Considering a multisite install, a few questions

Hi All,

I am pretty familiar with normal WP installations. Tonight, a potential customer was describing a scenario where he is interested in me putting together a site about his stables/boarding. He is going to have his own domain set up describing his business and services, etc. He then wants his boarders to be able to have their own blogs so that they can write updates about their horses and put up pics, etc.

I thought about just using a normal WP install, but then I wasn’t sure how to lock users into only being able to post in one category so that all of their posts end up staying together and easy to locate in the menus, ex. Joan’s Horse, Mark’s Horse, etc.

So, I’m thinking WPMU sounds like the way to go. This way, they can have their own subdomains and everything will be neat and clean and they won’t be able to “accidentally” mess up other people’s posts, etc.

My questions are as follows:

1) Do all (or the majority) of newer themes support multisite? I saw one site where there was a ‘blogs’ item in the menu that dropped down to reveal each, individual blog. Is this done automatically, or is this something that I would have to customize a theme for? That is what I would like. That, or I could move them into the side bar. I’m guessing there is a WP function to get a list of the sites?

2) With multisite, does each site get their own “mini” wordpress? Can they still create pages, use categories, have the option of using a static front page w/ a “blogs” menu item, if they so desire?

That’s pretty much my biggest concerns at the moment. If there’s anything I’m not thinking of, please let me know.

Thanks in advance for any replies and/or suggestions.