Roles and Capabilities « WordPress Codex

Since WordPress 2.0 came out, I’ve been meaning to look this up. Since I handle all of the content management on most of the sites I’m involved in, I’m always logged in at the admin level. However, WordPress 2.0 has a refined version with 5 levels of access – that allows groups to edit and post together.

For an organization with many people who can contribute- a blog/site can risk changing it’s voice from post to post. Imagine reading the New York Times and having some articles posted by a writer from USA Today- it would stick out like a sore thumb. So- the administrator or higher level access people can serve as editors- making sure nothing goes public that isn’t in style.

Another function is hiding some content from the masses- having some content visible only to people who have been granted higher level access. This is ideal for sites that may be used to communicate to an internal audience as well as an external one- or for a fan club- that get’s access to special info.

The codex link above spells out these roles. This is just one other way that Word Press makes it’s easy to build a site that is more powerful than a conventionally built static HTML site.

Owen Winkler has built a plug-in for WordPress 2.0 to allow you to modify the roles- you can find it here: http://redalt.com/wiki/Role+Manager 

uPress is a WordPress plug in to allow you to post events- with starting and ending dates- or to list items with expiration dates. It is an example of microformats in action. It is still a .4 release and may not notify search engines as nicely as WordPress does, but for a few of our clients- and for listing seminar dates- it may come in really handy. What better place to test it than here.

We thought it would automatically delete the event when it was done- it didn’t. But, we are going to keep using it- just because it makes the info easy to find.

About Microformats
To quote my online buddy D’Arcy, anyone who tells you they are an expert in this field of making sense of cyberspace isn’t telling you the truth: it changes too quickly for anyone to know it all.

I’m the first to tell a potential client what I don’t know- but hopefully, I can make a connection for them to someone that does know a lot about that area.

So- when I came across this site about “Micro Formats” and read the about- I was excited. Here is a new way of trying to make sense out of the chaos we have on the Internet as things change so quickly- and it’s called MicroFormats- using common, existing data vocabulary to build things we need.

Unlike, say, the video production industry that builds a new format every other week (there are about 18 different Hi Definition “standards” for video)- the “MicroFormat” movement is trying to use existing tech to accomplish things in a simple way. Much like the way Apple forced developers to use the same interface and formats to make it easy to interchange data and learn different programs on a Macintosh – microformats are trying to keep things simple.

You don’t have to understand the code- you just need to be able to use it and exchange it could be thier mantra.

Hopefully, this movement will gain traction- making it easier for all of us to become “experts” in this new media world.