May 20, 2004
How am I using MovableType?
by Liza Sabater
Six Log: How are you using the tool?
This is the breakdown:
- Main Author : Liza 1 blog, 2 sub-blogs; no additional authors
- Main Author : Mark 2 blogs; 3 authors
Kudos for asking and on how you are dealing with the situation. Here's my unrequested bit of Custumer Relations / Development coaching:
The problem with how you've formed your question is that it would give you the wrong kind of feedback. You needed to ask not just how you use the product now but HOW DO YOU INTEND TO USE IT IN THE NEXT 6-12 MONTHS. This is highly important, especially to identify your core base of power users; the people that push the boundaries of the product and that have the most to loose with the current licensing.
So here is how I may be using MT in the next 12 months:
- I am seriously considering the closing of porting my TypePad blogs to MT I've been debating this since I started paying for the service and, quite frankly, seriously do not like the fact that it is not my server. I'm a control freak and want complete control of my blogs.
- As some of the categories of posts at culturekitchen grow in popularity, I'm thinking of creating separate blogs for them.
- My wish List Extras
That means then that I'd be porting 3 blogs and 3 sub-blogs with 3 authors.
Many friends have asked me to record the knowledge I gathered at Colgate-Palmolive as the Consumer Affairs writer/trainer and put it somewhere. Same with my recipes (I was once a personal chef) and all the knowledge I've gathered about allergies and immunological problems (product of my years at Colgate and of being the mother of a child with 17 different allergy markers).
Then there is the sex : My posts on sex are growing. Also, as a homeschooling and independent education activitist, I have a need for another blog for that. And since I would like to invite other people to contribute, I hope to enroll at least 3 more authors to tinker with my blogs. So that would put me at 3 projected extra blogs with their own URLS with a minimum of 3 authors for the next 6 to 12 months.
I'd like my kids to have a blog ---my oldest is starting to read and write and would like to have that recorded. I'd like to have a blog documenting my family. I also want a photoblog and I've even, maybe, an audioblog. That puts me up now to 4 more blogs and a minimum of 3 more authors.
So this means that within the next 6 to 12 months, I'd like to have a total of 10 more blogs with a minimum of 9 more authors, all running under MovableType. Do you understand now how the question, "How do you use it now", does not address how power users are going to use it later?
Software is not like toothpaste : To understand consumers of digital products, one has to think of all the possible ways they could deviate from the products intended purpose. This is what I have learned as creative advisor of Net Art. When The Digital Landfill was created, we thought of it as digital sculpture (never collage) made by layering of digital refuse. Little did we know how people were going to actually use it for : At one point Yahoo! had it listed as a promotions (yes! PR & Marketing) site. So you never really know how people will use your software. And after years of allowing people to hack MovableType, create plug-ins for it and use it for creating a bazillion blogs and content-managed sites, you're focus in this kind of marketing research querying should always be on the future use or misuse of the product, not just on its intended purpose.
Just a note : People have been using toothpaste for years to clean jewelry. This piece of knowledge, although not necessarily endorsed by Colgate-Palmolive, is used by the R&D department when looking at new abrassives to use in the manufacturing of toothpastes. If it can't clean your ring, then it might not be that good ;)
Posted by Liza Sabater in Blogs, Commerce, Marketing
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Say it loud, say it proud!
So how much are you willing to pay for a MoveableType license? How would you like it structured? What is a good commercial rate, and what is a good personal rate? Do you prefer a flat rate for unlimited authors or unlimited blogs? Why not switch to PostNuke or SlashCode or WordPress or even Phorum, all of which will always be free?
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Comment by: liza at May 21, 2004 02:21 AM
Good questions Lawrence.
I would pay up to $70 for the license (I've already paid $45 for MT as donationware). No limits on blogs. No limits on authors. Scrap all the tiered BS on the personal license. This would be for a basic MT.
Want it to slice and dice and clean your apartment? Then you can either add plug-ins at, let's say $5 - $10 increments (and you have to install them yourself) OR you can pay for X of them to be bundled in with the software; ready for a simple install on the server.
I have not given any thought to the commercial license since I am not using it at the moment but, again, I think that it should be something similar. They also should have spelled out what non-profits would pay.
The plug-ins. That's were their business is. Forget about the product for a minute. Why was it so damn popular with super users? I mean, because TypePad is for the tech impared. MT is for those who dare to code, hack or pretend they do. Why? The plug-ins. If they want to go commercial they need to focus on the extra goodies that make MT better than anything else. That's what I feel they don't get.
I've broached the subject several times with Anil and he basically cringes. To 6A it would be a nightmare to use the plug-ins as the core of their revenue making. Why? I think because they
(1) have underestimated the power the plug-ins have had in making MT popular
(2) they do not want to think of those developers as partners and be potentially beholden to their business
(3) the CVs have made them believe that restricted 3rd parties is the way to go
I say they should COMMISSION 3.0 versions of all the plug-ins that are available on the MT-Plugins directory. The contest is bullshit --an easy way out to get free labor once again. It puts them in the same category as David Bowie with his mash-up contest. Not a good place to be, especially after the PR fiasco.
As to switching. Yes, I'll have to eventually. Time is money though and it is fucking annoying to think that I'll have to spend another 3-6 months learning a whole new system. I just did not plan for that.
Oh well.
I'll definitely look into WordPress. I do not want just free of charge. That really is not the point. I live with a software developer. I know how much goes into it --and how very few developers do get compensated fairly for what they do. I just want a product that won't be switched on me or completely taken off the market due to the cluelessness or whim of capitalists. If 6A is bought out tomorrow and greedy bastards take control of the company, it could very well happen they kill off the product for some corporations-only crap.
I've seen it happen too many times. GNU licenses are the future. GNU licenses.
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Comment by: Lawrence Krubner at May 21, 2004 01:47 AM