Back when Movabletype first went “pay”, I was among the people with her nose out of joint over it. I admit it. I just didn’t feel, at the time, that the price they were charging was worth the relatively unchanged product. Not only were the fees totally out of the blue (as far as the consumers go), but you were able to get more flexibility and control with your same ol’ 2.661 and as many authors and blogs as your heart desired.
But, in the last few months, I’ve been watching as they’ve modified their license policies, their pricing and the benefits of MT and I have to give them props. They listened when everyone rioted and I’m sure they probably felt the rumble of the stampede to Expression Engine, pMachine and WordPress.
I’d always been a fan of MT and it holds a special place in my heart since it was the first official blogging platform I’d used (not counting Livejournal). While I absolutely adore my Expression Engine, I have to applaud MovableType for responding to the public. I think MT is good software. I’m still not wild about the whole Typekey thing, since your readers have to go sign up somewhere else and have an account. I’m still not sure what that’s all about. Maybe I just don’t understand it. I like that my EE has Captcha to protect against spam and that no one needs to go do a third-party registration.
Today, MT released some information regarding the upcoming MT 3.1. It sounds like they’ve incorporated a lot of what I love about EE, like dynamic page builds, subcategories and post scheduling. It also has incorporated the Award Winning MT-Blacklist by Jay Allen. While I think that previous versions MT-Blacklist weren’t infallible, it’s a DAMN good plug-in that we all should be thankful Jay created. It rules, truly, and it’s great that it’ll be included in the new release of MT 3.1 slated for August 31st.
Anyway, that’s all really. I just like to acknowledge when I may have jumped the gun and give credit where it’s due. I look forward to checking out this new version of MT. I think the prices now are more reasonable ($99.95 for unlimited authors and blogs and you get a $20 credit for each registration key you have if you’ve donated in the past) and not quite as shocking now that people have had time to adjust.
You go, MT. Thanks for listening to the masses. I don’t know that I will be switching back, as I LOVE my Expression Engine almost as much as I love my morning coffee. But I do intend on checking it out and possibly even buying the full license if I like it and using it as a testing ground for other things. If you’ve been using MT 3.0D, what do you think of it?
