We set up all of the MediaBLEEP summer contributors with (wait for it) a “contributor” role in our WordPress back end.
Are you using WordPress for your blog or website, and have multiple folks contributing content? The contributor role is very handy.
WP Contributor Role
According to WordPress…
“A contributor can edit their posts but cannot publish them. When a contributor creates a post, it will need to be submitted to an administrator for review. Once a contributor’s post is approved by an administrator and published, however, it may no longer be edited by the contributor.”
There are two issues I found with the contributor role:
- Email notification: Once a contributor submits their post for review, it goes into a pending queue that can be access by administrators, but there is no email notification.
- Uploading files and images: “A contributor does not have the ability to upload files/images.”
Enter WP Status Notifier Plugin
Man, I love the WordPress community. I’m pretty sure you can find a plugin for just about anything. A quick Google search returned an immediate fix for the email notification issue (#1 above).
WP Status Notifier adds a settings page in the WordPress administration area where you can set multiple email addresses to be notified when posts by contributors are pending review. There’s even an option to notify the contributors when their post is accepted or rejected.
This worked beautifully for Nick’s post yesterday.
Other plugins for multiple-author blogs?
What else is out there? What are you using?
Is there a hack plugin to fix issue #2 from above — allowing contributors to upload images or files?
Post image found on http://visualisationmagazine.com
Cleve – what about Role Scoper? Role Manager or Capability Manager?
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/role-scoper/faq/
I realize this post is a couple years old now, but thought I’d pass along this warning about the WP Status Notifier plugin – http://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-wp-status-notifier-malicious-plugin-beware
It appears the plugin will automatically add a link to your blogroll back to the developer’s site without your knowledge or permission, and won’t allow you to delete or hide it either without uninstalling the plugin. That’s a very slimy way to promote a plugin…. Also, when I clicked the link to the plugin website in your post I get “Database Error”. Another red flag.
I do need this functionality (email notifications on posts by contributors), but the WP Status Notifier plugin is not worth it in my view. Will keep hunting…
It looks like WP Status Notifier is no longer in the plugin directory. I just want email notifications when contributors create posts. I may try Edit Flow: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/edit-flow/ But it seems a bit overkill for just needing one little tiny piece of the functionality of this plugin.