Comments aren’t working at the moment. I’ve upgraded to Movable Type 3.0, which has the new-fangled Typekey registration system to help prevent comment spam. The problem is, I’m finding the whole implementation of TypeKey very confusing. Hopefully comments will return very soon - right now you just get an error stating that you forgot to fill something in, even if all of the fields are filled out.
I won’t even talk about the new Movable Type pricing scheme, except to say that the pricing is pretty outrageous. It’s good that they still have a free version, but I’m starting to wonder if I should make the switch to WordPress. Hmmm.
Edit (14.05.04): Comments are now working, as I finally figured out how all of the new comment tags in MT3 are configured. Because Jay Allen’s MT-Blacklist plugin no longer works in MT3, I’ve turned comments moderation on. If you don’t have a TypeKey account, you’ll have to wait for me to okay your comment before it appears on the site. So sign up for a TypeKey account - it takes only a minute, is fast, free, secure, and your registration works for all TypeKey-enabled sites.
I’ve reconsidered (at least for now) the new MT3 pricing and am waiting to see what the response is from MT creator’s SixApart. There are over 500 trackbacks to Mena’s initial post on the pricing scheme, most of them negative, so I’m hoping they will reconsider the licensing.
I just slipped underneath the limbo stick for the free version (one author, max of three weblogs), so I’m going to use this for now and see how things shake out. Jason Kottke made some good observations on the new licensing, and Steven “Panic” Frank also had some pretty valid things to say:
I think I read somewhere on their site that their company now has something like 26 employees in total. My gut feeling is that this is at least 20 employees more than they need for their operation. It gives me nervous dot-com flashbacks.
I really hope I’m wrong about all of this, because I think they’re great folks and, although I haven’t played with 3.0 yet, I think they have a high quality product. I wish them nothing less than the best of luck with their venture, as I would for anyone starting-up a company. But I see a few warning signs in the road ahead, and I hope they’re able to navigate them.
Wholeheartedly agreed. I haven’t met Ben, Mena, Anil, or the rest of the SixApart gang, but everything I’ve heard and seen seems to show them as good people, who want to do good. Hopefully, this is all just a huge misstep and miscalculation, and the results of some rather public growing pains. I’m completely interested in seeing them make a living and profit from their work, but they need to offer realistic licensing fees. Time will tell.
Update (15.05.04): SixApart has posted some clarifications on the whole pricing / licensing issue. There still are some serious issues, but in general I think it’s a good step forward.
On that, Jay Allen posts:
On a more personal note, I must say this: Six Apart is not evil. They are people, just like you and I. What�s more, they are webloggers, just like you and I. Some of them have worked tirelessly on behalf of this community to make it a better place. They want to thrill and delight Movable Type users and at the same time establish a lasting business that will do so for some time to come.
They certainly didn�t deserve the kind of vitriolic anger and disparaging remarks levelled at them yesterday. It makes me sad to see people throw two and a half years of dedication out the window because of two pages on the internet
I generally agree. SixApart (and Ben and Mena) have “grown up” very publicly, and I think people need to just chill out. It’s only weblog software, folks.
Edit: (and this is the last I’m posting on this) Interview with Ben and Mena
