Blogger permissions

From Acorn

AND OTHER ISSUES

There are several permissions options available, sample scenarios:

A. You want to limit readers to a certain group, and not allow comments.

1. In Settings>Comments, Who can Comment, select Only Registered Users (though this does not really matter)
2. Below that, Comments Default for Posts, select New Posts Do Not Have Comments
3. Just to be safe do the following:
   1. Enable Comment Moderation: Yes, enter email address (can only use one)
   2. Show word verification for comments:Yes
   3. Comment Notification Address (can only use one, does not have to be the same as comment moderation address)
4. Now go to Settings>Permissions. Under Blog Readers, Click on Add Readers. Add the email addresses of the people you want to be able to see the blog. They will receive an invitation from Google, stating they can view the blog for two weeks as a guest, but after that they need a Google account. This can just be their normal email address.

B. You want only certain readers to be able to read, and certain people to be able to comment.

1. Under Blog readers, enter your names. Under Blog authors, enter your names.
2. Under Who can Comment, enter only Members of this Blog....those are the authors.
3. Under Blog Authors, enter the names allowed to post and comment. You can't separate the two.

There is no way to limit the authors from posting new posts, in addition to comments to existing posts.

C. You want everyone to be able to read the blog, but only certain people to post and comment.

1. Under Settings>Permissions, Let Anybody view this blog
2. Under Blog Authors, enter the names allowed to post and comment. You can't separate the two.

Blogger Accounts

When you are invited to be a reader or an author, you need a Google account to sign into the blog. If you already have one, or a Gmail account, you can use that. Otherwise, you can easily get a Google account.

By default, a new Blog Author is a Guest. That is, they can post, but can only delete and edit their own posts. An admin can click on "guest" and change the account to "Admin", they can then do anything the orginal admin can do, except delete the original admin, or change them to a guest.

Guests have limited Dashboard permissions. They can only change their Mail-to-Blogger Address, and remove themselves as a blog author. Their posts will not be deleted.

Posting from email

You can post from an email client (not sure why you might want to do this...) Then, just mail to the email account you have set up in the Settings>Email tab. If you do not click the Publish box, the post will only be a draft. If you attach a picture, it will not come through by email.

An admin account can publish a post that was drafted by a guest. A guest can only publish their own drafts, no-one else's.

Comment Moderation If you allow comments, you have several choices:

1. Comments are emailed to you, and you need to approve them before they are posted. You have the option of deleting them.
2. Comments are not emailed to you for approval, but you receive a copy of the comment when it is posted.
3. The approval and notification email addresses, above, can be different. But you can only enter one address in each field.

TO DO

1. Compare features of Blogger to ConnCourse Journaling tool--when to use what
2. Evaluate counters
3. Evaluate atom vs rss
4. Check maximum number of posts that an RSS feed can detect, it used to be 25

WISH LIST

1. Separate permissions for posting and commenting
2. email that a post or comment has been made to more than one address
3. rss and/or atom notification of comments