This blog is powered by the Moveabletype blogging software. I discovered it a couple of years ago, and have since used it in many locations thanks to its adaptability and straightforward interface.
The company behind Moveabletype, Six Apart, have kicked up a little storm over their announcement last week of new license fees that will extend to those using MT for non-commerical purposes. Such has been the backlash, that they’re asking for feedback on how people use their software. So here’s my contribution:
My main use of MT is here at anthropiccollective.org. I use this installation to host six blogs (eight authors) for friends. They’re all personal blogs of various sorts, and while Steve often uses his to sing the praises of his most recent CDs, I’d describe the uses as non-commercial.
The other place I’ve used MT extensively is for the Delicatessen site. The use there is a little more sophisticated, with the software handling the artists’ bios, reviews, information on upcoming events and various other things. I’ve written a little extension to MT to pull out random images to appear on pages whenever we update the site. It’s good to be able to easily hand control of the site to other members of the team without having to train them extensively. While the site exists (at least in part) to sell tickets, we don’t make any money out of Delicatessen, running it in order to promote the musicians who play there.
I’ve been looking around for alternatives to moveabletype, but haven’t yet found anything that’ll do quite the same job with quite the same simplicity. I had hoped to stay with the current version, but I now discover it’s no longer available for download, so I’d better hope I never need to reinstall…