[wp-hackers] New Members - "May submit drafts for review" and delete them?

[Mark Jaquith]

jeff at jrm.cc wrote:

> I think, that for this case, I am going to agree with Ryan full on. 
> Turn off everything for the level one user except the "Write" and 
> "Users" so that all they can do is submit drafts and edit their user info.

That sounds like the best plan for the immediate future.

> As another said in that thread, the dashboard is not relevant to a 
> contributing author at all, and if users aren't allowed to edit 
> published items, then they have no need to use the "Manage" screens - 
> and draft they have would show up in the "Your Drafts" on the "write 
> post" page.

Agreed.  I had a blog with open user submissions back in version 1.3 
CVS.  I had well over 150 authors, so I got a lot of feedback.  People 
were just confused with all the options.  I ripped out tons of stuff, 
and changed wording of the Save as Draft button to read "Submit Draft 
for Approval."

> On that note, is the "private" feature useful? Perhaps for drafts that 
> are WIP?

Yes, this is useful, otherwise we don't know what drafts are WIP and 
which are being submitted for publication.

Now what I think we need is a slightly better system for presenting 
drafts to the admins.  Currently it isn't apparent which author has 
written the draft... all we get is the title.  Also, unless the admin 
happens to visit the Manage screen, those draft submissions could go 
unnoticed.

Another thing that might be good is a slight change on the User screen.  
We currently have the "Promote" thing for promoting users to authors, 
which is good, but if Level 1 now means they can submit drafts, maybe 
that should be indicated with another grouping.  There could be "Users," 
"Moderated Authors," and "Full Authors" or something like that.

If we take care of that, I think we'll have a nice minimally functional 
system for open user contribution, one that I hope will be expanded in 
later versions.