Multiple post authors

[radzio]

I run sport blog with over 10 people. Sometimes 2 or more authors want to write post together. There is some plugins which adds this functionality but I think that Wordpress should have this built-in.

[Viper007Bond]

I think an easier solution would be to allow contributors to posts. The database structure is kinda set up for just one author, but we could store contributors in the post meta.

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

this would require schema changes that translate into severe inefficiencies when running queries.

and you can do this with a plugin using the postmeta table, as indicated by Viper.

[Viper007Bond]

Replying to Denis-de-Bernardy:

this would require schema changes that translate into severe inefficiencies when running queries.

Couldn't there just be a new taxonomy for authors? Much like how tags or categories are applied to a post, authors could be applied the same way.

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

well, picture an NDB cluster for a sec (as I have), with a user trying to grab posts with authors A or B and tag C and D and category E or F.

you've posts join user2post join users join term_relationships join term_relationships join term_relationships with or clauses. your cluster is dead... :-)

(the taxonomy schema is dead wrong from the onset, in that the terms table should be merged into the term_taxonomy table, and the term_taxonomy field should ideally be an enum for optimization purposes, but that would be for a separate, faraway ticket.)

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

that being said, if the taxonomies do get fixed, then this ticket will make more sense -- but it's a huge workflow.

[computerwiz908]

I am reopening this ticket to see if this functionality is possible at this point in time. If WordPress wants to market itself as a CMS, then it should incorporate the capability to have multiple authors for one post.

[ocean90]

It should be done by a plugin, ​Co-Authors Plus is one for example.

[computerwiz908]

However, this should be a core functionality. The inability to have multiple authors in one post inhibits, say, news organizations' abilities to tag their articles by author when there are multiple authors.

[ocean90]

Please don't change the reported version to a newer version. Then we lose the history of when the *bug* was identified.

[nacin]

As indicated, this is plugin material. It doesn't apply to most users and works great as a plugin.

[ocean90]

#23440 was marked as a duplicate.

[rubberduck]

Replying to nacin:

As indicated, this is plugin material. It doesn't apply to most users and works great as a plugin.

It probably "doesn't apply to most users" because the users who need it don't bother telling WP about it - they just tell their manager/boss that WP doesn't support X, Y, and Z and they should therefore spend $xx,xxx on an enterprise CMS that does everything they need. Honestly I and my clients would pay for a Premium version of WP (if there was one) if it had some of these more advanced features. WP is in fact better than some enterprise CMS, but it does lack a few such essential features.

[rubberduck]

Replying to rubberduck:

Replying to nacin:

As indicated, this is plugin material. It doesn't apply to most users and works great as a plugin.

It probably "doesn't apply to most users" because the users who need it don't bother telling WP about it - they just tell their manager/boss that WP doesn't support X, Y, and Z and they should therefore spend $xx,xxx on an enterprise CMS that does everything they need. Honestly I and my clients would pay for a Premium version of WP (if there was one) if it had some of these more advanced features. WP is in fact better than some enterprise CMS, but it does lack a few such essential features.

p.s. the Co-Authors plugin might be functional, but it hasn't been updated 2 years. If it becomes incompatible with some future version of WP or PHP and my client decides "hey why don't I upgrade my WP - it's telling me there's an update", I will be the one who will end up spending several hours trying to fix someone else's plugin. It's not the end of the world, but that is one reason why many professional users don't use WordPress.

[helen]

Replying to rubberduck:

p.s. the Co-Authors plugin might be functional, but it hasn't been updated 2 years.

The plugin you were pointed to on #23440 was ​Co-Authors Plus, which had a new version released about a month ago, ​is regularly maintained, and quite actively used.

[rubberduck]

Replying to helen:

Replying to rubberduck:

p.s. the Co-Authors plugin might be functional, but it hasn't been updated 2 years.

The plugin you were pointed to on #23440 was ​Co-Authors Plus, which had a new version released about a month ago, ​is regularly maintained, and quite actively used.

Nice, thanks!

[sabernhardt]

#48023 was marked as a duplicate.

[sabernhardt]

#54242 was marked as a duplicate.