New "Trusted User" permissions.

I'm ok with everything except for that "Don't be an idiot" part. I can't seem to tell when that is happening until later.

I have gotten some questions offline, so in the interest of answering everyone's questions all at once and clarifying the changes...

After much discussion and many complaints about what is and is not appropriate for the front page of the blog with regard to the blog's intended audience and purpose, we have decided to take a different direction.

Users are no longer automatically able to post blog articles on the front page. This has been in the works for a while, and it was implemented today. Users with "Trusted User" permissions have been migrated over. This group is for users who post articles in keeping with the blog's purpose and intended audience. Other registered users are still able to comment.

It was an interesting experiment while it lasted. Sadly it has come to an end, mainly because of the time involved in dealing with the complaints and policing the site.

Part of the problem is with the software. The permissions system is not flexible enough to automatically control what goes on the front page. This results in a situation where anything can be posted to the front page and then has to demoted if it is not appropriate, as opposed to allowing individual blog entries in a "published" status visible to readers of the individual blogs with headlines in a "recent posts" column, while promoting more interesting and appropriate posts to the font page (similar to "diaries" on Daily Kos). So in effect, it is setup to only allow "punishing" users for inappropriate posts instead of "rewarding" users for good posts.

Eventually there may be improvements in this area of the software we use and we can go back to allowing a more open system of individual blogs or "diaries" with appropriate content of general interest to all readers promoted to the front page by the administrator or a system of voting or something.