Re: can members create blogs outside of wp control panel?
there are several themes such as P2 and Prologue that offer front page posting.You can use TDO forms to have a form on the front page to post.I dont know if it works with mu..give it a try.
What i tried to point is that you can use the same technique in your themes, so as to avoid users to log into wordpress panel.
This can be done like this
if( user is blog owner) -> show the quickpress code (you can copy the quickpress code from the P2 or Prologue theme)
else
show the comments form
its the basic logic.I am working with my initial setup,i thought to implement this later when i am finished with my setup