Movable Type 3.0

With the new pricing structure of Movable Type, I'm wondering what it will do to community weblogs like this one. Especially considering the cost of the new software for this site alone would be $599.95 (for a limited time, $699.95 thereafter). I'm guessing that most won't upgrade to the new version and will keep their current version or will folks be migrating to other, cheaper software.

Comments

While this site was a "Contributor" to Movable Type, it'll probably be among the many that just stick with the last unfettered version (v2.661). I like the tool, but not that much. I certainly think it's worth it, commercially - other solutions are only now fine tuning their multi-author, multi-blog support, but I just feel differently about software I "license" versus software I supported via donations.

If MT becomes too out of date, I suppose there's pMachine's ExpressionEngine. And, of course, some of the hosted blogs here are using WordPress already. I think the strategy will be, "whatever works."

I certainly don't begrudge them the money. I do think their pricing tiers are way out of line with their user community. Considering that many large blogs (multiple authors) are not-for profit, it's just too steep. The restrictions on the number of authors/blogs also seems unrealistic. It seems that it's mainly being geared at large commercial entities and less towards personal users. Maybe they're hoping more personal users will hop on the TypePad bandwagon?

Well, if you go read the trackbacks at Mena's blog, you'll see there are a ton of unhappy people out there.

I do think the pricing structure is completely wrong for individuals. $100 bucks for up to three people, or free but with far less support for one person? I don't think they did their homework on what the market would bear.

I've been looking for an excuse to try out Dean Allen's creation called Textpattern. However, it's gamma so I dunno. I always liked b2 because it was coded in PHP and that's used extensively on my site, so I might check out WordPress.

Publishing applications are no big deal, it's being able to transfer old content to new apps that sucks for me. I lost about a years worth of nonsense when I switched from b2 to MT. Oh well.

R-Lan, if you do check out WordPress, they do have a way to transfer your MT content over. It's painless. I did it and didn't lose anything. I didn't try it with images, though, just text.

While I am not too big on blogging, I do have kind of a half-hearted effort going at on my personal website using a software called "Greymatter". During installation I somehow messed it up so that archived entries don't get saved automatically.

I am planning on moving to Mac OSX's iBlog published by Lifli Software at the next upgrade when support for non dotMac accounts is implemented. Currently iBlog only works if you are a $99 per year dotMac subscriber.

Of course you will need a Macintosh running OSX to use this.

Jay Allen of MT-Blacklist fame has published a thoroughly rational explanation of what's going on here, along with words of advice to the MT community (which can be summarized as: calm down and wait).

Greymatter... I remember those guys!

Well, the makers of ExpressionEngine, pMachine, is wisely seizing the Movable Type 3.0 fallout and launched an Apple-like "Make the Switch!" campaign. I put my name in for the hell of it... just because HawaiiStories was a MT "Spotlight Site" and donor doesn't mean we can't shop around.

Meanwhile, I see DiveIntoMark went with WordPress, an early version of which is already running on this site (Leimamo is using it).

iBlog for Mac OS X is decent. Check out this site for a good example of its output.

I'm currently looking at two solutions:Blosxom and WordPress.

Blosxom's footprint is tiny and it sprints. Big plus in my book. WordPress is open source and it's got a pretty good following with the geek set.

If worst comes to worst I'll use Fugu and SubEthaEdit to hand code. It won't be pretty, but layout was never my forte.

So, Ryan, did you get your free copy of EE? I did, but their installation docs are pretty spare. If you do it, let's compare notes, ok?

Ah. Update from pmachines regarding switchers:

"May 15, 2004
"Switch" Update
If you've emailed us to participate in our Switch campaign, please be patient while we process your request. We have to verify each site and create the download account manually so it's going to take us a few days to get through the entire list. We got through a big chunk of people today and we'll continue as fast as we can. Thanks for your understanding."

iBlog looks like fun, but of course, it requires a Mac. I'd never heard of Blosxom, though. It runs on Perl/CGI, which is widely available but more resource intensive than PHP (I think). At least it does multiple blogs out of the box.

Blaine sent me a link to pLog, which is new, but uses PHP and also supports multiple blogs. It also uses Smarty, a common templating engine, for easier design tweaks (so I've heard, I've never used it).

Link, I did make it under the wire for the ExpressionEngine offer! They've also extended the deadline to midnight, Pacific Time, tonight, with a drawing from the names collected for an additional 250 giveaways. I haven't looked at the code, yet, but I did install EE's cousin pMachine a few times for other folks, and it was pretty easy (compared to Greymatter, at least, which was a bear).

So is there a change in store for HawaiiStories? Not sure. We can always stick with MT 2.661. But if we're going to consider replacing the engine, we might as well consider what kind of car we're driving now... but I suppose "The Evolution of HawaiiStories" is fodder for another topic.

So is there a change in store for HawaiiStories? Not sure. We can always stick with MT 2.661.

Hey Ryan, this site works well as is. I guess the old adage may apply here.. if it ain't broke don't fix it.

LOL, Greymatter was my first blog software. Boy was that fun. All other installs must be easier. heheh.

hayneyz, yeah I saw that in the documentation. That's pretty nice. And since it's the "offspring" of b2, I might just be able to salvage my old stuff. :P

Thought I'd mention that Greymatter was my first blogware as well. Heh. I have to wonder just what I was thinking. That install nearly killed me. :D

Was just pointed to this comparison shopping page for blog software. Could prove helpful!

http://www.asymptomatic.net/blogbreakdown.htm

Blaine

They've taken another stab at their licensing scheme, and the reaction seems to be considerably less hostile now. The question is, have they saved their ship, or have the power users already given up in droves and moved to WordPress or pMachine or any number of other solutions?

I select blog soft, what about this script? It really good thing?

I wanna 2 make weblog 2, what do ya think about your blog-engine?

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