User permissions... denied

Today I've run into what I consider the first real deficiency in basic Joomla 1.0-- the seriously weak user management system. I wasn't planning to open up access to anyone else until the basic foundations of my site were in place, so this is the first time I've actually looked at the user system.

Well, from what I understand, this will be remedied in the next/upcoming major version of Joomla (1.5), but that doesn't help me right now. Those who know me can attest to the fact that I rarely complain about things, but I really need this feature! ;P

This helpful post in the FAQ section of the Joomla forum describes exactly what the different categories of users currently do.

Reading that, I was pretty surprised (and disappointed) that the current system doesn't allow you to limit someone's access to a certain area of the site. That to me seems to be a pretty basic requirement for a full-fledged CMS, since a common use for a CMS is to allow many users (with varying degrees of trustworthiness or technical skill) to help maintain a site, and it's good practice to give users the minimal permissions they need to get their job done.

I don't know how the user system in 1.5 is going to work, but I hope it'll allow the site administrator to define custom groups with their own permissions. At the very least, everyone should be able to access/edit their own posts at any time, whereas the basic front-end "Author" group (in 1.0.x) has some limitations placed on it.

Poking around the forums and extensions site a bit, I learned that there are a couple add-ons offered that improve upon the user system, but I'm reluctant to use them, in case they become incompatible with later versions of Joomla.