As you have probably heard by now, MT has released MT 3.0. I read about it first at Emily’s and then read Mena’s post about the release. Next I read Dave’s post about the whole thing. But it was Les’s post that probably got to me the most.
I run 5 blogs just to generate content for Big Pink Cookie. I have Pixelog also running under the same install of MT. On top of that, I have a blog that is just in draft mode that I keep notes for myself in, little reference things for later.
Running 7 blogs, under the new license terms, would require me to pay $700. SEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS. $119 at the introductory price, minus the money I have already donated to MT over the years. (I just read the fee page again.)
I’m all for supporting MT, I have done it since the day it came online. I installed it within a few weeks of the very first release. Even though I know Photo Matt and helped name WordPress, I have remained loyal to MT. Thanks to MT 3.0, that is something I will have to reconsider. I have to decide if I have the time to migrate and learn a new system, or just spend the money for the new license. I don’t like either option. I really don’t want to have to move things around, so I will probably go with the upgraded license.
As a hosting company owner, I like that they are opening up the ability to install blogs for clients and so forth – at least that was my initial impression, but I will need to go back through the license again to understand that further. The previous license was very rigid in that area.
I hope that they will reconsider the license agreements for personal users though. Limiting users to 3 blogs for free defeats one of the major draws to MT. Funny thing is, I would probably consider donating that much to MT, but being told I must pay it just rubs me the wrong way.
By the way – can anyone e-mail me the zip files for the last release of MT, both the upgrade and the full install? I’d really appreciate it!
34 replies on “Ouch, That Hurts…”
Hey Christine! First of all, needing five weblogs to produce one sounds like a condition I like to call “overblog”, but that’s another discussion.
I am 99% sure that those five blogs would not count as five blogs. Well, legally, yes, they would, but I know that 6A would feel that that is still within the letter of the law. I’ll let them speak their peace on this issue, that wasn’t communicated well…
You aren’t the droid they are looking for…
I have my main blog, my “Cookie Crumbs”, my media blog, another side blog, Pixelog, and my “notes” blog. I realize that it’s probably within the letter of the law to run them all, or I could reconfigure everything and bring them all in to one blog (except Pixelog) and break them back out by categories, but … I don’t want to spend time restructuring everything. That’s the same thing as changing systems anyways.
It may be overblog, but it’s the way I have things set up. It seems that there are a TON of people that have problems though – even more so with the multi-author issue.
I want to follow the license agreements. I want to “do right” – but I think that limiting users to so few authors or blogs isn’t a wise move.
I am with you Christine. WordPress is looking better and better. I considered playing with it a while back, but I WAS an MT diehard.
Why couldn’t they just have a single price Personal version and save all the licensing crap for the Commerical licenses? I would pay $100 for MT 3.0 Personal Edition as long as it had the features I wanted and wasn’t crippled by author count/blog count, etc.
i have the last release if you still need it.
I meant to mention I have 2.661 on file if you need it. Drop me a line.
I’m downloading WordPress tonight to see if it will do what I want. I have Scripty, Theworkingmom, my “obsession” site – That’s three right there. But Sam also keeps a passworded blog to keep kind of a journal of things running at his work – so that puts us out the window. Melissa (geekgrrl) mentioned something about it not being allowed to run on blogomania servers?? I don’t know… I’m not happy. What’s more – I don’t think anyone saw this coming – So much for their supposed “communicating with their public”.
i probably have you beat, Christine… in terms of overblogging… but i don’t really consider them all as blogs. they’re more like sections… to organize my content better. with pMachine Pro, i can have unlimited blogs… all under one install… with as many users as i want. that’s how i run waterlily right now… you have to be a member… and in a switch, i can turn them all to authors… but i choose not to.
and then i have 3 separate installs of WP to power my other 3 blogs.
yeah, i’m the queen of overblogging.
we; that caught me by surprise. i also run a whole list of blogs, some ae public, some are private and other are for those who wanted to give the blog thing a chance. I wouldn’t mind paying for a copy, but disagree with the limitation on blogs and authors.
Christine, i hate to ask this of you, but if you get a copy of the last MT release[2.611] could you email it to me. I’d like to have a hard copy just in case ours goes wonky. thanks in advance.
m
I installed the completely free version on an old site with four blogs and four authors, just to see what would happen if I had more than I was permitted to have under the free license. No issues with the installation. Can’t say that it would also work with the paid license, which comes with support, but at least I know I could upgrade and not lose anything.
Count us among the well and truly hosed. If the new version of WordPress is multiblog, we’ll be looking at it.
“I want to follow the license agreements. I want to “do right””
I’m sure that they’ll clear this up in a day or so, but I seriously doubt that you would be doing anything wrong. From Mena’s post:
“We’re big on honor at Six Apart. We haven’t built in any nagware for license violations or phone home mechanisms. We trust our users’ good judgment and intentions. We intend to use our good judgment in being flexible about enforcing these limits.”
Emphasis mine.
(Where in the hell is your preview button
I’m mean. I don’t let people preview. 😉 (Sorry!) I saw that in Mena’s post, but I don’t feel like I’m really complying if I have all of my blogs still running and it’s not in compliance. I didn’t even count PictureYourself, since that is a completely separate blog entirely on its own.
I’m just happy it’s not $700 like I first thought.
Just wait a few of days. This will all shake out the way they wanted it to. I’m sure of it.
“This will all shake out the way they wanted it to.”
I hope Jay is right in that there could be a change or clarification in policy once they get some sleep.
I fear he may be right and that communal blogs and multiple blogs for a single author may not be what SixApart wants and they’re pricing them out of their hair in the hopes that the half dozen of my friends who I added to my site will go to TypePad.
Anyway, Jay, don’t shut down MT-blacklist just yet. I’ve got to wait a few days to see how it shakes out and even then I may not leave 2.6…
i don’t think i would mind so much if only there were significant features built into it. i don’t feel that the version they’ve put out justifies the money. that’s even considering that i’d only have to pay about $40 because of all that i’ve donated in the past.
i would have to go for the highest personal publishing option though because i use 7 blogs to publish two sites. i understand that at some point they’d need to make money off this thing, but a warning would have been nice.
I have a hard copy of mt 2.611 if people need it. grabbed it today right after the news broke. You can still grab 2.611 from here http://www.movabletype.org/download.shtml
I meant 2.661. I have been typing those numbers wrong all day.
http://www.movabletype.org/download.shtml still works, but if it stops let me know…I’ve got the files
Christine, did you get any word yet if the license will be violated if those that have one blog and one author installed it on Blogomania? I have enjoyed MT but I am seriously thinking of moving to something like WordPress if this doesn’t get all sorted out.
Most of the anger I see is not from the paying but how high the costs are, how restrictive the licenses are, and how there was no communication at all. What good was it to sign up for an alert mailing list if I didn’t get anything at all?
I’m w/ you. I’m not happy about this whole thing. I keep 5 mt blogs now and if I wanted even one more I’d be in the next fee bracket. I too want to support them, but I think it’s too much $ for personal use. I think we’re all re-thinking.
http://www.laserblog.com/
The download link now redirects to the purchasing page. Everybody saw that one coming. But what we didn’t see coming was the sudden price hike. Many people have effectively been priced waaaay out. WordPress, here I come…
I have downloaded almost all the versions of MT that have existed, both full and upgrade. And kept them in a DOWNLOADS folder on my machine. Since I dabble in all kinds of CMSs, I have many different zip files available. And being my mother’s daughter, I seldom discard anything (you just never know!).
I finally moved all my downloaded goodies off the hard drive onto a CD. Anyone needs something, just drop me a line. I’m sure I can dig it up.
There is a free version of MT available for download on MT’s download page, but it is v3.0 and the condition is that it is not supported by MT and it’s one user and three weblogs.
Why couldn’t MT offer the previous, i.e. not developer, version for the freebie? They could have garnered a LOT of good will by doing this, IMNSHO.
One thing for sure, this will force new bloggers, or bloggers like me who want to make the move to a content management system, to consider other blogware options.
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