Crew

This section covers the basics of user accounts, Authors, and collaboration.

Users

Each user is identified by a username and a password. The password is never stored directly; instead, an Argon2i password hash is calculated from the user's password, then this hashed value is encrypted. The final ciphertext is stored in the database.

• A user account is just for authentication and access controls.
• Anything you publish gets attributed to Authors, not Users.

Authors

Authors are shared pen-names. Each user may have access to multiple authors, and each author may be shared across multiple users.

• An author is a public persona, decoupled from your user account, that you can (optionally) share with other users.
• To invite users to collaborate under an Author identity, you only need the user's Public ID, which is a distinct randomly generated value from their username and display name.

Creating Your First Author

After logging into the Bridge, click the Authors link in the left menu. Click the "Create a New Author Profile" button.

• Author Name - A pen name or the department.
• Byline - This can be a title (e.g. Freelance Copywriter) or a quote.
• Biography - Describe this author profile. What is your purpose in writing blog posts?

Collaborating with Other Users

After logging into the Bridge, click the Authors link in the left menu. Each author will have four buttons. If you hover your mouse over them, you will see a tooltip that explains what each button does.

Click the second icon (mouse hover tooltip: "Manage Members").

If you wish to invite a user to collaborate, you first need their Public ID. Users can find it on the Bridge homepage or in My Account.

Groups

Groups are just collections of users, with a twist: Groups can belong to other groups. This recursive nature is useful for assigning permissions to e.g. an entire department.

• A user may belong in multiple groups.

Airship provides this group arrangement by default:

• Guest
• Registered User * Moderator * Administrator * Publisher * Trusted Commentor * Writer

An Administrator is also simultaneously a Moderator and a Registered User.

To learn more about permissions, see the Permissions section in the End Users' Guide.

Next: Using the Blog Features