At some point, as a SharePoint Site Admin, you must have added users into the default “Members” group of your SharePoint site.As seen in earlier SharePoint Versions, this “Members” group (that gets Created with your Site) by default, has Contribute Permission level assigned to it. Typically, the Contribute permission level provides users added to the Members group with “view, add, update, and delete list items and documents” capabilities. This is all right because in the normal SharePoint world this is what we expect Site Members to do – but only in earlier SharePoint Versions. In SharePoint 2013, the permission level to default “Members” group was enhanced to Provide users with add, edit and delete Capabilities for the list.

The default Members group In SharePoint 2013 now has a new Permission level called “Edit”.
Navigate to Site Settings -> “Site Permissions” and look for the “Team Site Members” group. See the permission level “Edit”.

Please Note - Members group Can also have Contribute permission level by default. It depends on the Site Template that you have used to Create a Site.

With Edit Permission level, In addition to the Typical Contribute Permission users are now able to “add, edit and delete lists in your SharePoint 2013 Site.

Edit Permission level – “Can add, edit and delete lists; can view, add, update and delete list items and documents.”. The Screen below shows difference between Contribute & Edit Permissions.


So, now that you know your Members by default have Capabilities to edit and delete a list, you should Change the default Permission level of Members group to Contribute before adding users into it. See Step-by-Step Tutorial on How to Change default Permission Level for a group in SharePoint 2013 (from ‘Edit’ to ‘Contribute’)