When you become registered with a WordPress site, you create a user name, a password and a small profile. You are also assigned a user role that in turn defines what privileges you have in the site.
Privilege levels range everywhere from simply being able to read content to being able to publish comments, posts, even edit other people’s work. There are five user levels in WordPress, and this table gives a brief summary:
| User Role | Privileges |
| Administrator | Editor privileges plus manage users, change and edit site presentation, activate and edit plugins, import, edit files, manage site-wide options |
| Editor | Author privileges, plus change other persons’ posts, edit pages, manage links & categories, moderate posts, publish unfiltered html |
| Author | Contributor privileges, plus publish posts without intervention, may upload files |
| Contributor | Subscriber privileges, plus can submit posts for approval, can edit own posts |
| Subscriber | Can read content in site, edit own profile |
A more complete description of privileges assigned to user levels may be found in the self-hosted WordPress website.
Our policy for the AEJMC Network is to allow one person per site to have the role of “Administrator” for limited, pre-defined blocks of time. As you can see from the privileges table, an “Author” can post material without intervention and can upload files. An “Editor” has pretty much total control of all content in your site and even has some coding rights. There are few site operations that require administrative privileges, and the application of those privileges can represent a security risk not only to your site but to the sites of all divisions in the network.
If you believe you require administrative privileges, you should first read the WordPress security page, the Administrator agreement page, and then read and follow the instructions on the “Administrator policy” page.