SixApart Abandons Their Last Fans
Did you hear the big news that came out yesterday? SixApart released MovableType 3.3 and MovableType Enterprise and if you didn’t hear about it don’t be so surprised because I was only able to catch it on one site. The reason this might have been was because they didn’t do it through a blog entry, but through a Press Release. A Press Release…
Now I have nothing against Press Releases as I know many bloggers who use them to get the word out to traditional media, but for some reason I was under the impression that the company that essentially established the blogging world would complement a Press Release with a blog entry where users and the general public could at least leave trackbacks. They used to do stuff like this, but I can’t remember when they stopped since nothing newsworthy has been really happening over there (with the exception of TypePad outages).
Maybe this is the sign that shows they have truly given up on the last set of users still willing to use their product, which was never bad, but simply needed improvements. Maybe the community was just too harsh towards Mena so she figured in March that she would just give it all up. Do I think every company should start a blog? Of course not, but do I think a company who’s products and services revolve around blogging software should blog? Hell yeah.
So if you use MovableType there is an upgrade out there in case you didn’t know. If you are a company looking into blogs there is now an Enterprise version which has Oracle support. If you are anyone else you will find better alternatives around the web.
At least they’re still making money right?
Related reading:
[...] Scrivs [...]
By usmediaweb» The CC Anthology » SixApart Abandons Their Last Fans on July 13, 2006 12:31 pm
I think it was pretty clear that this was the direction SixApart was heading for a while now. I haven’t let a client use MT/TP for well over a year in terms of thier blogging needs, and have had discussions with a number of different folks already using the platform. Of those, it’s been about a 50/50 mix of those wishing to run from MT/SixApart as quickly as possible and those believing that it’s the only way to go.
Too bad for the latter group.
By Christopher J. Hradil on July 13, 2006 12:41 pm
They were about to announce it on blogs, etc., when Typekey went down. Now Typekey’s back up, they’re now in the process of completing the announcement - that includes blogs, etc.
By LSF on July 13, 2006 12:45 pm
Well that certainly instills some confidence in me…
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By Scrivs on July 13, 2006 1:05 pm
Now that I think a bit more about it, if TypeKey was the issue why bother publishing a Press Release in the first place? Shouldn’t that have waited as well if there were more pressing issues to tackle?
By Scrivs on July 13, 2006 2:08 pm
If you and Rundle are going to insist on trying to lambast 6A for every single thing they do remotely wrong, then please at least bother to ask a few questions, do some research, and get your information straight. Mistakes were made here; they are not necessarily the ones you’re picking at. There’s seems to be some odd 9Rules vendetta going on that conveniently ignores Mullenweg’s own periodic screw-ups.
The Movable Type site was updated and the press release, uh, released, and then Typekey went down. I know this because I got my copy before it happened. For what it’s worth, the software was available in Japan for a few days prior to even that, not that it’s necessarily related.
By Su on July 13, 2006 2:19 pm
Su: Some key facts.
- The events took place yesterday.
- I wrote the entry today.
- Still nothing on any blog even explaining what’s up.
So me waiting a day wasn’t sufficient enough time for an entry like this to come out? Odd 9rules vendetta? Not really, Mike and I talk and point to a press release and we both decide to write about it.
Point still is Press Release came before blog entry no matter how you spin it. To me that’s lame.
By Scrivs on July 13, 2006 2:28 pm
Your opinion regarding whether a press release should have happened before a blog post is irrelevant. Are you assuming that the same people are involved in and have control over the two events? I doubt it.
The software did get released(if somewhat temporarily), making a press release entirely valid. Making an announcement to your user base that it’s out, and then leaving them to find out that they mysteriously can’t actually download it is another matter. They opted to minimize the damage by not shouting from the rafters. The site, unfortunately, had already been updated.
And yes, not announcing that Typekey was down other than at a page most people likely don’t know about, is yet another matter. And that is where you can much more justifiably and easily attack them.
By Su on July 13, 2006 2:47 pm
Wow - a blog writing about blogging. How the heck did I end up here.
By Leroy Golden on July 13, 2006 3:39 pm
Su, are you in any way employed by Six Apart?
By Geof Harries on July 13, 2006 4:57 pm
It’s not really that unusual for a software company to let someone else scoop its own website. Of course, those are usually companies which are not intimately involved with publishing in the first place.
By JC on July 13, 2006 5:02 pm
No it’s not irrelevant because it shows what was most important to them. Not being able to blog because of TypeKey issues is understandable and don’t tell me you can’t coordinate a Press Release and blog entry at the same time. With what happened I can understand why they didn’t do a blog entry, but again you say I should ask questions and I counter with what questions was I suppose to ask and to who?
When I see a Press Release of a software and no updates anywhere on any of their blogs I fail to see why I should assume something is wrong and research a page that (as you admit) people are not sure exist.
I still nothing at 5pm EST about this and looking at the status page TypeKey was fixed yesterday.
By Scrivs on July 13, 2006 5:04 pm
And god forbid they take down a Press Release…
By Scrivs on July 13, 2006 5:05 pm
Um. I didn’t ask you to assume that something’s wrong because you saw a press release and no blog post. In fact, I gave you the obscurity of that status page and failure to communicate the downtime as a valid complaint you could make rather than presume to tell 6A in what order their announcements should occur.
On the other hand, it’s entirely possible(actually quite likely) that whoever published the release is not the person who would have published to the blog(almost definitely Jay Allen). Further, it’s also likely that Jay doesn’t even have access to the press release blog to have taken down the thing when the problems were discovered. Not that it matters: I’m not sure why this isn’t obvious, but there was never any reason to retract the press release. The software was released, as it states. It later became inaccessible, but that does not invalidate what the release says. Plenty of people, including myself, got it before Typekey went down.
Don’t confuse an informational message intended for the press(hence the name) that a product was made available(which it was), with a message to the entie user community that the product can be downloaded right now, which is what the effect of that announcement would have been. MT pulls a feed of MT News by default.
Beyond significant design and organizational rearranging, there are back-end changes involved with a release. Some people who managed to grab the software early only did so because they happened to have logged into their accounts and seen that the option was there. Parts of that process are still being worked on. Typekey could have gone down at any point in the middle of that. If they’d decided not to announce until everything was ready, I don’t particularly fault them.
I don’t have to tell you what questions to have asked. The first one that should come to mind is, “Why the hell can’t I download the new version if you announced it?” Ask in the forums. Ask the developers by commenting in the beta blog. Do it on the ProNet list if you’re a member. Contact support and ask why you can’t login to Typekey(Imagine!) Don’t act like they’re making it hard to get in touch. Of course, that would have required actually trying to download it upon seeing the release(Did you?). That would have been the first hint that there was a problem. Which is the entire issue, and why they…didn’t tell everyone to download it.
If anything, the lack of an announcement post isn’t the problem; that was just damage control. Why don’t you complain about the lack of a post saying that Typekey was down, which not only prevented users from getting the new version, but also broke many people’s commenting features at their own sites? Or the fact that the documentation isn’t done(Would you have noticed? Do you even use MT?) There’s plenty of real ammunition out there. Don’t think I’m an apologist; I’ve got plenty of issues with them. But what you’re talking about above is only a symptom of what you really want to criticize, and not even a particularly good example.
By Su on July 13, 2006 7:17 pm
Su, you’ve said it all. I have nothing to add.
By LSF on July 13, 2006 9:59 pm
[...] Weblogs - SixApart Abandons Their Last Fans Tags [...]
By RetortaBlog » Weblogs - SixApart Abandons Their Last Fans on July 14, 2006 4:36 am
The annoucement was rather quiet — I personally use MT and didn’t know about it.
I’m also an online producer for a company that uses MT and wasn’t informed about the update.
That isn’t to say I didn’t know it was coming — I did read about it for the past few weeks. But SixApart should have done a better job at letting their customers know.
By Patrick Beeson on July 14, 2006 4:03 pm
why dont we talk about the the cool products other people are doing instead?
By Anthony on July 14, 2006 4:47 pm
My goodness scrivs. You even have Anil’s and, I think, my IM. Then again, they’d probably revoke your blogger credentials if you actually double clicked and asked a question before racing to your web browser to post an inflammatory smear piece? So No harm done then.
Su is exactly right. I’ve already responded to Mike’s eerily similar post here with all of the *actual* facts.
Don’t act like they’re making it hard to get in touch.
Yeah, in fact, the whole team was in the #movabletype channel on irc.freenode.net all day — as we always are. We’re not hard to reach. Reaching us, in fact, is easier than writing 291 words.
If you have any questions or concerns in the future, feel free to contact me or anyone else on staff. We’re not exactly the low profile kind…
By Jay Allen on July 15, 2006 2:33 pm
[...] Products Jul 15 at 4:41 pm by Matt -I’m not sure that Paul Scrivens and I have ever agreed on much of anything - until I read his post at Wisdump about Six Apart’s release of Movable Type 3.3. [...]
By Paul Scrivens and I agree on something (or the coming end of Movable Type) at The Blog Herald on July 15, 2006 5:38 pm
[I totally missed this up above, so for the record:]
Geof Harries: No, I’m not employed by or even associated with 6A in any way whatsoever other than using the software for myself and clients(read: the same essential position as Scrivs and Rundle). In fact, I’ve probably irritated them more than once.
I just have some idea what I’m talking about, largely resulting from actual involvement with the software and the community around it. And when I want to know something, I ask them, and they usually tell me. In contrast, Jay has now added 2(.5?) more ways nobody bothered to check on this.
By Su on July 15, 2006 9:48 pm
I’ve actually weighed in elsewhere against the general conclusion of this post, but it’s important to note in the argument in the comments that SixApart has a long track record of doing press releases of new product releases and not blogging about it at the same time, indeed in the past it’s been days and days after the non-blog announcement that this stuff gets posted, so it’s really nothing new.
By Duncan on July 16, 2006 11:08 pm
[...] For those who think Six Apart is a huge corporate giant who has no concept of its customers and roots, your suspicions have been confirmed: they announced the new version of Movable Type not in a blog posting, but in a press release. Related Posts: IIS Share Increase Due to Blogs? Explain PleaseTax Revenues are Skyrocketing [...]
By Movable Type Sucks » Another Blogger on July 17, 2006 12:02 pm
So much for naked conversations (Scoble et al). First there was the nofollow links, putting protection on blog comment links and trackbacks. Not-so-naked conversations.
Now non-RSS, non-ping press releases instead of conversations. This from the leader of blog software services. Disappointing is too mild a word.
By Paul salber on July 17, 2006 2:34 pm
[...] Yesterday Six Apart announced Movable Type Enterprise and v3.3 of their web publishing software, and what’s funny is that I didn’t find out until today that any announcement was made. Normally their software launches have been a big deal in the blogosphere, but for the past 6+ months the MT buzz factor has been languishing and their previously evangelic user base has been leaving them for greener pastures. I only found out about the announcement from Paul because nobody was talking about the release. [...]
By Six Apart: Six Miles From Relevant » Project Syndicate on August 2, 2006 12:13 pm
[...] Hmmm, doesn’t seem to be a smart idea to take your forum down for a “few days” four days after a new release of your software. And unfortunately this is the second time I’ve run into this error in the past two months. This combined with other people’s unfortunate comments about how they handled releasing their new version (3.3) is really not helping things…. (Although if you look at the comments in any of those sites you will see Jay Allen, MT’s Project manager explaining things) [...]
By CSSgirl Designs » Blog Archive » MT Working on Pissing Off All Remaining Fans on May 18, 2007 1:27 pm
[...] user base has been leaving them for greener pastures. I only found out about the announcement from Paul because nobody was talking about the [...]
By Six Apart: Six Miles From Relevant | Business Logs on June 29, 2007 10:45 am