Movable Type 3.1

Movable Type 3.1 Launched, features dynamic pages, subcategories, and post scheduling. Three months ago: WordPress 1.2 launched, featuring dynamic pages, subcategories, and post scheduling. πŸ˜‰ Hat tip: Weblog Tools Collection.

16 thoughts on “Movable Type 3.1

  1. That said, while WordPress and Movable Type probably have about the same number of plugins now, their MT plugin directory has much, much better organization than anything we have. If you’re a MT user this looks like a good upgrade.

  2. Brad Choate implemented the dynamic template PHP stuff for them but his site doesn’t seem to be coming up at the moment. When it does, I would expect some good info there. I believe they used Smarty which is interesting.

  3. You’re totally right. I get what you’re saying here. It really is indeed pretty easy to come into a market where the established leader is working on a fundamental rebuild of its software to enable new functionality and then make a few incremental improvements beyond the current state and claim you’re a visionary. Thanks for pointing that one out for me. Or something…

  4. Tom, it was meant as a nudge and a wink. I have never claimed being a visionary or that MT is a bad tool for some uses. If so, please point it out to me.

  5. Still – I think a bit of respect wouldn’t go amiss. I mean, along with Blogger, they did kind of define the standard here, have contributed enormously in terms of both time and effort to the making of stuff and on the whole MT is a pretty f***ing tough bit of kit to give away free, even if only for certain uses. I mean it’s fairly clear that however good other weblogging systems have been they’ve learned enormous amounts from MT or Blogger and in many many cases (at least in UI / paradigm senses) are just simple clones. So sure, I mean celebrate what makes WordPress better (for some uses), but don’t forget that you couldn’t/wouldn’t have built the thing or got people using it without them – and others (b2) – leading the way originally.

  6. Still – I think a bit of respect wouldn’t go amiss. I mean, along with Blogger, they did kind of define the standard here, have contributed enormously in terms of both time and effort to the making of stuff and on the whole MT is a pretty fucking tough bit of kit to give away free, even if only for certain uses. I mean it’s fairly clear that however good other weblogging systems have been they’ve learned enormous amounts from MT or Blogger and in many many cases (at least in UI / paradigm senses) are just simple clones. So sure, I mean celebrate what makes WordPress better for some uses, but don’t forget that you couldn’t/wouldn’t have built the thing or got people using it without them leading the way originally.

  7. Hey Matt–I’m in the process of evaluating a CMS for our church to use. I’m this close *holds fingers an inch apart* to buying an MT non-commercial license, for the sole reason that MT supports multiple blogs. This would let us build a site with multiple site sections, much like what the inimitable Doug Bowman is doing with StopDesign.

    Is this feature on the roadmap for WP in the near future?

  8. Tom, that’s good advice for any tool maker in this space. (Though you forgot to mention Radio.) I used to be a MT user myself, b2 afterwards, and haven’t forgotten that. I have a lot of respect for the people at 6A on a personal level and also that as a company they’re enabling themselves to get paid for working on blogging, which I can imagine must be a blast for all involved. If it seems that I respond and comment on what they do, well yeah, they’re the market leader right now and we need to frame ourselves in the context of that, just like Apple does to Microsoft, or Firefox to IE.

    I try to keep installations of every tool in the space running simply because even tools that might not be the chic thing these days (like Blogger) still have a lot to offer and learn from. I wouldn’t call any of the successful tools over the years an accident, each has done something very well and addressed needs of the time and rightfully gained recognition for it. It’s a market and the forces work both ways. I know if someone blogged “I’m switching to Tool Y from WordPress because it has Feature X” I would investigate how we could do that better and make that a priority. Fortunately the market is at a point where there isn’t really anything new being introduced that couldn’t be replicated with a good weekend of hacking (provided a solid base/framework), and newcomers to the market like WP benefit from that.

  9. if someone blogged “I’m switching to Tool Y from WordPress because ….

    Of course, since WordPress doesn’t have an export function, it’s been pretty difficult to switch to something else. Until now.

  10. Your post made me giggle. Thanks for that! As for the MT-plugin archive, it’s a labor of love that Kristine made and I still host. I would be happy to start working on something similar for WP, just say the word. I’d even host it. Give me a call.

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