The Content Moderation core module was marked stable in Drupal 8.5. Think of it like the contributed module Workbench Moderation in Drupal 7, but without all the Workbench editor Views that never seemed to completely make sense. The Drupal.org documentation gives a good overview.

Content Moderation requires the Workflows core module, allowing you to set up custom editorial workflows. I've been doing some work with this for a new site for a large organization, and have some tips and tricks.

Less Is More

Resist increases in roles, workflows, and workflow states and make sure they are justified by a business need. Stakeholders may ask for many roles and many workflow states without knowing the increased complexity and likelihood of editorial confusion that results.

If you create an editorial workflow that is too strict and complex, editors will tend to find ways to work around the  system. A good compromise is to ask that the team tries something simple first and adds complexity down the line if needed.

Try to use the same workflow on all content types if you can. It makes a much simpler mental model for everyone.

Transitions are Key

Transitions between workflow states will be what you assign as permissions to roles. Typically, you'll want to lock down who can publish content, allowing content contributors to create new drafts only.

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