A lot of folks don’t realize that WordPress has the ability to save posts as “Pending Review.” This doesn’t mean much on a single-author personal blog, but it’s really handy on a group blog like WebWorkerDaily (VIP hosted at WordPress.com). When a writer saves a post with the “Pending Review” status, that tells me that they’re done with it and I can see at a glance the queue of posts that I have to work with.

Unfortunately, that’s all it does. I’m ready for the Automattic folks to take the next step. How about letting the editor or writer leave a comment in the post editing window? Right now, I have to go back to email to ask a writer a question or explain why a post isn’t being published. How about an option to notify the writer via email when their post has been scheduled or posted? An option to notify the editor that a post is in Pending Review?

If anything, WordPress 2.7 has taken a step back for multi-author blogs. In previous versions, the dashboard showed Administrators how many posts were pending review with a handy link right to those posts. Now, that information is buried on the Edit page requiring an extra click.