how many followers I’ve gained. That’s not bad at all. It’s human nature to feel appreciated whenever you know someone is listening.

@Replies

The #NewTwitter puts it well: @Mentions. The link’s description is: “all the tweets in which you are mentioned.” Anyway, here is the main point: @replies on any microblogging site do stimulate conversations. It’s quite motivating to see someone has “@replied” you. By the way, some microbloggers do not like it when someone fails to reply to their posts. Some even drop/unfollow those who never respond.

NB: Some microblogging sites have comments for their replies.

Repeats/Retweets

Has someone ever repeated/retweeted your post? How did you feel? It sure feels great whenever you see someone has repeated one of your messages.

Permalink

This is a one huge digression from the niche that this blog focuses on. Have you read Robert Scobleizer's blog post on what he does with all those apps on his iPhone. I found this to be a little bit funny: that he has an app for seeking other apps on his gizmo! Oooof! Wow! Surely, doesn't that give any iPhone-owner a feeling of  clutter? I guess there must be some app out there that can let you run as many apps as you would like, all on the...
 

Cloud.

May be there is an equivalent of Spoon for mobile apps out there. Who knows! But for iPhone-owners, they'll have to look up to Apple to set up for them a service like this one.

Permalink