cloudy, chance of sun breaks

Just a couple of points:

"the loss of MT revenue"

Were you talking about the $0.38 per download?

"incomplete integration of mod_perl (some plugins never worked (MT-blacklist as a notable example)) suggesting that the API was not fully-baked"

No, it suggests that the developer of MT-Blacklist didn't even consider mod_perl when he was quickly cobbling together the plugin because he didn't run mod_perl. It also suggests that the developer had no time to redo his hasty hack of the MT system to incorporate MT's native support for mod_perl.

No, I'm not talking about the $.38/download. Who decided that was an accurate measurement of anything?

For the record, they get $25 from me, to say nothing of the goodwill and promotion I've done, and I was glad to do it.

What do I get the feeling this is all about "let's teach Ben and Mena how the internet works?"

Let's see: if I have a full-featured server application and I make it available for free download for non-commercial use, how much money can I expect to make? How about nothing or damn close to it?

OK, how about it if I have a couple of different bundles, one for hobbyists and non-commercial sites, and one for hosting services? The hobbyists can ride for free but the hosting services are a. going to charge for it, so we should make sure we get compensated and b. will provide a great source for feedback and performance testing. We need to work some kind of license deal with them to make it worth their while to work with us and allow us to collect performance metrics. That way, we can expand our reach without having to build out a hosted service of our own, or we could take the lessons we learn and apply them to a hosted service.

Hmm, that might work.

It's commendable of Jay to be willing to take one for the team. It doesn't change anything: 6A doesn't care about the hobbyists and enthusiasts enough to work with us.

As for my issues with mod_perl, the response I have gotten from 6A tech support suggest mod_perl isn't well-tested for anything but a plain vanilla install. When you can't even change the name of the comment and trackback cgi scripts in a mod_perl install, that suggests the API and perhaps the core infrastructure is not fully-baked.

It's been a great learning experience: time to apply what I've learned.

"It doesn't change anything: 6A doesn't care about the hobbyists and enthusiasts enough to work with us."

That's a complete load of dung. They've consistently tried to listen and respond to feedback. As a pre-alpha, alpha an beta tester of 3.0 I can attest to numerous changes that were made based on feedback from many users of various types. This licensing hasn't been out even 24 hours for them to react to.

As for hobbyists and enthusiast that is what TypePad is for. It was expressly created to help the average user who can't install server software and fiddle with code. TypePad is the more appropriate system for many who are being so vocal and with unlimited weblogs and authors (Pro version) its also more economical especially when you factor in hosting costs. How was that not listening? MT installation and adminstartion was by far the biggest hurdle for the average user so they developed a version that eliminates that hurdle entirely.

"As for my issues with mod_perl, the response I have gotten from 6A tech support suggest mod_perl isn't well-tested for anything but a plain vanilla install."

I find it a bit amusing that you talk about "hobbyists and enthusiasts" and then in the next breath talk about hacking mod_perl something that is not for the timid or the novice user at all.

TypePad is run using general the same code with mod_perl. I don't think that MT installation is exactly plain vanilla.

6A tech support? For MT? There was no such animal for previous versions of MT.

I don't get where all of this ill will is coming from especially when it doesn't have the facts straight.

God must love pedants: he made so many of them.

By "hobbyists and enthusiasts" I meant folks who self-host and who may not be afraid to install mod_perl. Self-hosting and TypePad are mutually exclusive: that's the raison d'etre for TypePad.

By 6A tech support, I meant the support forums.

Does that help with the facts?

as for the source of the ill will, that should be obvious: 2.x users have been ignored for months, folks outside the alpha/beta testing group haven't gotten the feeling they're being listened to. Today's announcement wasn't exactly a shot of love . . . .

I have to agree with Paul about 6A being disconnected from their users. Even though I only run a rinky-dink little weblog with little in the way of money-making potential, I paid $150 for a commercial license of MT 2.6 so I could do my bit to support a generous company that makes a good, useful product.

I didn't quite understand what Mena was saying about donations being applied to the purchase price of MT 3 (and whether my commercial license fee would be applied), so I began the process of buying an MT 3 commercial license online.

After submitting my 'Recently Updated' key, a whopping $20 was discounted from the $200 MT 3 commercial license fee. Naturally, I cancelled the transaction and am now looking at WordPress/Plone/Drupal/Bricolage/whatever for the next incarnation of my site.

SixApart is really shooting themselves in the foot over this. What is especially frustrating is the 22 Dec 2003 posting on MT.org that states "The next version of Movable Type will be version 3.0, a significant and free upgrade." What's so free about it? It's one thing to piss off the people who have only used their product for free, it's quite another to piss off those who've paid or donated for using it.

*Maybe* I'm wrong and this pricing nonsense only applies to the developer edition, and everything will be good with the general release, but 6A hasn't said anything to this effect.

This licensing hasn't been out even 24 hours for them to react to.

To expand on what Tim said, they've worked on the licenses for months. MONTHS. They made them under the assumption that their metrics were correct and that the licenses would work really well for about 85% of their users.[1]

They cannot simply turn around in 3 hours after having collected 200 vitriolic trackbacks and push out a new licensing scheme.[2] This will take time to sort out. I for one am willing to give them that time as well as the benefit of the doubt that they aren't trying to put the weblog community over the rack. There's no reason whatsoever to believe that. Think of the entire history of Movable Type. It doesn't make any sense.

[1] - While there's always room to dispute statistics, I do think that regardless of the 85% number, 6A didn't take into consideration that that 15% is probably a very vocal group of power users. The problem with creating a business around the weblog crowd is that your customers all have loudspeaks and receive attention from rants, despite the accuracy or veracity of their content.

[2] - Whatever the outcome of all of this, one thing can be said for sure: This is a PR disaster. 6A needed to better address the needs of small 2 and 3 author blogs. They needed to address what happens when someone who is used to being able to create blogs willy nilly in order to build up parts of their site -- when really, it should have been done with categories or template modules -- suddenly falls into the highest class of personal license. They needed to explain whether the license covers inactive blogs that remain in the install for posterity sake. To all of this, I can only say, they are a young company and are bound to make mistakes. I know that they are also razor sharp and have the good of this community at heart, so it won't take them long to make these things clear.

as to [1] The vocal minority is (or should be) a known issue (what do you suppose is the opposite to the silent majority, a phrase we hear a lot more?). If they has reached out (like say, using the mt-users mailing list that they sign people up for but never use) and perhaps pulled out a subset of those folks to hash out some issues. I don't know who they listened to, but it wasn't me or the other vocal types who are leveraging trackback on Mena'a post.

for [2], I agree. and I think my suggestion on [1] would have mitigated the damage from that.

They may be sharp: the quality of MT suggests that. But I have to wonder if they're not too convinced of it themselves. The whole MT3 release process makes wonder . . . .

6A needs to get paid. I don't think anyone disputes that. People also need to realise that 6A is no longer "Ben and Mena". It's a full-fledged VC funded company with offices around the world.

When 6A became VC funded, a very radical change occurred. The VC, because they are the ones fronting the money, are the ones calling the shots. Don't be fooled by Mena's posts. TypeKey, TypePad, the MT3 Licensing, and the lack of communication are all influenced by the VC. That's just what happens when you become funded. That is the entire point. Other people give you huge chunks of money so they can make more money.

6A probably signed a deal that told the VC that they will get X% return on investment in T time (where X is large, and T is small). How do you do that? Usually it involves doing things you wouldn't normally do to customers or a community you are a part of. The licensing scheme is the obvious result. If they didn't do this, the VC people would probably be able to sell the whole shebang to a large company and sack Mena and Ben without batting an eyelash.

I've done the VC thing several times. It's all the same. If VC didn't want a return on their investment, they would call it a hand out.

So to sum up:

TypeKey blows for several reasons, but it'll probably make money directly and indirectly, so they'll use it.

TypePad is a really good idea, but it's no good for "non-traditional" use, so that's out.

The current licensing situation blows some serious chunks, but I don't believe it will ever be addressed to the satisfaction of the majority of the upset users, especially as 3.0 doesn't offer any new functionality over 2.661, save TypeKey integration. The current scheme is even incomplete. What happens when you go over the maximum limit of your license? Say you want more than 15 weblogs and/or 20 users... you can't, as there is no tier. Multiple CPUs? Nope.

Someone above mentioned that 6A has been hashing out this licensing scheme for months. Well, I am not convinced. Even if the prices were reasonable (I don't think they are, even for non-personal use), they aren't even close to being complete/exhaustive. You would think that after months of prep, they would have considered a situation where you would need more than 20 authors, or an install on a machine that has more than one CPU.

The 6A team rocks on the whole Perl thing. Their mad skills cannot be denied. But, as far as simple business acumen, they get a failing grade.

And of course, no one has even touched on what this will do to the whole plug-in developer community.