Six Log: How are you using the tool?:
If free isn’t an issue for you and you’re willing to pay for a version of Movable Type (say the $69 version) and the blog/author limits won’t work for your current use, write a non-emotional post explaining how you’re using Movable Type and TrackBack this entry.
Of course, I had to read Adriaan’s site to learn about this . . . what exactly is the mt-users mailing list for, anyway?
Anyway, on to what she asked for:
* I have one weblog and I am the sole author. It doesn’t get any simpler than that. I use it as my soapbox/megaphone: it’s like a voice vote in a legislative body, and I’m just adding my voice.
* free is somewhat an issue: if if came down to it, I might be forced to switch. I don’t need another hobby that comes with costs.
* I have to echo Adriaan’s sentiments that MT was got me started doing this, and I feel reluctant to migrate out of some loyalty or just unexplainable stickiness.
I have also suggested/lobbied for organizations and institutions to adopt weblogging (with MT as the tool of choice): if that worked out, it would be no fun to go back and tell them that the great free solution I talked about wasn’t anymore.
And did I mention that all my URLs have “movabletype” in them? That was conscious decision: if I migrate, I’ll go with something like “weblog” or some other generic thing, but I was so pleased with how easy this was, I wanted to spread the word.
I have to add, I’m just not hearing much about performance or scalability and these are big issues for me. I had expected these to be addressed before now, and would make it a deal-breaker if this isn’t addressed in 3.0. Couple that with the problems beta users are having dropping back to 2.x when they find that 3.0 doesn’t work for them: I think SixApart can do better.
3 Comments
I see the logic to most of what you’ve written on this subject over the last several days, epsecially the repeated “what is the mailing list for?” ponderings.
My main question relates to cost: How do you propose that 6A stay in business (or *be* a business) without some revenue? A free version for hobbyists would be nice, but organizations and institutions (to which you refer) should probably pay a reasonable fee. MT is worth more than nothing, right?
John, how SixApart stays in business is not my problem — how they now blow off their fan-base and lose all chances of credibility in a world where there is capable free software is also not really my problem.
But consider: If the experts cannot make their blog-server business pay, what hope is there that the rest of us might make enough from our blogs to recoup the cost of those taxi-drives and dinners we forego just to pay this tithe? Approximately none.
Mena’s old rule was (I paraphrase from her emails to us) “if you make more than $1000/month off the blog, we want you to license it” was fair enough and I’d gladly comply to that rule. My entire website pulls in $100/month in google ads and $0 in contracts or sales, and costs $40/month in hosting fees and $99/month to keep me online frou out here in the deep woods; my site is part my own education and experimental research lab, and the content is and always was informational, casual and a hobby, parts of it even formal community service — mostly, I write because I cannot not-write.
In all the 7 MT blogs hosted on my account, only two are in our top-10 traffic ranks, and only one of those carries ads, so it contributes about $40/month to our bank balance, and costs us 20 minutes a day scraping the comment spam off it. That’s a net loss even at Off-shore wages.
So you’re right: as an investment for financial returns, MT isn’t worth anything. MsOffice (debateably) makes your office run smoother and saves money to justify it’s (unjustified and pricegouging) cost. But not MT. MT is an expensive toy, and it is about to become solely a rich-kids’ toy.
Now, let’s flip the equation since the web is all about dialog, about give and take in both directions.
Let us ask: Is our support of MT worth more than nothing? Paul here proclaims MT on every URL — is that worth nothing to 6A? Almost every MT blog advertises them in some way, most of them very explicitly, and if SixApart sneezes, their network fanbase instantly relays the news faster than any newswire.ca PR firm … and for free. Is that worth nothing to 6A?
When TypePad launched, did all that traffic and paid subscription rush in on the merits of their dazzling code and human factors skills?
MT::App::Comments=HASH(0×8815f1c) Use of uninitialized value in sprintf at … — hands up all those who see that sort of stuff all the time on MT. This particular one was spotted right here, on Comment Preview.
Or was it because the MT community talked it up, ’sold’ it for them, never once asking for a commission, not even expecting a thank you.
only we got our thank you.
Back in about 1996, Andy Colbourne invented a little 3D modelling program called AC3D. It was free for personal use, commercial use bought some features but cost only a one-time $20 (US) upgrade fee. I paid, and got notices of regular upgrades, every 6 months or so. When Andy went commercial, he grandfathered all the old agreements, continuing to honour my “one-time $20″ until just last year when he offered me considerable discount for the new annual-rate commercial licensefor the new deluxe version. Notice how, at no point did he remove privileges, he only added them — more fees, more return for your dollar.
I no longer do any 3D modelling so I didn’t renew, but it’s good to see Andy is not only still around, but his program has become a defacto standard in the gaming community, and his kind and thoughtful treatment of the people who put him there had ensured that he’s still in business to enjoy it.
Ben and Mena, on the other hand, only started to listen when they noticed they were all alone.
John:
My beef isn’t with them charging: I run ads, so who am I to gripe about someone else’s ambitions?
But the promise of a new free version doesn’t square with what we heard last week, and nothing I’ve heard since gets us any closer to that.
As you noted, I’m more than a little frustrated over an organization that purports to be about communication but doesn’t understand it. What was the meme of a year or two back? That all markets are conversations? Well, if you apply that to this situation, it’s been one strange conversation.
And it would have taken so little to handle this properly: a survey form (not an open-ended post with trackback), perhaps a voluntary query of MT installs (open kimono: let them look at how many weblogs per install, how many posts and comments over what span of time, and draw conclusions from that), and of course some real consumer-focused deliverables.