Allow or Prevent Contributor users from sharing Files and Folders inside our sites

Question

When we create a new site we get this option to allow Contributor users to share files and folders:-

In most of the cases i UN-check these check-boxes because if we allow contributor users to share files and folders, then we will end up having a lot of files and folders with unique permissions, which will make managing the permissions a real pain.

I usually as a SharePoint developer/team-leader create a long running sites (sites which will be used for long time). While our end-users creates team sites to manage the documents/tasks about short running projects or tasks, and inside these sites end-users are allowed to share files and folders...

so now i need to make a policy for allowing/preventing end users from sharing files and folders, and i came out with these 2 main points:-

1. For long running sites and sites which have a clear permission structure we only allow site admin to share file and folders.. and the admin is advised to only share main folders inside document libraries. for example if we have a main document library the admin can create 4 main folders for HR,IT,Finance & Management and set unique permission on these 4 main folders only.

2. For short running sites and sites which do not have a clear permission structure, we will allow contributors users to share files and folders.

Hint:- In my above policy i am assuming that long running site should have a clear permission structure, while short running sites do not have a clear permission structure.. and in our case this apply to 90%++ of the sites inside our company.

any advice on my above policy? Thanks

Answer 1

In my point of view, you could allow contributor users sharing files and folders inside short running sites. This allows users to have a better file sharing experience.

I suggest you strictly grant user permissions in the short running sites to make clear permission structure.