They're asking for $120US for a Personal Use License.

That's $200NZ.

Looks like I'll have to shift CMS or stick with 2.6661.

Well they have the Free version but there is no support, no updating and only one author and blog. It is crippleware and that sucks.

Man, this really sucks. What really pisses me off is I *just* switched to MT, this news makes me want to find something else.

MT is very powerful software, but I think SixApart may be suffering from an oversized ego.

Well this is Six Aparts first attempt to actually sell software. There also is not an immediate reason to upgrade to MT3. If you are still using MT 2.6 you can stick with it for as long as you like.

No it's not. They've had commercial licenses with MT for ages; and TypePad is a paid service... so it's not their first attempt to sell software. But it freaking sucks that, all of a sudden, they decide to price it for personal use. Which I can't understand as I'd imagine they'd want to improve the potential adoption rates for TypeKey rather than hinder them. shrug.

Time to roll my own!

*grins at jake. were you saying something like movabletype forever? ;)

Well I still like MT I just think they are asking too much for it.

So again I point you to WordPress.
http://wordpress.org/development/archives/2004/04/17/moving-your-type-mt-wp-migrations/

Sorry :-)

Wordpress only supports 1 site and one author. It less powerfull than the free version of MT3 or the older version. I am going to upgrade to MT3 when it goes gold and pay them their 30 bucks. http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/4870

At least WordPress is in active development...new release out next week with (this has gotta be a first for the software industry) new features in it.

Once they nail the multiple blogs thing, I predict a mass exodus to them. I for one literally cannot afford to upgrade to MT3, for my 2 author personal site. And that's sad. (Not because I can't afford it, but because it costs so much for a 2 author personal site that I can't afford it.)

MT is in active develpment and there are new features.

Active depending on how you define it, same with new features.

I guess the thing that really rubs me the wrong way is they've moved to this overpriced licensing scheme with a relatively feature-bare new release (heck, even they aren't disputing that last point) and at the same time, they have this big push to get developers to make plugins. Basically, "We'll collect the money, you make the features for us".

HI KEVIN! :) Thats not the only thing, their definition of a blog needs to really be looked at. I use blogs to make things like a reading list and stuff like that but I'd hardly call it a blog. And MT is no longer in testing, not publically anyhow.

MT 3.0 is great and I was really looking forward to upgrading my main installation to it. With all my blogs and authors, that looks to be just about impossible. I'm bummed, but I'm not giving up yet. I think they might lower prices or change their mind about stuff.

Hey Carla :)

I've read through every trackback link on Mena's post, and there are about 5 that are semi-positive (and by semi-positive I mean people saying "It doesn't suck as much as everyone seems to think")...given that, I think they *have* to change it.

(What gives me a glimmer of hope is Anil Dash is posting, i.e. here: http://www.serialpurrs.org/journal/website_stuff/mt_3_is_here.php#com regarding trying to make the licenses work for people. OTOH what disheartens me, based on the same comment, is that he doesn't seem to get that it's about the prices, not necessarily the limitations.)

On Mena's Corner she said:
We're big on honor at Six Apart. We haven't built in any nagware for license violations or phone home mechanisms. We trust our users' good judgment and intentions. We intend to use our good judgment in being flexible about enforcing these limits.

So does that mean I can buy MT3 Personal Edition and have 4 authors with out it freaking out?

That seems to be the big question. I mentioned it somewhere this morning, but Les/Stupid Evil Bastard has a whole post on it: http://stupidevilbastard.com/archives/2004/05/13/movabletype_3d_licenses_are_based_on_the_honor_system.php and so does 75th Trombone: http://blog.75thtrombone.com/archives/2004/05/13/103938/index.php

Wordpress supports multiple authors, I'm running it and my wife has an account, she just hasn't written anything yet. You're right about it supporting only one blog at a time. It's just PHP so you could probably hack it to only show the posts by a single author easily, I'm not sure about tying a look-and-feel to each author though. That might require a lot more work.

"big push to get developers to make plugins. Basically, "We'll collect the money, you make the features for us"."

Wow, sounds like they learned a lesson from Microsoft. "We'll build the development language and the OS, you provide the App Server and the apps" :)

I am still in shock. I have been for the past couple of days. I have eleven 'blogs on just this one domain, and four others on another. I have "donated" for separate keys on each one.

Using the current pricing scheme (or is it gouging scheme) I would have to pay over $700 for just my one domain. I have forty-one authors as of today.

Look, I do not mind paying for software. I could see the high price if my site were a commercial one, but it is just a political commentary site. I could see paying maybe $100.00 for this platform as long as I am operating it without profit.

I am not sure what I am going to do right now. I may stick with MT 2.661 for the time being, or I may explore a migration over to WordPress.