Forum:How do I grant read-only access to a private Wiki?

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Two questions:

1) I've created a second user to my private Wiki but I only want them to have read-only rights. They seem to automatically have all rights including edit. Where do I edit the individual's rights?

2) How to allow a user with read-only access to be able to contribute to ANY discussion page?

Thame Theatre Technical (talk) 17:01, 1 November 2017 (UTC)

There are a couple issues here.

1. You want to allow all users to edit any talk page.
2. You want to block all users, except invited users, from editing any other page.

Ordinarily private wikis allow anyone invited to edit any page and prevent anyone not invited from editing any page. You want something else, therefore you don't want a true private wiki. I see two ways to accomplish what you want.

1. AbuseFilter is probably the easiest way, but it requires knowledge of how to write regular-expression-based filters. You could ask staff to create a new access control group, then ask them to install AbuseFilter for you. You would need to write filters for AbuseFilter and administer who is in the access control group. Also AbuseFilter is intended to limit abuse by spammers and trolls, not control fine-grained access to pages, so you'd be using it for a purpose other than intended.
2. You need to ask staff to create a new access control group, then have staff restrict each non-discussion namespace to require membership in that group. You need to administer who is in the access control group. Although this one seems easier on you, it requires more non-standard wiki configuration from staff.

I am not staff, so they may have yet another opinion (and preference) how they want to implement the changes you desire. I suggest contacting them through s:w:thametheatretechnical:Special:Contact. You can refer to this forum, if you like. --Saftzie (talk) 00:41, 2 November 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for your input , it's appreciated. But maybe I should explain better what I'm after as it's less complicated than it sounds.

I chose "Private" when I set up my wiki, yet it seems that anyone not logged in can still read it. I don't want that, I want it to be, you know, "Private".

It will only have 2 users, one an "Admin" (me and a few others all using the same login) and a "User" set up on all computers in our building (again all using the same "User" login).

I want the Admin, to be able to read and edit everything in the wiki.

I want the User to be able to read the wiki, but to be able to edit the "Talk" pages and only the Talk pages (Discussion pages as they seem to be now).

I want the rest of the world (whether logged in Shoutwiki members or not) to not even see it, let alone read it.

Thame Theatre Technical (talk) 01:21, 2 November 2017 (UTC)

In that case, then ask staff to make your wiki fully private, which prevents anyone not in the Invited Users group from even reading it, and to restrict editing of content pages to Administrators (sysop). Personally, I'd recommend against sharing accounts, especially among administrators. ShoutWiki doesn't have a Term of Use prohibiting account sharing, but ShoutWiki accounts are global. They're not limited to just your wiki. Again, staff may have their own preferences for how to implement your request. --Saftzie (talk) 22:54, 2 November 2017 (UTC)