My use of MT
Posted on May 18, 2004 @ 15:32 in MovableType
Mena asks how we are using MovableType. The reason I came out of my blog hibernation the other day was exactly because I wanted to react to what was happening around the release of the MovableType 3 Developer release and the new licenses. I posted a few comments in the forums, but I'm kinda glad I didn't blog my initial reactions here. I will post my thoughts on what happened later, with the advantage of hindsight and a couple of nights sleep, but first... how do I use MT?
Short answer: 4 weblogs, 4 authors.
Long answer: at the moment I have 8 blogs. Not "weblogs" in the amended definition sense, but 8 different weblog configs in MT. One is for testing, one is not public (but not password protected either), one is a sidebar blog, one generates "static" content pages (like the about section), one is my main blog (this one), one powers the "cyberculture resources" section, the other two my Dutch weblog and my photolog. Soon I will need a 9th weblog that will power the new index of this site when I move this English weblog to its own directory.
If I don't count the testblog and the non-public blog (which I could delete, because I'm not making much use of it), you could say that under the amended weblog definition I'm running 4 weblogs.
I have 4 authors. One is my "admin" account that has all privileges, one is a backup admin account in case something gets seriously screwed up (yep, I'm the belt-n-suspenders kinda guy), one is my "posting" account with only posting privileges (allowing me to log in and post from insecure places such as cybercafes), and one is a guest account I created for a friend who only posted 2 entries about a year ago.
Conclusion: my current setup would fit in the "Personal Edition" as it is defined right now.
Still, I'm not all that happy about the licensing setup as it is right now. I'm okay with the completely free version being limited, but as Jason Kottke argues, persuasively imho, it would make more sense to have one single "personal edition" with unlimited authors/weblogs for personal/non-commercial use. Of course, there should be a sensible clause in there that providing weblog services to 50 of your closest friends is no longer personal use (unless they're all posting to the same groupblog).
Why is unlimited authors/weblogs important? Because of the sense of freedom it gives the user. It simply works counterproductively to have to think about whether or not you're "allowed" to set up another blog just to try something out or to give your sister her blogspace as well. Not being allowed or having to go through the process of applying for another 1 user/1 weblog license takes away the spontaneity and creative flow that I strongly believe drove so much of the love and tireless promotion of happy MT users. With the limits imposed by the new licensing structure another weblog, another idea, another contributor is no longer one click away and for me that puts a big damper on the fun and ease that MT exuded.
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Comments and trackbacks have been closed on this site. My apologies.
Since MT-Blacklist inexplicably stopped working I had no other recourse than close comments and trackbacks to stop the spam. I've been meaning to correct this for quite a while, but life got in the way... in a good way I should add.