As a website owner, Rockhouse Partners currently grants many of you full administrative permissions within WordPress. There is a famous quote that has been attributed to many people, and best sums up this level of permissions:

“With great power comes great responsibility.” ~ Many wise folk.

During a speech in 1879, Sir Hercules G. R. Robinson extended the saying:

“But great power carries with it great responsibility, and great responsibility entails a large amount of anxiety.”

If you follow some simple rules while working in the WordPress admin, you can greatly reduce your level of anxiety – and ours.

Things you SHOULDN’T do:

1. Install plugins. Plugins need to be fully tested in a safe staging environment before they can be activated on your live website. If you need to add features or functionality to your website, please reach out to us at clientserivces@rockhousepartners.com with a summary of what you need, and they will work with the web team to find the proper plugin that passes our security and compatibility standards, and or show you how to accomplish your goals using existing plugins.
2. Install themes. We use a base and child theme for all our client websites as a foundation that supports our page building plugin Elementor. If you try to replace the theme or child theme, bad things will happen, and you will most likely break the site. 
3. Deactivate plugings or themes. The plugins and themes used in your site are there for a reason. They’ve been tested for compatibility and security, and often, they may be there to support other plugins or theme functionality. Disabling them, especially security plugins like Wordfence, can have dire consequences.
4. Change settings in plugins, especially Wordfence, MainWP or caching plugins.
5. Remove users. If a user has added content and the person is deleted, that content may be removed as well. Certain users are there for a reason even if you don’t recognize their username or email address. Please reach out to clientservices@rockhousepartners.com if any of them need to be removed or modified.
6. Modify plugin or theme files. WordPress includes the ability to edit theme and plugin files directly through the admin. Never do this.

Things you SHOULD do:

1. Review your users. Make sure that the users you allow access to your website (from your organization or third party partners) are current and have only the permission level they need to do their work. Please reach out to clientservices@rockhousepartners.com if any of them need to be removed or modified.
2. Be vigilant. Visit your website through the eyes of your customers. If you see something confusing, broken, missing, or unexpected, let us know.
3. Ask first. There are no stupid questions. If you feel uneasy about doing something in the admin, please let us know. We’re here to support you – and never judge.

How to reach us:

clientservices@rockhousepartners.com