Site Administration Area

[~Sake]

I was just having a bit of a discussion with a few people, and I'm just looking for some more opinions on site administration design.

Do you prefer an integrated type of administration system (eg, extra admin links in user profile and news entries, etc. when logged in as an administrator), or more of a separate administration backend, where all management takes place away from the frontend of the website?

For those who prefer a separate area, would you expect to login under the same account you use on the frontend of the website, or would you prefer a separate user (eg, from an admin user table)?

[almostbob]

prefer an integrated approach through a modified front end menu
admins are often upgraded from users,
they have experience and familiarity with the user control panel
keeping everything with similar systems also means that when malicious joe looks over admin fred's shoulder at the screen, joe sees the same page he expects to see, and does not know that fred has booted him off the system, protecting your admins a little through obscurity in a cubicle farm

[jakx12]

almostbob is correct, i prefer though a bit of both, perhaps having a excluded admin back end, with the same feel and design as a user control panel