There should be a capability flag for the dashboard

[whimsy]

On some multi-author blogs, lower-level authors don't need or want to see the dashboard.

Adding a "show dashboard" option to the list of capabilities would let me do what I want, and hide it from selected users. The default roles could all include this flag, and I could adjust them or make new roles using Owen's Role Manager Plugin.

Agreed. Attached patch gives the 'view_dashboard' cap to all users except Subscribers by default.

Oh, and the DB version will need to be incremented when this is committed to make sure that the new roles take effect.

Oh, and the DB version will need to be incremented when this is committed to make sure that the new roles take effect.

I know this is an old patch, and it's just hanging around, but I thought I'd comment on it anyway for reference purposes.

I've tested this patch and although it does what it claims to do, when you remove the "view_dashboard" cap from a user and they attempt to login to wp-admin/, it doesn't know what page to redirect them to. You get a "You don't have permission to view this page." right after you log-in. So, to make this patch complete, the login script would have to do some intelligent redirect if no caps exist.

Or, IMHO, we scrap the idea and let plugins implement a "roles-based" dashboard view.

I don't think this is the best way to approach the problem, I'd rather have a dashboard that was more useful for people at that level.