Can authors look at private posts?

  • sonjalind · Member ·

    I am setting up a writing class website (http://sonjalind.wordpress.com) and have designated my students as “authors”. The problem is: I have password-protected private pages I want them to view (I have divided the class into small groups), and I believe the only way I can do that is to promote them to “editors”.

    As much as I want to give my students autonomy, I don’t want them to change themes, or delete any posts they please. On the other hand, I don’t want them to view private pages either.

    Any suggestions?

  • drmike · Member ·

    Please note that password protected and private are two different settings. You can make a Post private which means it won’t show up on your front page, categories, or RSS. Password protection will make the Post show up but to read it, you need to have the password.

    Anyone can read a private Post if they have the URL.

    Not sure about Password protection though. I know Administrators can even if they don’t have the password.

    Feedback sent.

  • sonjalind · Member ·

    Yes, I have made these posts private, and they are also password-protected. I had a problem when they were not private (were published) and had password protection, because the prompt for a password never came up when the posts were published, and anyone could read the pages.

    I have experimented with an alter ego email address/Wordpress identity, and made her an author and editor. When she was an editor, she could write posts, edit even the administrator’s posts, and view the private, password-protected posts. A little too much freedom for her, so I changed her role to “author”. An author can write a post and edit her own posts/comments, which is wonderful, but can’t view the password-protected posts (“Error 404” comes up).

    Just wondering how I can have a happy medium? I’m tempted to do away with the passwords altogether, but I don’t want the entire class able to read written articles that are meant to be private (autobiographical information, for instance).

  • sonjalind · Member ·

    The specific page I am referring to is:
    http://sonjalind.wordpress.com/class-groups/

    I want to password-protect these posts so that other classmates don’t read the material there.

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