Comments on: MovableType 4 Review

By: Creamer

Creamer — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 04:06:18 +0000

No, I don’t think that movable type is a cool thing to play with, even though it has a simple installation, even modifying a page takes forever and you have to edit a template that it contains template itself, and that template contains widgets too. Let alone creating a style. Everything is messy, if it takes 1 minute to add a swf file into html, it takes forever in MT, and finally I couldn’t even make tabs and edit my community solution. I would not rate more that 5% on ease of use, unless you put 3 months to learn it’s new programming language.

By: Dawn

Dawn — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 16:25:18 +0000

I’m a long-time MT user, although I took a blogging hiatus for a couple of years. So, in a way I was new to blogging again. My favorites are still MT (love the new one) and (gasp!) blogspot. WordPress was fine enough, but meh. I didn’t like that you had to pay to customize the templates. If I pay, I’d rather have the software on my own server and just pay for server space. I’m old-school I guess.

But to digress, I do agree that the MT themes are lacking. I like the cartoony ones, but I like cutesy stuff like that. However, I will be making my own anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.

By: Nakamura

Nakamura — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 22:09:01 +0000

you know, Darren, the new MT4 is a cool thing to play with! it’s my first encounter with this platform, have used WP long time. but all i can say, it’s efective, it has lots of built-in features otheres don’t, and it has a future – the buzz created around it will sure wake up peoples interest.

By: Erica

Erica — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 15:50:55 +0000

The MT4 installation is pretty simple. Successfully migrating/updating/reconfiguring everything you had from MT 3.x is not so much.

But it’s what I’m used to, so I’m working with it. That and I had a horrible time trying to import stuff to WP.

By: Carlo Laitano

Carlo Laitano — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 06:42:12 +0000

Actually.. most people maybe tried installing MT4 when it was beta, but right now it’s pretty easy installing. Just have your database info (server, name, username, password) , type in your mail server, and then your account info.. and that’s it.

By: Million Dollar Homeboy

Million Dollar Homeboy — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 02:57:39 +0000

When initially setting up my milliondollarhomeboy blog, I installed MT and WP on my local computer to test and play with before deciding which one to use. Although the admin side of MT feels a bit better aesthetically to me, the plug-ins, number of themes, ability to customize, and overall support from the WP community was the ultimate decision to go and stick with WP.

By: Chris Baskind

Chris Baskind — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 18:30:16 +0000

My initial impressions of MT4 are positive — to my own surprise.

The main thing I can say about the installation (which is different, though not difficult) is that Six Apart isn’t kidding about those file permissions in the /cgi-bin/mt/ directory. If it ends with .cgi, it *must* be 755. I had a few frustrations before realizing my FTP client had not respected this.

There’s no doubt WP remains the stronger platform — for now. WP has such a huge base of themes, plugins, and support. But there are some things I really like about MT4, particularly with respect to the workflow. The Dashboard is vastly superior to WP, and that’s where most of my time gets spent.

I’m converting my personal blog to MT4. If all goes well, our next project will likely be on MT. It has a lot of potential.

By: Rob

Rob — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 16:47:26 +0000

I’ve been using MT for about 5 years now and 4 is a definite improvement over older versions.

Not only does it have more features, it publishes much faster as well, and has improved user management.

The only problem I have with it (but it’s really a blessing in disguise) is that the system now has it’s own “language” for lack of a better term.

That means that while older MT tags (IE MTEntries, etc) will continue to work, you probably don’t get the full benefit of the new system.

On the plus site, MT4 WILL NOT overwrite your templates, even when you ask it to. I foolishly tried to overwrite my index template with the default and it wouldn’t. Good thing too because I set up a test blog to see what the new default template was like and it’s quite different.

Overall though I’m very happy with the new system. Makes managing my sites much easier.

By: Aaron Brazell

Aaron Brazell — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 15:51:49 +0000

In case it didn’t come out in my entry, I agree with Jacob. It is my biggest frustration with MT4.

By: Anton Pishchour

Anton Pishchour — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 15:19:29 +0000

I’ve been using MT for about 4 years already and can’t say I’m happy with the new version. It’s definitely more powerful than MT3.xx, but it also lost some of its clarity and simplicity.

By: redwall_hp

redwall_hp — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 13:26:09 +0000

Sean, you didn't know what Movable Type was? And you call yourself a blogger! :D Read up on your blogging history! Six Apart's Movable Type was the blogging software of choice before Wordpress came along. Six Apart invented Trackback, and innovated many other things that we take for granted in modern blog software.

By: Andrew Boyd

Andrew Boyd — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:07:31 +0000

Hi Darren,

I used MT4 beta for a while after resurrecting HumaneIA, and I liked it – saw a lot of potential for it, especially as a way of managing multiple blogs. In the end I abandoned it (perhaps cruelly, perhaps prematurely) for WordPress because that was what I was (and am) used to.

Cheers, Andrew

By: Darren Rowse

Darren Rowse — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 11:12:14 +0000

gav13 – if you mean this site (problogger) yes – it runs on WP.

By: Sean

Sean — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 10:51:06 +0000

I have no idea what Movable Type 4 was until 5 minutes ago when I did the research.

Dam, the Interface look very nice. I wanna install it now since you’re a pro blogger and if you’re thinking of installing it, then it must be good…

Whoa, definitely not easy to install from what I am reading here

At least I learned something new today!

By: gsv13

gsv13 — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 09:55:49 +0000

Currently this site is running on wordpress na?

By: Jacob

Jacob — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 09:01:58 +0000

I tried it for a few hours, was impressed with the power and the interface — however, the lack of user-made themes was a big downer.

Plus I’m just too used to WP by now.