Explanation of the concept behind private pages?

[polyfragmented]

well, now that you brought it up - i see what you mean though. It was basically meant to hide pages from the public... almost like a "draft mode". we might have to revisit this one a little.

Ahhh. Maybe renaming "private" to "draft" would help for now. The way you explained it makes sense.

I should've searched the wiki more thoroughly though, because seconds ago I found this:

Keep Page Private - If this box is checked, no one will be able to see this page unless you are signed in.

That would've explained things, but I still can't see a private page when I'm logged in. Where exactly do you mean? Someone who's not signed in cannot access the pages section in admin, so I guess it must be in the frontend.

No, 503 doesn't work the same as 404 - maybe this is something we should discuss as well.

It might come in handy for plugins creating user areas or something. Not sure. Or if some punk tries to access system pages. Would love to be able to put in some snide remark, haha.