Space Status and Member Roles

Two controls decide who can do what inside a space: its status, which governs whether the space accepts new content at all, and each member's role, which governs what that individual can do there.

Both live on the space's edit screen at Jetonomy -> Spaces -> (space) -> Edit.

Space status#

The Status dropdown offers three values.

Status	Members can read	Members can post
Active	Yes	Yes
Archived	Yes	No
Locked	Yes	No

Active is the normal state.

Archived and Locked both stop new topics and replies. Existing content stays readable - nothing is deleted or hidden, and links keep working. A member who tries to post gets "This space is archived or locked and no longer accepts new content."

Use Archived when a space has finished its life: a completed project, a closed beta, a season that has ended. Use Locked when you are pausing a space you intend to reopen - a temporary freeze during a moderation incident, or a category being reorganised.

Both block posting the same way. They differ in a few places:

	Archived	Locked
Who can set it	A site admin in wp-admin, or the space owner from the front end with Archive and hand over	A site admin in wp-admin only
Reopen from the front end	Yes: Unarchive in the space's Danger zone (site admin, or the member who received the space by hand-over)	No: set it back to Active in wp-admin
Deleting its category	Does not block the delete; the space becomes uncategorised	Blocks the delete until the space is moved
Banner members see	"This space is archived. New topics and replies are no longer accepted."	"This space is locked. New topics and replies are not allowed."
Owner's account erased with nobody to take over	The space is handed to a site admin and archived	-

Changing status back to Active restores posting immediately. Nothing is lost in either direction.

Status is not visibility#

Status and visibility are separate settings and it is easy to confuse them.

• Status answers is this space still accepting content?
• Visibility (Public, Private, Hidden) answers who can see it at all?

Archiving a public space leaves it public and readable. If you want it gone from view, change its visibility as well.

Member roles#

Every member of a space holds one of four roles.

Role	Can read	Can post	Can moderate content	Can manage the space
Viewer	Yes	No	No	No
Member	Yes	Yes	No	No
Moderator	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Admin	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Viewer can read and report. A viewer is on the space's member list but cannot post, reply or vote there. Use it for people you want to follow a space without taking part. It is also the role that Read access rules give out.

Member is the default for anyone who joins.

Moderator adds moderation of content in that space: approving, marking spam, trashing, and replying to closed topics. A moderator's reply to a closed topic is accepted and the topic stays closed, so they can post a ruling without reopening the discussion.

Admin adds management of the space itself: settings, membership, and access rules.

These roles are scoped to one space. Someone can be an admin of one space and an ordinary member of another. They are separate from WordPress roles - a WordPress administrator has site-wide capability regardless.

Promoting a member#

1. Go to Jetonomy -> Spaces and click Edit on the space.
2. Open the Members tab.
3. Find the member and change the dropdown beside their name to Viewer, Member, Moderator or Admin.

The change saves immediately - there is no separate Save button for the members list - and takes effect on their next page load.

To add someone who is not yet a member, use the Add member control above the list: choose the user, pick the role, and click Add. This bypasses any join request or approval the space would normally require. Staff can do the same through the REST API (2.0.4).

Two guards#

Jetonomy refuses two changes that would leave a space unmanageable:

• You cannot remove the last admin. Promote a replacement first. Attempting it returns "A space must keep at least one admin."
• You cannot demote yourself. Someone else with admin on that space has to do it. This stops an admin from accidentally locking themselves out of a space they own.

Site administrators can always reach the space through wp-admin regardless of their space role, so a space cannot become permanently orphaned.

Doing this from the API#

Both operations are available over REST for anyone building an integration or automation:

PATCH /wp-json/jetonomy/v1/spaces/{id}/members/{user_id}
{ "role": "moderator" }

Valid roles are viewer, member, moderator and admin. The caller needs space-admin rights, and the same two guards apply.

See the REST API reference for the full endpoint list.