Blog User Roles and Access

When a user is given access to a blog there are a number of roles to choose from. You should give the user the lowest level role for the functions they need to carry out. The following information will help define what the capabilities are for each role.

When adding a user to a Michigan Tech blog, be sure to use the Add User link in the left menu pane, not the Add New button on the list of users. The Add User screen must state that you are adding LDAP users at the top, above the Username field.

The lowest level user available is a Subscriber. This role is not used in any of our blog sites.

The first option would be Contributor. This is a person who might provide some content to various posts. They can only add a new post, put some content (text, not images) in the post, and delete their own posts. Once another user publishes their post for them, they cannot make any changes. This role is less commonly used on campus than Author.

An Author can create, edit, delete, and publish their own posts. They can also upload images and other files to be used in their posts and edit their post once it has been published. This would be a person that has full access to creating, publishing, and editing their own posts.

The Editor role has the additional capabilities of creating, editing, seeing, and deleting private posts, managing other people’s posts, and managing categories. Does your new user need to be able to manage other’s posts?

Administrators have additional site management permissions. Most importantly, they can manage users and various site options like layout and menus. This user can manipulate many things on the blog site and should be limited to the few main staff members who oversee the blog.