Managing Contributor Sites

Contributor sites are hosted SubCMS instances. They use the DesertCMS engine, but the product experience is a customer site builder.

The master site remains the platform operator console. Use MasterCMS to create, review, provision, support, and govern hosted sites.

MasterCMS Responsibilities

The master operator manages:

• Contributor applications.
• Contributor site records.
• Blueprints.
• Service plans.
• Plan billing state.
• Provider readiness.
• Provisioning and lifecycle jobs.
• Governance.
• Federated content review.
• Operations.
• Upgrades.

The contributor site manager handles their own site content, media, design, features, billing, usage, and account help.

Contributor Requests

Contributor Requests supports public applications for hosted sites.

A typical flow is:

1. Visitor submits a contributor request.
2. Master operator reviews the request.
3. Operator approves or denies the request.
4. Approval can assign a blueprint and service plan.
5. The provisioning queue creates the contributor site.
6. Email delivery records show whether the applicant was notified.

Duplicate requests are rate-limited so the review queue stays useful.

Contributor Sites

Contributor Sites is the fleet list for hosted sites.

Use it to check:

• Site id.
• Domain.
• Status.
• Assigned plan.
• Billing status.
• Blueprint.
• Media quota.
• Provisioning health.
• Last known login.
• Queue state.

Lifecycle actions such as enable, disable, destroy, repair, and retry are platform operations. They stay in MasterCMS, not the contributor SubCMS.

Blueprints

Blueprints are repeatable starting points for contributor sites.

Blueprints can set:

• Vertical category.
• Default pages.
• Theme defaults.
• Enabled modules.
• SEO defaults.
• Media quota.
• Page and post quotas.
• Whether contributor assets or posts can surface on the platform site.

Built-in categories include:

• Photographer
• Artist portfolio
• Writer/blog
• Small business
• Local archive
• Event/community site
• Shop/catalog
• Documentation/resource hub

Blueprints are not just visual templates. They set product defaults for the first site experience.

Service Plans

Service Plans define what a hosted contributor site can use.

Plan fields include:

• Name and slug.
• Description.
• Monthly price.
• Stripe Price ID for plan billing.
• Media quota.
• Per-file upload limit.
• Page quota.
• Post quota.
• Feature map.
• Platform Showcase and post surfacing.
• Custom Postmark sender override.
• Stripe Connect payout access.
• Indexing override access.
• Stripe platform fee basis points.

The plan feature map controls whether modules are available, enabled, locked, or managed by the platform.

Billing State

Billing state lives with the hosted site record and service plan.

Contributor Billing should clearly show:

• Current plan.
• Current billing status.
• Usage.
• Limits.
• Locked features.
• Upgrade path.
• Cancellation or downgrade guidance.

Plan changes should sync quota and feature settings into the contributor site so the SubCMS shell stays truthful.

Provider Inheritance

Contributor sites inherit platform provider settings by default.

Inherited platform services include:

• Postmark delivery.
• Stripe service billing.
• Search indexing defaults.
• Operations.
• Backups.
• Upgrades.

Plan options can allow specific overrides:

• Custom Postmark sender signatures for contributor email.
• Stripe Connect payout setup for contributor shop payments.
• Indexing override controls.

Even when a contributor connects Stripe payouts for site payments, the marketplace checkout can still use the master Stripe account and retain the configured platform fee.

Federated Review

Federated Review is for deciding which contributor assets and posts can surface on the master site.

Use it when the master site includes:

• Contributor Showcase assets.
• Contributor posts.
• Directory entries.
• Public profile cards.

This is a master-side editorial review workflow. It should not appear as a normal contributor setting.

Governance

Governance controls admin roles, access, and audit logs.

Keep governance under Admin Account on the master side. It belongs with platform administration, not contributor site editing.

Contributor SubCMS users should see account settings and help, not the platform governance model.

Support Checklist

When a contributor reports a problem, check:

• Site status.
• Billing status.
• Assigned service plan.
• Feature map and locked features.
• Media quota and storage pressure.
• Provider readiness.
• Recent provisioning or lifecycle events.
• Email delivery logs.
• Whether the issue belongs in contributor support or master operations.