Players have editing rights...?

Celestino

So I've invited one player to my campaign but it seems he has the same editing rights as me. From where can I change it so he can only watch, but not touch?

RaseCidraen

I'm not sure if there is that option... I've always enjoyed that the players can get their hands dirty if they want to. It allows them to add flavor and relieve a lot of the burden from me.

Curufea

You may need to use an external CMS (Drupal, Joomla, various wikis) that has more rights options for members if you want that functionality.

Lezta

Yeah, encouraging players to edit the wiki is to be, well, encouraged, if you ask me.

Duskreign

I recommend doing a campaign backup as often as possible. I also recommend either making a forum post on your wiki asking people to save the original page as a word document before making any edits, edit from the word document, save a before and after version of the page, then submit the changes to the wiki.

Curufea

Hmm, I just noticed that the wiki on OP isn't a full wiki - it doesn't store histories of changes.

So yeah, 100% with Dusk reign there - backup often!

JustinMason

Seeing as how a non-technical player just wiped out an entire part of my Wiki, I would say (player-level) permissions are a must, and need to be put in place ASAP. Either at the player level where permissions to edit can be denied to a individual player, or an even more simple solution would be at the page level make an option where it can be selected for the page to be editable by players or not. The backup option is nice, but isn't a backup to restore so is pretty useless in this instance. I want to encourage my players to update the wiki, but not at the expense of days or weeks worth of hard work on my part as a DM + hours of tedious formatting for the wiki platform. It seems silly *not* to have this as an option and instead to suggest, as Curufea did, to use another service. It's a simple yes/no flag on page records: can players edit? I'm a huge fan of OP, and have been here for several of my campaigns over the past 4 years or so and watched the service grow, but now having experienced this, it's almost a show stopper. I'm sadly considering transferring away from OP if this can't be integrated into the service.

gaaran

It's not a fix, but the gang running the show here I believe keep back-ups and might be able to recover a lost page. At least it's worth a shot to see if they can recover some of your hard work.

JustinMason

Thanks, gaaran. I don't mind fixing the issue this time. But, unfortunately it's made me all to aware how vulnerable all of my content is, and it a major factor in discouraging serious use of OP for campaign management. I'm hoping to hear from someone up stairs as to whether this is going to be approached for solution, if something is in the works, or if it's just a feature of Obsidian Portal. I really want to use OP, but if it turns out that there's no way to secure the information from all the different players added to the campaign, then I'll have to find another solution. I'm honestly surprised I haven't run into this before with all the campaigns I've run in the past... but, honestly, I wasn't aware with how easily changed my pages were until running into this incident this evening.

gmcarlheid

I agree that having a page level option to allow or disallow players to edit would be nice. I wouldn't want my players going into an NPC and changing details, but allowing them to post on the Location pages their thoughts or perceptions is a nice feature.

FemmeLegion

At one point when I was first poking around with my first campaign that never happened, I discovered that if a page had been created before the player was added to the game, s/he couldn't edit it.

Has that been changed? I mean, I'm skittish about adding players to my nascent campaigns because I'm afraid they'll get the idea they're ready to go soon, but I was also kind of hoping to still milk this particular perq.

DreadGazebo

What exactly do you mean by "wiki was destroyed"? If pages were deleted they may still be in the trash bin and can be recovered. Also, please see our blog post entitled "Privacy Controls, or Lack Thereof":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/privacy-controls-or-lack-thereof/

JustinMason

I still don't' see what the drain would be (or what it would take away) to add a "not editable by players" checkbox on a page. There's already a "not viewable by players" (GM only) option. It would give several folks what they're asking for, and for those of us who may not have web-savvy players (whom also don't want to become web savvy), some added security that "setting content" pages, etc. won't get screwed up by accident. And as far as trust issues go, that IS an element. Not for myself right now, but assuming that every GM is going to be running a campaign that consists of only his best buds of buds is a bit presumptuous. There are a lot of gaming groups (like ours) that have complete strangers show up to game sessions, and you never know what you're going to get. I could see us pulling in a new player six months down the road, someone I've never met, and I'm not sure I'd want them to have full access to edit all my content right off the bat, but it would be nice to be able to include them in the wiki process for pages I'd like players to edit. It's about GM control -- and just saying "you should be able to trust your players" may not apply to everyone... How many GM's use Screens? Why? They should be able to trust their players.

wootersl

Hear, hear on the locking players out. If the players want to add their 2 cents in, there is a comments page. But, I would hate to have a disgruntled player go in and destroy all my work. Yes, you have a backup, but one little addition of security would make this an awesome site!

Whataguy2000

I just had a player go in and change my crit and fumbles page. I'm developing a fair amount of content that should not be editable by players such as house rules, combat rules, npc's, and the crit tables. I love the fact, that my players can edit their characters and there are several means for them to log events and/or make comments. But, I don't want them to edit the rules either on purpose or by accident. I'm hoping for a resolution.

Thanks for the hard work!

[update] So, I found the post on privacy controls and I see the point. In my case, the player wasn't being malicious. He was just making a point. I didn't know that players could edit the pages. Now that I know, I can let everyone know to leave the edit button alone on the rules pages. Nevertheless, I still like the idea of just a bit more control over page editing. Not a deal breaker.

Baalshamon

What I have been doing in my main campaign. is backing up the content of the page offline as well as in the GM only section. This way if the players screw something up it is a simple cut and paste fix. I encourage my players to add to the wiki often, their notes and thoughts can help me figure out how better to direct the campaign.

"Star Trek Late Night":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/star-trek-late-night

GamingMegaverse

Yes, backup often!! I encourage my players to write logs and edit their characters, but I have lost things before as well.
killervp
"A God...Rebuilt":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/a-god-rebuilt