The furore over blog publishing software Movable Type‘s new licence arrangements continues to send shockwaves across the blogosphere. As it happens we were considering moving away from MT to a different php based content management system for Samizdata.net anyway (and we certainly will now)… but I think that what is really interesting about this incident is that trackback has truly come of age.
Like many very thoughtful bloggers, I think SixApart have just taken their best weapon, pointed it right at their foot and pulled the trigger.
But what really interests me is that the storm of hostile trackbacks have provided SixApart with magnificent and unequivocal information on what their market really thinks. The business implications for spontaneous feedback like that are almost inestimable. Of course that does not mean SixApart will correctly respond to the explosion at the core of their business model, but the fact is that the information they need to do exactly that has just landed on them in a very helpful and rather spectacular manner.
Trackback has come of age. It is now an indispensable feature for any commercially oriented blog.
The 6A folks did respond, and loosened the license terms a bit. However the whole episode just reinforces the importance of Open Source Software. I’m leaning towards Word Press, although I’m in no hurry as MT 2.661 suits my needs and I can continue to use it without any issues.
Too little, too late, and it does not really address my concerns at all. I am not price sensitive but the user/blog restrictions are a complete deal killer for me. The way I see it, that sort of detail is simply none of their biz and if they want it to be, I will just go to Expression Engine or something similar. Word Press also looks good but I do not think it is quite ready yet (it does not support extended entries for example, and I dislike how the content and software are in the same directory).
The whole thing MT fiasco is an object lesson in how not to reposition your business and why you have to be soooooo careful of survey data… sometimes all surveys do is allow you to be wrong with confidence.
Your “thoughtful” blogger lost me at the point he referred to Six Apart’s “evil investors” and praised the MySQL license as the cure to 6A’s problems.
The thoughtful part was his observation the SixApart to not actually seem to have really grasped what has happened to them… and why very valuable business users of MT like me(Link) are dropping them like a hot potato.
And our experience of VCs suggests many of them are part of the problem when such things happen, so I have no major disagreement with his remarks about investors, though I would have worded it rather differently.
FWIW, WP does actually support extended entries, it’s just not advertised, and not actually obvious from within the interface either.
When writing an entry, if you click the “more” button on the post toolbar, it inserts a comment saying “more”, which WP interprets as the marker for the end of the normal entry and beginning of the extended bit. On my ‘blog I’ve only got one real post at the time of writing, and it uses the extended entry functionality.
6A is now giving all the MT users who complained via trackback the opportunity to make constructive suggestions. It will be interesting to see if they get as many of those as they got of people bitching and moaning.
As a clarification, I was not saying that VCs or SixAparts specific investors were or are evil, it was an example of how things could be spun due to how many people seem to be saying “Mena & them are ok, it’s the investors they brought in that changed everything!” and the like. There are many other directions you could go with it.
6A is now giving all the MT users who complained via trackback the opportunity to make constructive suggestions. It will be interesting to see if they get as many of those as they got of people bitching and moaning.
It’s the function of the (l)user to bitch and moan, and it’s the business analysts’/dev team’s job to turn those complaints into improvements in the software. I can whinge about users with the best of them, but really, Six Apart would be absolutely mad to greet all those Trackbacks with fury rather than a mixture of gratitude and regret at how badly they’ve buggered themselves.
“Word Press also looks good but I do not think it is quite ready yet (it does not support extended entries for example, and I dislike how the content and software are in the same directory).”
I’m not sure I understand. The “content” in WP is actually in the database and dynamically generated. There aren’t scores of html or php pages like in MT.
Kath over at Bloghome is taking Dodgeblogium off MT soon. I think many bloggers (and their hosts) have been having their doubts about MT for a while and this has just pushed them further away from MT.
I agree with Perry’s assertion that trackback has truly proven it effectiveness on this one.
I was amazed at the responses that came in to Mena’s post. I must have spent 20 minutes reading through them the morning of the announcement. Imagine something similar for Big Media sites, academic and/or professional journals, etc. Professor Bainbridge’s post about blogging in academia: http://www.professorbainbridge.com/2004/01/academic_credit.html seems a little more relevant when you think of the role Trackback plays in this.
FWIW, I’m sticking with MT 2.6 for the time being though Textpattern, WordPress and Expression Engine (I got one of their free switch downloads in time.) all look like viable alternatives.
Still looking forward to a drink with you Samizdata folk. The Swanky Family will be in the UK for two weeks starting Sunday. Any good pub recommendations? 🙂
One word: pMachine.
But don’t just take my word for it. Here’s an informed source (ie. my technical / life support).