I have a master Drupal site and a replicated (copy of master) site.
Suppose I want users to be able to browse the replicated site. I don't want the replicated site offline. However, I don't want them to be able to create nodes on the replicated site.
Because it's replicated, the access permissions will come from the master site, which *does* allow them to make changes. The replicated site is basically a backup that I want them to be able to log into with their usual accounts, but not create data. Putting replicated database in read-only mode doesn't work because they can't even log in. And, of course, placing the site offline doesn't allow them to log in at all. I could change the access permissions for the roles on the replicated site, but they will be overriden by the master during replication.
Any suggestions for how I might create a module that could supply such a global on/off switch for node creation?