User and Permissions Management

Permission management is critical to the dual purposes of blogs. With passwords and “unpublished” posts, part of a blog can be private and the other public. This is greatly beneficial as all content can be centralized on a single WordPress install. Posts can be made public, then easily switched back to private if necessary. Posts can also be password protected, so the incoming link works for public users, but they can not observe the content, only the title heading. 

Every Post has the password protection option…

 

 

Appropriate Usernames and Multiple Usernames per User

In addition, if you have a public blog, you can be queried on the basis of your username. Therefore, you want to set the username appropriately. If you write one one site, you don’t necessarily want to use the same username on a different site that you are administering.

Permission Levels

Currently, these are the permission levels in WordPress

1. Administrator
2. Editor
3. Author
4. Contributor

Collaboration

For collaboration, a number of users can be given author or contributor status, but a different class of user that alters the writing of others is an Editor. The administrator may or may not be involved writing or editing any posts, and may simple administer the WordPress site. The administrator can change everything on the site, so the permission level should only be given out to trusted users with significant WordPress expedience.

Permissions and Keeping Links Relevant

One of the significant issues with online content systems and web site management in general is “link rot.” That is URIs going out of use and dead links makes a site look bad and reduces its functionality. A strong permission model helps alleviate this. Articles and pages can have their permissions changed without changing the link. The link still takes a use to the right URI, but they need a password to proceed. Once the content is deemed ready for public consumption, the password can be removed. See the example below.