Mollified, and yet.
Just because I feel some sort of obligation or something: one more Movable Type 3.0 post. —They’ve spoken, after all, and addressed a few of the concerns raised (rather vociferously) over the past couple of days:
- They’ve stripped the “one CPU” limit from the license.
- They count an author (the total number of which is now limited) as anyone who’s logged in within the past 90 days.
- They count a weblog (the total number of which is now limited) as a site visible at a single main URL; therefore, sideblogs set up as “separate” blogs with the software don’t count toward this total.
- They now offer Personal Edition add-ons, which will allow group blogs to purchase a somewhat cheaper personal license and add additional authors at $9.95 a pop.
This mollifies me not a little. I can still run it for free, since I now have “two” blogs, and not “five,” and it’s not inconceivable that I’d scrape together the 70 bucks necessary to upgrade to fully fledged. And the group blogs don’t have to buy the commercial license and trim their mastheads to upgrade the software they’ve been using; even sociology professors and natural philosophers should be able to pony up $12 or $13 a head to blog, right? (Though there’s a quirk in the special pricing: it’s cheaper to buy the middle license for 10 authors and 10 blogs and add on from there, than it is to buy the third license at 13 and 13. That quirk will no longer obtain in the regular pricing.)
But: the personal license at its regular price of 100 bucks is still 30 bucks more than 70, and I’m not necessarily going to upgrade right away. And you still have to be registered with TypeKey to download a free version. And—well, it’s weird. Jay Allen’s point is worth considering: this is called, after all, a “Developer’s Release”; it’s primarily intended for developers to get in early and start hacking together their third-party plug-ins, updating and upgrading to work with 3.0. A general release (it’s then theorized) of 3.0 is still to come. A fine point, but there’s some stuff left out of the equation: I, after all, am not a developer. I’ve already downloaded MT 2.661, so I can ride it out until this (as yet unacknowledged, mind) general release. But if I were just coming into this blogging game, and had heard MT was teh hella best, and went to get the program, I could download the Developer’s Release, or I could—
What?
TypePad, probably. —Not to climb to far out on a limb, but in the absence of clear communications, theory will fester: I think they’re trying to haul their income from one stream bed into another, roomier one with raw muscle power. Little blogs like mine ought to end up on TypePad; power users and “enterprise” folks can beef up the bottom line; de facto resellers like the fine folks over at White Rose can pay up or fall by the wayside. And this is SixApart’s prerogative. (Given the “oh you whining free-software hippies, it’s only 60 bucks for a cab ride, why don’t you just suck it up, you ungrateful internet freeloaders” rhetoric that’s spewing from some quarters, one feels it’s de rigueur to include a standard disclaimer with every post on the subject: “In our wondrous capitalist economy, a software company may charge whatever it bloody well feels like for its proprietary product,” or words to that effect. Also: Saddam is evil; the killing of Nick Berg was deplorable; and courage! Bush is a noodle.) But hauling rather than weaning an income stream from here to there is by its nature disruptive, and Jesus, I’m about to descend into punditry.
Fuck it. I don’t want TypePad; I like Movable Type; I’m not happy about paying $100 for it; there are alternatives out there; I’m going to start shopping around (WordPress and Textpattern, yes, and thanks for the recommendations). And that’s it; I’m spent.
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"de facto resellers"
6A is treating me as a reseller when that is the one thing I refuse to be. I'm a dot org, thanks, and I mean that literally. I'm a hobbyist. I do things for fun; I offer services I happen to have in excess of what I use for FREE because I DON'T want the uptime requirements and other obligations that come from cash on the barrelhead.
One of the things I haven't seen much addressed is the expectations 6A will have to live up to now that they're operating on a cash basis. Considering that they can't live up to the communications expectations of a forgiving open-source-style community, it will be interesting to see how they do with people who expect them to operate like a business in terms of communication and support.
Does it go without saying that no-one's holding a gun to your head to upgrade? If 2.666 or whatever is doing what you want from your blogging software, why not stick with it indefinitely?
I'll probably be switching to Blosxom 3 soon, m'self, but that's 'cause I like tinkering with it. If you just want to go forth and blog, I say watch out for getting bogged down worrying about the infrastructure.
Apologies, Ginger. There was a bit in the incoherent mush that got lopped at "Jesus, I'm about to descend into punditry" where I made it somewhat clear that it's (my idea that it's) SixApart's idea that you're resellers. —From the perspective I'm hypothesizing, that's pretty much what you now are: even though you sold nothing in the past, and never agreed to sell anything in the future, and find the rug no longer under your feet. (Hence "de facto." Maybe I should have said "de jure"? But that would have been even more confusing: which is the fact and which the rule? Software licensing is, as ever, an ontological nightmare.)
But I should have checked to make sure that point was still clarified after the lopping (which, otherwise, was a good thing. Trust me). My only excuse is that it's early, and I've only had one cup of coffee.
Yes, Sebbo, it goes right by the board. There's plenty of folks still using OS 9.X, and lots of people aren't upgrading to Windows XP, and there's still a rupture in the community that's worth talking about. This isn't the way MT has handled updates in the past; they changed suddenly, without warning; people don't like sudden change, unless it involves presents or objects of desire leaping out of cakes. And non-developers interested in MT who don't already have 2.661 are still orphaned: that might not be my problem, but it is a troubling sign, and one I've got to interpret without any plain, clear, sensible explanations. —There's no gun to my head, but there is a blog with my name on it, by golly. I can't use 2.661 forever, and I have to start thinking about what I'll do, and when, and how, and this is as good a place to do that as any.
Oh, hell, one more note, or rather two: first, Sebbo, apologies to you as well; the crank factor's a little high in that last comment. I plead my general cranky nature and throw myself upon the mercy of the court. But: there is a gun to my head, or at least a $30 pop-gun. When does the "special" pricing stop and the far-more-exorbitant "actual" pricing kick in? I dunno, but there's definitely a push to make a decision nowish, and it's not me that's pushing.
I absolutely agree 6A thinks I'm a reseller. What I've been saying all along is there's no market for resale to the people who I'm providing services to.
Had I been told that letting my friends freeload on software I donated for was "stealing" from 6A a couple of years ago, I would never have made the offer to the people I offered it to.
As it stands, I was one of the people who helped bring 6A to the party and they don't want to dance with me. Now that I've slept on them leaving me in the corner, I'm going to get the best revenge: better blog software somewhere else. And recommending said better software to other people.
It is funny to see that so many people are ready to get screwed by this company. We are not talking about a very complicated software. MT is not significantly better than other free software out there. You can try WordPress, it is pretty much the same, and you can also have multiple weblogs with it despite what others say. I have tried WordPress and it is cool, and there is no rebuilding.
I am also happy with WordPress. In my case, I migrated becausemy web host stopped supporting Movable Type due to its being a resource hog. (I haven't heard whether MT 3.0 addresses its performance problems.) Since I agree with the philosophy of free (as in speech) software, I decided to go with WordPress. In many respects I find it easier to use than MT, and will be installing my other two weblogs on it today.
The nice thing about WordPress is that I don't have to worry about whether something I do on my website is commercial or non-commercial. I really think 6A is going to be in trouble once GPL alternatives like WordPress become mature. Why should the sort of independent developers that have been contributing software plug-ins to Movable Type do so when essentially their work is held hostage to what 6A may do with their software. Why should people recommend MT to their friends, schools, churches, and clubs when they don't know how the license may change in the future? Why should consultants recommend MT to their clients when a GPL alternative exists?
The Great Blogtercation of 2004 : Or on social networks and data mining
Six Apart, the people that created Movable Type, the blogware that runs this here site, released the much anticipated MT 3.0 with a licensing agreement radically different from the ones they've ran up until version MT 2.661 ... and all hell broke loose...