Convert a WordPress Blog into a Private, Facebook-like Social Network

By installing the BuddyPress plugin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BuddyPress), it is possible to convert a WordPress blog into a private social networking site that is very similar to Facebook, but with much more control over privacy. Moreover, with a local installation of WordPress (see Installing WordPress Locally on a Windows Desktop or Laptop), it is possible to use this upgrade to demonstrate how to use a social network in situations where an Internet connection is not available.

(1) See Installing the BuddyPress Plugin in WordPress for instructions on how to download and install the plugin that converts a normal WordPress blog into a social network.

This post is a stub. I have done quite a bit of testing on this feature with highly positive results. I'll add the "recipe" with screenshots to this post as soon as I've had a chance to do a little more testing.