The first role is Subscriber, this user has permission to read. We are not employing the Subscriber role to site visitors at this time. Visitors can use the rss feed from MMM to subscribe.

The next role is Contributor, this user has permission to read, write their own posts, edit their own posts, and delete their own posts.

Authors have all the same privileges as Contributors plus the ability to publish and manage their own posts.

Editors have all the same privileges as Authors plus the ability to moderate comments, manage categories, edit and publish pages, edit and publish all posts, and read private posts. We are not employing the Editor role at this time, this may change sometime in the future.

Administrators have all the same privileges as Editors plus the necessary access to install and uninstall plugins, make changes to the site, back up the database, etc.

One role is not better than any other role, an author is not more important than a contributor, and an admin isn’t much good if authors and contributors don’t exist (because no matter how pretty a website, if there’s no content it’s not going to work.) Your role might shrink or expand during the natural growth of the site, and you might request a role with more or less privileges than the one you have now.

For a more detailed overview of the default roles visit the Codex article.

Bios and authors pages are now automatically created. If you do not have a gravatar (aka Globally Recognized Avatar) one will be provided for you automatically (in the form of a silly cartoon monster.) If you’d like to maintain your dignity go get a gravatar and use your own image or logo, don’t worry, it’s free and relatively painless. Be sure to use the same email address as your account at MMM.

You’ll also need to log in at MMM, go to your user profile and fill in your bio. Write in the 3rd person, brag shamelessly and revel in the glory of your fans.

Another change is that you no longer need to use the custom field in order for your images to have a thumbnail display on the front page (or elsewhere.) However, remember that only jpg files are converted to all sizes, if you are using any other file format you’ll still need to make your thumbnails manually and then upload them.

Video posts can now be featured on the front page (without significant drama) as well as in the sidebars.

If you’re confused by any of the features or can’t find your way around the new layout please don’t hesitate to leave a comment.