In order to post or comment on this website, you must be both registered and logged in. Both are necessary evils today. Any web site that allows posting or any form of collaborative effort will be spammed with all grades of undesirable content. Since this site is solely for the purpose of our class exchanging and distributing information, persons outside our circle are, in general, not invited. Registration allows the site administrator(s) to ensure that a potential commenter or poster is a breathing person (a valid email address is required to receive a password) and then allows that new member privileges on the site. WordPress 2 comes with five different roles available to users, from a basic read-only role (subscriber) to the administrator role. The contributor role allows users to contribute to the blog, but doesn’t actually allow them to publish the post, so their contributions can be reviewed prior to publishing. The author role allows a user to post and publish content, but they can’t edit or manage posts for anyone else. Above that is the editor role, which is restricted from administrative functions (such as managing users) but can post, publish, and manage others’ posts. (See WordPress – Roles and Capabilities). All that is required for registration is a user name and an email address. Neither registration nor login are necessary if all you want to do is read what is on the site.
After you register, you will be emailed a password. On your first login, you will be taken to a User Information Page where you may enter other information, as you see fit. I request that (especially if you are using a special username) to complete at least part of the User Information so I may know who is adding to the site. For those who have some reservations about security, all information is behind a firewall and is only available to registered users. Your login is recorded in a cookie that remains on your system for a while to make re-visits a little easier.
