Please review WordPress roles and understand that allowing anyone to post any content can be a security risk that would allow the inclusion of malicious content, porn, etc., and even take your site down, so it is not recommended.
Thanks for the response Swanson.
I didn’t know about the difference between author and contributor.
I’ll definitely keep that in mind. When anyone published anything like that in the past I’ve deleted their account so that seems to be working.
Thanks.
Do you know how to approve posts which are already pending? I have too many to do manually and they’re all porn free 🙂
I don’t actually, and I would assume the reason it is that way is for security.
If you really don’t want to review before publishing, change your regular users to authors.
Authors will have the capability to publish their own posts, but no to bypass content filters (the “unfiltered html” filter). The only serious risk with untrusted authors is unwanted content. Malicious content (script/iframe based) will be removed.
Knut, can’t an Author post images with links to malicious sites? Can they not provide links of same? Can they not specifically post a link to a script?
They can post links to anything, with text or image anchors. No difference between contributors and authors here, as long as you don’t actually review pending posts for such.
Knut, so then you agree that it is not ‘best practice’ to allow anyone to post while also not moderating those posts prior to publishing to a blog?
That was my point. A good way to lose your blog readers is to have them receive a feed from your site where simply clicking an item can take them to a ‘bad site’…etc…I am fairly sure I would not be returning to the site if that happened to me. Additionally, the links are indexed by search engines and if you are linking to a bad site you can be blacklisted.
Thanks for the concern Swanson. I think everyone knows that’s it’s not ‘best practice’ but I don’t mind doing it. The posts would be reviewed quickly for content issues and deleted. Linking to bad sites would be a possibility however posts which link to spammy sites typically are very poor content and would be deleted when they’re not indexed or the bounce rate is high.
This site isn’t a blog, it’s just a site that I made using wordpress as a CMS. It’s one of many sites I have and I’ve isolated it on a differnet server from my other sites. This is an experimental site for me and only sees 50 or so visitors a day currently so if it is de-listed I can live with that.
If anyone knows how to approve all pending posts I’d appreciate it!
Thanks.
@swansonphotos
It’s about trust. Your registered users that are elevated to author role are not “everyone”.
I would warn against letting anyone register directly as author. Must let them register as contributor at highest, then manually elevate after verification that you trust this user.
You may get links in comments, too. Most sites allow those without moderating. Best practice is always moderate first comment, or more strict.
I guess that I don’t understand why, if the posts are to be reviewed anyway, why not just hold for approval? But it is your blog…
I search through posts for spam topics and can also see which ones get visitors so if they don’t they’re also removed. manually approving all of them would be tedious though since I don’t have much time to devote to the site.
Thanks for the idea of elevating trusted user’s status’ Knut. I’ll definitely give that a shot.
To approve all pending posts at once is possible using WordPress core functions in on the wp-admin/edit.php page:
1. Determine the approx number of post to act on
2. Open Screen options and set the number of posts per page to this number
3. Show Pending only by the header action link to this filter
4. Mark all by checking the box to the left of the Title header
5. In mass actions select Edit
6. Apply
This will open a multi-post edit box. All fields should remain as “Don’t change” except Status. Set the Status to Published. Update.
(Set the number of posts per page n Screen options back to a reasonable number, like 20.)
Thanks a lot Knut, that’s exactly what I was looking for.
The last thing I want is to bulk approve all posts from contributors. I like Knut’s suggestion to “elevate” from contributor to author once satisfied the posts are ok.
Meanwhile, I still don’t see how, as administrator, I can approve a pending post.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Dave
To approve a pending post just open it for editing and press Publish. May also be done using quick edit or bulk edit, by changing status to published.
