Considerations of Operating a Collaborative Blog

I friend of mine who edits a collaborative blog ran into a problem recently.

A number of people contribute to the blog posting.  All of the contributors were authorized as admins for the site instead of a mix of contributors managed by administrators.  A dispute arose between one of the authors and the rest, and in a fit of childish rage, this person went in and locked out every else, then deleted all of the existing posts and put up a bunch that were diametrically opposed to the opinions expressed in the original content.

This was a political and current events blog concerning itself with the issues of a somewhat controversial nation in the Middle East which rhymes with the word, real.  So, the opposite opinions were also somewhat controversial.

Because the person who made the changes was authorized to do so, it is now impossible for the original blog authors to regain control of their site.  The rogue person was completely new and this did not weigh into the blog service management’s decision on the matter.  The change was done according to the terms of service of the site and management’s decision was as well.

So, it’s probably a better idea before completely unlocking your site to a new contributor, that you only grant enough access for those contributions, or perhaps editing rights, and wait to throw in the whole enchilada until after a probationary period.