[wp-hackers] Capabilities as a taxonomy

[Andrew Nacin]

>
> The ability for users to have individual capabilities was removed because
> nobody really used it, no?


Actually, that still exists.

The current system allows for a single user to have multiple roles and
overriding individual capabilities as well. What has been proposed is
limiting users to a single role with no opportunity for individual
capabilities on top of that.

This could significantly increase performance in many situations, as
currently the system can result in a lot of overhead. (For example, if you
wanted to get a list of all users with a certain capability, and you have X
number of users you have to calculate capabilities for...)

 We may need to introduce role management as either a feature or a
core/canonical plugin at that point, that way roles can be cloned and
fine-tuned.

See also: http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/10201.