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April 04, 2005
I Hate Movable Type
In the fall of 2004 I decided I wanted my own domain name instead of having my blog hosted on Blogspot.com. I had no problems with Blogspot--it worked very well, even though I had trouble setting up comments. Therefore, I registered my cute domain name, Media Curmudgeon, had it transferred to my server, and looked for some blogging software.
I noticed that several blogs I read used Movable Type and I asked several people who blogged what software they used and some of them said, "Movable Type, but it's hard to use." Stupid me, I didn't pay attention. I said to myself, "I'm smart enough to learn it. I learned how to manage my web sites with Front Page." Boy, was I wrong (nothing new there).
I went online and purchased MT and downloaded it. It was impossibly complicated to install on my server. When I put in Help Tickets I was arrogantly told to use typepad.com because it was for novices like me who were technically challenged (not literally, but that's essentially what the non-helpful, technobabbling support person meant). When I refused to give up, I was told that MT would install the software on my server for a fee of $60, so I bought it.
After MT was installed, it took stupid me (or that's how the support people made sure that I felt) about a dozen Help Tickets to get MT to have the colors and layout I wanted. I was told to go to a third party web site to get functionality for emailing my blog to people (of course, MT didn't support the third-party stuff). Because I couldn't get any interpretable, helpful support, I hired a free-lance web designer for $200 to get my comments right and put an email icon on my blog so people could email entries to others. Finally it was working the way I wanted. Notifications were being sent to a list of family and pals and I was finally, after four months of hassles, blogging away.
Then, disaster struck. MT informed me that a software update was available. I bit again and I even paid to have the update installed. I blogged and no notifications were sent out. I put in a hated Help Ticket and was told ooops, the upgrade had a bug. When I asked when it would be fixed, I was told “next week.” I was told to watch the MT web site for an announcement when the bug was fixed. When I complained bitterly about the way I was being treated, MT said they’d email me when the bug was fixed. It’s been a month. Nothing, nada, zero, zip.
MT is an awful company, with awful support, and with impossibly complicated software. Don’t even think about using it.
Posted by Charles Warner at April 4, 2005 08:13 PM
Comments
Media Curmudgeon at April 9, 2005 12:42 AM writes:
Anil - Please see my entry of April 8 titled "Movable Type" responds. MT fixed the bug and the notifications work now as they did before MT installed the buggy update. In the 4/9 blog entry I explain why I don't want to use TypePad.
I do appreciate your desire to help, but as I said, the problem is not me, it's the bug which MT should fix, and they did.
Anil at April 4, 2005 11:12 PM writes:
Hi Charles, I work with Six Apart (we make Movable Type) and I think I might be able to address some of the issues you've brought up, if you don't mind.
I saw that you said " When I put in Help Tickets I was arrogantly told to use typepad.com because it was for novices like me who were technically challenged (not literally, but that's essentially what the non-helpful, technobabbling support person meant)." I don't know whom you spoke to, but generally our support team's rated among the best in the business, so I'm guessing this was probably a miscommunication.
To put it briefly, I *do* think that TypePad might be the right choice for you, judging by the experiences you've had. If the support messages, customization process, or updating process for Movable Type are frustrating or confusing for you, then TypePad's probably the right tool for the job. I am *very* familiar with Movable Type and its technical details and still usually prefer TypePad because I don't have to worry about those things and can do things like customizing my layout or design just by clicking on the look I prefer. Is there a particular reason that didn't seem like a viable choice for you?
In addition, we're definitely not happy that notifications are having problems in some environments that Movable Type runs in. As may have been mentioned, there are temporary fixes to this if you're willing to edit the code for the application, but that's again something we wouldn't advocate to someone that doesn't want to bother learning how to do that. This is another case where TypePad's automatic software upgrades might make things easier.
I'd like to do what it takes to make things right by you with your experience with blogging and with Six Apart. Please feel free to email me with any information you can provide on how we could satisfy your needs. I'd be particularly interested in finding out how TypePad doesn't meet your needs, because I think that using TypePad is hardly "giving up" on a desire to use Movable Type, it's more of freeing yourself to focus on writing and being creative. If that's not a message we're effectively communicating to people, I'd like to remedy the situation.
Thanks for taking the time to list your specific complaints, and I hope you'll give us the chance to make things right.