[wp-hackers] Regarding Status Pending...

[spencerp]

Jeremy Clarke wrote:
> Setting people to contributors isn't any harder than checking a box
> that says "don't let this person publish", and it has the immense
> benefit of already being factored into the UI and not taking any other
> work. It also integrates gracefully with the role manager plugin
> should people want more control (rather than being user-based, meaning
> you'd have to edit every user if you changed your posting policy).
> What you're describing sounds like it would end up being an outlier
> option like the ugly 'visual editor' checkbox.
>
> If anything the whole roles/capabilities thing needs to be
> explained/exposed better in the interface so that it's clear to admins
> what contributor/author/editor mean without them having to dig around
> in the codex looking for definitions. The difference between the roles
> has always seemed esoteric to me (because I didn't research it), but
> it's very specific and with the new status:pending stuff it's already
> very powerful.
>
> For a start, adding a link to the codex page about roles wherever a
> role <select> exists (add new user, edit user) would help make the
> distiction clearer, though I guess WP has been avoiding that kind of
> interface->documentation linkage so far.
>
> Jeremy Clarke
> http://simianuprising.com
Again, I totally agree with this. I understand that it's not hard to 
just change a users status to Contributor. I also agree with what you're 
saying about the Roles/Capabilities needing explained better and so 
forth. And heck, that Role Manager plugin, when I used it before... 
SUCKED. It some-what worked, but was also a pain in the f-ing ass too.

I'm not trying to fight for a change in the core. I'm just trying to get 
across my points of view, suggestions, and thoughts about the new 
"Pending Review" status, and throwing out how maybe having some control 
behind it (from an Administrators perspective) will be helpful in general.

Again, here is what I'm saying:

1) No matter what, no matter how easy it is. An Admin shouldn't really 
have to change a user Role to control the users posts in general. - I 
know it's easy to change users status from Author to Contributor... 
Bottom line is, you shouldn't have to change a user status in general to 
control their posts...

With "Pending Review" now in the core, what's it doing really? I mean, 
even if I changed my Authors to Contributors, but later decided that I 
wanted Authors there too, and tell them to set their posts to "Pending 
Review". They could forget it, and just go ahead and publish them 
regardless.

That basically makes "pending review" status pointless, because even 
when you would tell them Authors to do that, they could forget what you 
tell them to do, and they could go ahead and just publish them anyway! 
Which leads to the next thing...

2) The new Pending Review status is there, but there's not much control 
over it at all. Like Matt and I  basically said: "the best thing to do 
would be to have a checkbox that says something like "All posts made by 
this user must be approved by an Administrator before being published" 
when creating a user or editing a user."

OR, a check box under "Users" section that basically says "All posts for 
users under the Administrator  level will be sent to Pending Review. " 
Now, under WRITE > POST. There could be a button title change, from 
"Publish" to "Submit for Review" or whatever. But even then, the 
function behind that button would have to be adjusted so it actually 
submits their posts for Review first. So their posts aren't being 
automatically published. This sounds like alot, or like it's 
complicated, but really it shouldn't be though.

I was talking with Jeremy Visser in Gtalk a little while ago...

Jeremy: you prolly should've set them to contributors, like they said in 
the thread

Spencer: the whole thing isn't about Roles though, it's about control 
behind that "pending review" status

Jeremy: what exactly do you want "control behind"?

Spencer: so, no matter what "role" a user has, the admin could control 
that status pending
like that one other fellow said

Jeremy: sorry, I don't understand
oh wait

Spencer: put check in box, to allow ALL and ANY users posts to "pending 
review"...

Jeremy: you want to be able to get an admin to set it to pending review
because that button is invisible if you're an admin
correct?

Spencer: the "pending review" is always there, i see it myself when 
writing a post
in WRITE > POST
on right side
under "Post Status"
right above "Draft"

Jeremy: right
okay, I was mistaken again :)
but you wrote: "so, no matter what "role" a user has, the admin could 
control that status pending "
an admin can control the status pending, can't he?
he just ticks that box

Spencer: see, i could tell my Authors to choose "Pending Review" .. when 
ever they write up something, but they could forget that, and go ahead a 
post it... No matter what status they have, Author, Contributor, Editor 
etc etc... it would be awesome for the admin to just put check in the 
box under "Users"... so no matter what, all posts go to "Pending Review"

Jeremy: ah, okay
what you really need is just to have a Submit for Review button where 
Publish would be
problem solved

Spencer: that way, none of the users have to be changed Role wise, cause 
no matter what, the posts will be "Pending Review" for anyone below the 
admin level..

Jeremy: your authors would instinctively click there

Spencer: yeah, submit for review .. however, there still has to be 
control there though... cause no matter what the button is called, the 
posts will be published

Jeremy: yeah okay

Again, I'm not trying to fight to get this in the core. I'm just trying 
to make the ideas, thoughts, suggestions, opinions, and points more 
clear here. :P Anyway, I suppose for the mean time I could change those 
Authors to Contributors, kinda sucks though sigh.