we need to be able to control what blocks are visible based on role, and it should be in core, not via php hackery. there's already an issue about this: http://drupal.org/node/18018 apparently, the only reason this never got committed, in spite of much interest and effort, is this potentially innocent question from dries: "Could we align the page-visibility code with this code, so they are more conform/consistent/similar?" (comment #46) does anyone here know what he's talking about? ;) note: he didn't change the status to "code needs work" or anything. earlier in the same issue, he said: "Where did I say that getting 4.7 out is less important?" (#32) clearly, he agrees (along with probably dozens of us on this list, and maybe hundreds, if not thousands, of drupal site admins in the world) that we should add this feature before 4.7.0. i updated the patch to be current with CVS head and attached that to comment #49. i think it's RTBC, but didn't feel like i was in a position to set the status to that on my own. ;) can some of the heavy-weights around here please comment on the issue, ideally, by changing the status to RTBC (or better yet, "fixed" after it's been applied)? ;) thanks! -derek (dww) p.s. killes just replied after i composed this message, and i re-rolled another patch based on his feedback. but i'm still sending it to the list for community opinions and support on this. ;)