I want to be able to let people post to my blog, and allow me to okay them before they get published to my site. Is there a way to do this? I want people to contribute, and want to be able to authorize it before it goes live.

This would be awesome if possible!

You can just create one generic account and call it "Joe Poster" or something like that and give that account just posting (but without editing) rights. Then you can post a generic username/password and a bookmarklet link on your sidebar.

But they'd be able to publish the entries themselves - meaning, you won't be able to approve the posts first.

Are you saying you can't restrict posting to a Draft only? I find that hard to believe. That seems to be a pretty basic security feature for non-admins.

Being able to do that very thing is a frequently requested feature.

There's really no such thing as an "admin" in MT. There are just authors with varying levels of permissions.

Someone who has "post" permissions can do exactly that.

What about creating a second blog where the posted entry publishes to a non-live directory? Can he do that? This topic interests me also, btw.

Well, you could do that - but then, you'd have to re-enter the post in the live blog, right?

I'm not sure if that's a problem for him. He just wants to give random visitors to post entries for him to approve. Unless someone else has different ideas, that's good enough until the draft only can be implemented in future version as its very own permission.

You are all sort of right about what I am asking to do. I want to give my site visitors to post their own news, questions, comments, and ideas, then give me the ability to authorize it to go live on the site.

I read a different post related to this and the recommendation was to set up a new author with just post rights to the blog we're speaking about. And by doing something like bookmarking it or something, giving a URL to put on my blog for users to post. However, in that blog post window that pops up, it shows more than I'd like it to. If I create more blogs, they'll be able to see them I assume by scrolling down the drop-down blog box.

What are my options on creating a page for people to post with just basic fields such as TITLE, CATEGORY, AUTHOR, and EMAIL ADDRESS? I guess I need explaining the creating a second blog idea. What code would I be using to get someone to the post area??

I am thinking that maybe a forum solution might be the answer to what I am looking to be able to do. Does anyone know if there's a solution with one of the free forums (such as IKONBOARD, phpBB, etc.) where on my main blog page, I can have items pulled from the forum such as "5 latest forum topics" etc? If I went that route, I'd like to incorporate an automated way to have forum posts headlines appear on my blog page.

Any suggestions? I know I laid a lot down in this post. Thanks in advance for your help and guidance/opinions.

Hey wait a minute, is this the answer for me?? A guestbook? Such as >> http://www.thegirliematters.com/tips....#000440

I wonder if I do as girlie is doing, and just post the headlines and blurb from the submitted post, if that is my easy way out.

Think?? Any MT experts, please jump in.

Well, my guestbook uses the commenting feature - so the comments would be posted immediately, though you could delete them if you don't like the commentary - since you could receive notification on them.

I realized the guestbook won't serve my purpose because I need them grouped in the various categories. If anyone knows how to do this, please post here for me. Thanks.

Okay, this might work pretty neat, it hides the post/draft chooser from all authors except you (set default post status to DRAFT).  Change Melody to your author name in the code.

in edit_entry.tmpl, look for the chooser - it's in two places:


replace that with:


It's still on power editing so that needs to be addressed, but it's a start.  

Oh and I guess the bookmarklet too, forgot about that. =P  Fix all the places you can change the status of an entry.

I don't understand this part of your post.

I had a fix to make, I edited the above code.

clmroch, I mean that you're going to have to cover all the places the post status can be changed.

FYI: I think this is pretty cool and wish I had a place to apply it.  :)

bmk, thanks! I got real busy at work all of a suddent, but plan to try your tip. i can;t wait to try this! I (uh oh) started looking at other blog programs, but I'd like to stick with movable type. Thanks ya'll!

what is the syntax if I want 2 main users?
if ('' == 'user1'&'user2') { ?

Thanks

what is the syntax if I want 2 main users?
Thanks

I also want to let readers post articles in draft status, but after reading your post im more confused.

I would like peeps to be able to post to the main page in any category they choose. my site is here CTF Zone

Would yall be very kind and walk me through step by step in what i'd need to do in order to do that?

I see you have an example answer,but where do i begin?

how are the readers going to acces that? with a form on the main page?

i also have trusted authors, which i would want to be able to publish without me having to permiss it, but if it can only be done one way, so be it.

i havent got a clue, thx for any help <3

what is the syntax if I want all but this user ?

i tried this but it don't work

thats the code for 2 users so me guesses that you could just add all the users you want to be able to have that choice except that one user.

hope that helps.

im getting it together hope it works.

The code for having multiple authors should actually look like this:


Hope that helps.