Bren and I are working to setup a news/announcement blog at work. This blog will have multiple authors, and most of the authors will only post to one or two categories each. There might be some overlap of categories.

Following the logic of the Principle of Least Privilege — plus having a healthy dose of trust that user error will happen no matter what — I set out to make PLP a reality in limiting what categories authors can post to. By default with Wordpress, every author can post to every category. Redalt has two plugins that get you on your way.

The first is Role Manager. Role Manager allows you to define 37 different settings, from the ability to upload files, edit others posts, manage categories, switch themes, and on. And you can create however many roles you need. The Redalt version works for WP2.0, but this modified version works with WP2.0 and 2.1.

The second plugin is aptly named Limit Categories. Limit Categories picks up where Role Manager leaves off. Based on the user’s role — those roles created by Role Manager and the five default roles — you can specify what categories they can post to, as well as what their default category is. And like Role Manager, the Redalt version works for WP2.0, but a modified version for WP2.0 and WP2.1 is available here.

If you are inclined to do a “Free For All Friday” this is exactly the setup you’d want to use. Who knows, I might just do that around here sometime.