Will MovableType alienate its user base?

new licencing has supporters in an uproar

[bill]

SixApart released Movable Type 3.0 Developer Edition today and already there seem to be nothing but complaints about their new licensing terms. MT has some pretty expensive options for their new licensing which may price a lot of people out of the software. Some of the more technically astute MT users are complaining that with the new terms it would cost them $699 for a license.

I've used MT on a number of sites, both personal and commercial. I can see paying for the software on the commercial sites, but probably couldn't afford it for all the personal/private sites (even though there still is a limited free version available). I, like a lot of other people, will be looking for alternatives for those sites.

I really hope this doesn't scare away the development community. MT was known for its on-line volunteer support forums and selfless development community. I'm already seeing some of those talented people looking at alternatives due to the licencing terms.

[bluelook]

I think that MovableType has some good features, but those prices are too much. Maybe they alienate some users, but the ones that stay will bring plenty of $ to the company. But itīs a big risk...
With some time, a real competitor can appear... and MT will have to lower their licences.

[bill]

SixApart seems to have backpedaled on some of the licensing terms, but there was a lot of damage done. They lost several prominent forum moderators/contributors as well as some fairly big name proponents in the blog world. It looks like a lot of people were busy over the weekend switching to alternate blog software.

[ebizcamp]

How about Drupal?

[Big_Balou]

Drupal is very powerful and I have used it on several sites as a CMS. But getting your head around their taxonomy may drive you batty for a while.

[bill]

> Drupal
Hey, let's try to keep this on topic ;)

This whole thing seems to be up in the air still. A lot of people have headed for the hills, but it seems like more of them are waiting around to see what will happen with the 3.0 public release. The current developer release is pretty anemic on new functionality.

[creative craig]

Didn't Jeffrey Zeldman use to use MT for his site? Looks like he has dropped it now though.

[bill]

Not sure about Mr. Zeldman. I did read that Mark Pilgrim dropped MT.

[Llama]

I would have considered using MT if it was free. Now I'll probably never use it.

All well, I'll probably end up programming my own CMS by the time I'd have enough money to license the old version.

[bill]

Well, there is a free version, and you can run up to 3 sites on it under the current license terms. For most people that's enough.

It seems like SixApart are looking at further revisions to their licencing terms now and are soliciting feedback from MT users. They are asking how people are using MT now. Check out Mena's Corner on the SixApart site for more details. It probably would have saved them the public black-eye if they had done this in the first place...