immovable type

Boring blog interlude: many in the so-called ‘blogosphere’ are moaning about having to fork over vast amounts of cash to upgrade to the spangly new version of Movable Type (the publishing tool that powers this very weblog).

I’ve done the math, and I’m not happy either. I’ve donated $45 to Ben & Mena in the past, which entitles me to to a generous reduction of precisely that amount from the retail price, and I’m also entitled to a 50% discount as one of their registered beta software testers. So here we go:

+ Retail Price: $69.95
– Donor discount: $45.00
– Tester discount: $34.96

Total: – $10.01

So when you ask, Mena, precisely how I’m using the software, I can only answer that I won’t be downloading the bastard upgrade until you’ve paid up.

While I’m on the subject, it does actually seem impossible to claim both discounts during the purchase process, which means that MT’s most ardent supporters don’t get the discount they’ve been promised, while someone who volunteered for beta testing but didn’t actually contribute (either to the testing or in monetary terms) – and there were plenty – receives a larger discount than someone who handed over $30 to keep the cottage industry version of Movable Type afloat before it became an International conglomerate.

On a slightly more serious note, incidentally, I found Mena’s post pretty distateful, using trackback entries (why not comments?) to boost blogdex and technorati ranking for a page which extols the virtues of a product but none of the problems (“I’m going to delete TrackBacks that are detracting or commentaries on Six Apart“), at the very time they’re trying to sell that product for the first time. That’s a pretty professional job of rank spamming they’ve just had hundreds of their loyal users partake in. Nice work.

Rant over. Sorry about that. Here’s some pictures of a man having fun with his tracheostomy hole. Ahhh, that’s better.