… with version 3.2, *all users* will be entitled to unlimited weblogs. This goes for free users, as well. A lot of the rationale behind this was that the multiple weblog management is so good in 3.2, that we didn’t want to have the limit anymore.

I have not tried the latest MovableType beta — in fact I have not touched MT since 6A introduced MT3′s license pricing last year. However, from the trackback it appears that MT users have mostly welcomed the changes, and some even speculate the departure of users from WordPress.

Congratulation to SixApart and Movable Type users!

However, what Mark Pilgrim wrote 15 months ago still rings true. Lowering the barrier. Adding more buzzwords. Giving away features that cost users nothing — none of these would give you the freedom some other alternatives can give you. While it is true, as SixApart has claimed, that Movable Type’s pricing model will suit majority of their users, who are bloggers trying to set up their personal on-line journals, but for those who have previously been bitten — I don’t think they will be trapped again.

SetEnvIf User-Agent libwww-perl NOPOST

<Limit POST>
    Order Allow,Deny
    Allow from all
    Deny from env=NOPOST
</Limit>

It seems that many spam bots are written in Perl, so here I simply reject their POST request if the user-agent matches. It is also easy to extend if there are variants. From the Apache log it rejects about 10 requests over the last 24 hours. Not bad I guess.

It does not work against the trolls though. I got 6 comments today on this site, with nothing but a swearing word starts with ‘F’. Should have block it from WordPress…

And yes, I am still here! Too many things to do over the last couple of days. Actually it was worse – got this mental block that I can’t find any interesting thing to blog. Expect it to continue for another few days…

Much much better than their initial offering. As of commercial/education/non-profit organisation licenses, 6A has also made them competitive to other commercial blog software offerings. However, users might want to wait for the extra features included in the general release of Movable Type 3 to justify the upgrade.

As for me, no, I am not moving back. WordPress is working fine for me here. A little bit slow for this server, but I think I can live with that. As of new projects, TextPattern will be something I would use, if PHP hacking is not required. Both are quality products, and both are considered free software.

So, thank you Ben and Mena. But no thank you.

Well. Too bad. I have already fallen to the dark side.

I can still download Movable Type 2.661 from Six Apart’s website, and will not be restricted in number of authors and blogs if it is for personal/non-commercial use.

Wrong. If you downloaded the Movable Type 2.661 or older after the license change on May 13, you are still bounded to the new license, which limits the number of authors and blogs you can have depending on how much you have paid.

Let me summarise the story so far.

• 13 May: SixApart announced Movable Type 3.0D, together with a new license term that restricts number of authors and blogs. Many bloggers are not happy.
• 15 May: SixApart clarified the license and slightly altered pricing structure, but many bloggers are still not happy.
• 21 May: Six Apart is quietly making the license more flexible for the users, and hopefully there will be formal response from them soon.
• 23 May: Movable Type 2.661 is reported to be downloadable again from Six Apart’s website.

Many bloggers have decided to stick with the old Movable Type 2.661 that they have already deployed, so that they will not be restricted by the new license introjected when Movable Type 3.0D was released. I myself included. While I have moved this site to GPL’ed WordPress, I have also decided that I will stick with Movable Type 2.661 for a while with FOCUSer.net, as long as people over there are happy with it.

However, new bloggers might be deluded to think that as long as they are using a version of Movable Type prior to 3.0D, they are okay with unlimited authors and blogs. So, there was pressure on 6A to put MT 2.661 downloads back on-line. Some people have also started to provide private mirrors to host the old tarballs. However, according to Phil Ringnalda at this thread on the Movable Type’s support forum:

And although you can (apparently, from what I hear) continue to use 2.6x under the old license if you downloaded it under the old license, it isn’t a matter of “the 3.0 license versus the 2.6x license” but a matter of the “before May 13, 2004 license and the after May 13, 2004 license.” Download either one today, and you are downloading it under the terms of the current, 1 author and 3 weblogs for free, license.

If you downloaded MT2.661 through 6A’s secure site, you would have clicked through the license agreements and accepted them. Your MT2.661 installation, while functioned in the same way as the one downloaded prior to May 13, it is now bounded to its new license agreement, with restrictive terms and conditions. And no, you cannot host unlimited authors nor unlimited blogs with it.

So, what does that leave with the Movable Type users, who might host a community blogsite with a large number of authors and blogs?

• Pay up! If you think Movable Type worths it, then do support Six Apart financially. Hopefully they can also come up with something more flexible in time.
• If you are a new blogger, you cannot download MT 2.661 and expect to host many authors for free. You have already accepted the new license agreement before you click on that Download button.
• You cannot offer your old MT 2.661 tarball on the web, as the old license agreement forbids distribution.
• If you were too lazy to upgrade to MT 2.661 before, and stuck at an older version – there is no way you can upgrade without accepting the new license.
• If an exploit has been discovered in MT 2.x, then really bad luck! You cannot upgrade to the current patched release without accepting the new license agreement. However, the old license does allow you to “modify or alter” the software for your own use. So if you are a good Perl hacker, then possibly you can patch it up yourself. However, the license forbids distribution of your modification, i.e. you cannot provide your patch on the Internet. So everyone else stuck on MT 2.x has to figure out their own way to hack the code.
• Switch. A single installation that supports unlimited authors? Lots of them. A single installation that supports unlimited blogsites across different domains, simple deployment, easy migration path from Movable Type, Open Source/Free software, etc? Hopefully the next WordPress would come close.

1. Open [MT Installation]/lib/MT/App/CMS.pm, go to line 2970, and make the following change. This assumes Movable Type 2.661, and line number might be different if a different MT version is installed.

    CATEGORY: <$MTCategoryLabel$>
    </MTEntryCategories>
    DATE: <$MTEntryDate format="%m/%d/%Y %I:%M:%S %p"$>
   +POSTID: <$MTEntryID$>
    -----
    BODY:
    <$MTEntryBody convert_breaks="0"$>
   

   It adds entry ID into Movable Type export.

2. Use Movable Type’s user interface to export all entries, comments and trackbacks into a plain text file.

3. Open [WP Installation]/wp-admin/import-mt.php, change line 2 to point MTEXPORT to the file exported in step 2, and make the following change in the same file. At around line 268,

                   $post_date = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $post_date);
                   $post_date_gmt = get_gmt_from_date("$post_date");
                   break;
   +               case 'POSTID':
   +                   $post_id = $value;
   +                   break;
               default:
    //                 echo "n$key: $value";
                   break;
   

   At around line 280,

       } else {
           $post_author = checkauthor($post_author);//just so that if a post already exists, new users are not created by checkauthor
           $wpdb->query("INSERT INTO $tableposts (
   -               post_author, post_date, post_date_gmt, post_content, post_title, post_excerpt,  post_status, comment_status, ping_status, post_name, post_modified, post_modified_gmt)
   +               id, post_author, post_date, post_date_gmt, post_content, post_title, post_excerpt,  post_status, comment_status, ping_status, post_name, post_modified, post_modified_gmt)
               VALUES
   -               ('$post_author', '$post_date', '$post_date_gmt', '$post_content', '$post_title', '$excerpt', '$post_status', '$comment_status', '$ping_status', '$post_name','$post_date', '$post_date_gmt')");
   +               ('$post_id', '$post_author', '$post_date', '$post_date_gmt', '$post_content', '$post_title', '$excerpt', '$post_status', '$comment_status', '$ping_status', '$post_name','$post_date', '$post_date_gmt')");
   -           $post_id = $wpdb->get_var("SELECT ID FROM $tableposts WHERE post_title = '$post_title' AND post_date = '$post_date'");
           if (0 != count($post_categories)) {
               foreach ($post_categories as $post_category) {
               // See if the category exists yet
   

   It makes WordPress’ MT import script to use the entry ID provided in the exported file.

4. Run the MT import script as usual, i.e. follow the instruction at http://[Your blogsite]/wp-admin/import-mt.php. It should then import all the Movable Type entries mapped to the right entry ID.

5. Remember to disable the import script after it has been completed!

It is then possible to set up mod_rewrite in .htaccess to get WordPress to use the old URL format. For example, if in Movable Type the individual archive uses the /archives/[entry ID].php format, you can use the following rewrite rule:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^archives/^([0-9]{6}).php$ index.php?p=$1 [QSA]

However, if you are using a different permalink scheme under WordPress, then you need to make it to work differently. For example, this blog uses

/%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%/

as permalinks template. The easiest way I found is to actually do a redirection from the old URL to the new. Here is the re-write rule for my .htaccess:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^archives/^([0-9]{6}).php$ wp-redirect.php?p=$1 [QSA]

It has other rules required by the permalinks template, but I am only showing the extra one I got that handles my old permalinks. And inside wp-redirect.php, I have:

<?php
require('wp-blog-header.php');
if ($single) {
    foreach ($posts as $post) {
        start_wp();
        header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved permanently");
        header('Location: '.get_permalink());
        exit;
    }
}
header("HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found");
?>

If a single post is loaded, the script will respond with a 301 permanent redirect to the new permalink. A 301 helps the search engine bots to understand that the new URL will be replacing the old.

So far it has been working quite well, and I have not lost anyone landing on my old links.

Update: For WordPress 1.5+, here is the preferred method. Instead of using a wp-redirect.php script,

1. Install and activate the Permalink Redirect plugin.
2. Use the following Apache mod_rewrite rule instead:

   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteBase /
   RewriteRule ^archives/^([0-9]{6}).php$ /?p=$1 [QSA]