Hey, I’m Movable Type. And I’m WordPress.

Posted on March 11th in WordPress — 10 Comments so far. Got something to say?

So Movable Type decided yesterday to give an upgrade guide for WordPress 2.5. How nice of them. Although, instead of WordPress’ two step install system, they offer one: upgrade to Movable Type. One of the main points in the article is how pretty their administration area is. Next, they’ll be saying WordPress can only do spreadsheets.

Reversed Roles

In the metaphorical sense, WordPress would have to be a PC, and Movable Type a Mac. This seems kinda backwards because, first of all I’m a Mac user, and Movable Type is taking a not so subtle shot at WordPress.

But, the idea is that Movable Type is the smaller brand trying to move in on some space in the market. The only difference is that the Mac/PC commercials are funny, and work. They work because the Mac guy never actually says anything. He kinda just watches the self-deprecating PC go on about his short comings.

Good Competition

It is true, one major flaw in WordPress is the administration design. But, hey, life is good when that’s the problem. No one but yourself really sees it, so you’re not really losing anything is the process.

There’s no shortage of community made mockups for a new idea. While I think the new 2.5 interface doesn’t quite solve much, it shows that they’re finally willing to change. With Movable Type pushing now, I think this would be a good time for Automattic to blow them out of the water. Let’s look at Anil Dash’s main points, and what Mr. Mullenweg and the boys can do:

“Get Better Tech First” - [...WordPress users have had to wait months or even years to get capabilities that Movable Type has pioneered.]

First, before I move on, I have to say that this guy just seems mad that things MT did first have been caught up with. Who cares if you do it first? Isn’t more about who does it better? If you can have the latter argument on your side, then you can go for it.

The solution for WordPress: Well, add support out the box. Sure, I could go download a plugin for OpenID on comments, but including the option by default would make Anil mad.Not only that, but it’s encouraging users the use these new technologies.

“Takes a Digging, Keeps on Ticking.” - [Question: How should you greet the onrush of visitors to your site when you get onto the homepage of Digg or Reddit? Answer: Not with a Database Connection Error.]

By now, the “WordPress can’t take traffic” is like calling someone fat. Sure, on the outside, to everyone without understanding it’s true. But if that kid was smart he would make an effort to ched the pounds. Likewise, WordPress can display static pages. But who wants another plugin, right? This one’s included by default. It’s WP-Cache.

Set your cache time really high under the pressure of a digg. Email your host telling them it’s coming. It’s not hard.

The solution for WordPress: Everyone knows about Akismet, so make sure everyone knows how to use WP-Cache, or make a new caching system that varies cache times depending on server load.

“A Dashboard That Measures Success” - [So MT4's completely customizable dashboard has a powerful set of visual representations of your blog's behavior, from charts of the number of entries your authors have created to sliders that let you zoom in and understand why you got more comments on certain days.]

I love how our new friend Anil doesn’t say anything about the hundreds of statistical plugins for WordPress. Or anything about plugins this time. Why? He references MT’s own plugins. Now isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black? I guess I’ll go further into the whole plugin thing when I get to that point.

As for the actual point- I’m more of a third party stats guy, so it’s hard for me to really make a point, but if anything, I like this feature. WordPress should adopt it, and make it better.

“Design Matters” - [Movable Type was the first blogging platform to use completely CSS-styled, standards-based templates by default, and since then we've worked like crazy to give smarter, prettier tools to everybody for customizing design.]

Another part of WordPress I don’t use: The Theme Editor. It’s not because there’s no built in options for doing things (I don’t see why that matters anyway), but more I use Coda for a faster paced environment with multiple files. Also, I don’t need premade tools to help me design a comment display (or whatever they do).

Solution for WordPress: I wouldn’t even worry about it, to be honest. I think he wanted to talk about the admin design some more, but didn’t want to beat a dead horse.

“Plugins Are Good. Not Needing Plugins Is Better.” - [As the platform that first popularized blogging plugins, Movable Type has tons of them. But even better, there are a huge number of features that would require either the installation and configuration of a plugin, or moving to a completely different platform like WP-MU if you were using WordPress.]

I actually half disagree here. I would rather have the lighter, less featured WordPress and then build it around what I want. It’s also really good for MT that they popularized plugins. I’d pat you on the back if I ever saw you.

These features that are so highly regarded as what MT has over WP are in the end personal preferrence. I don’t want OpenID, multiple blogs in one install, or even tags for that matter.

Solution for WordPress: They got you on the WYSIWYG editor. TinyMCE kinda sucks. I’d either do something original, or find something that doesn’t mess with HTML code when I enter it.

“Get Support Right From The Source” - [...paid users can simply file a help ticket and get access to the best support team in the business. ]

Emphasis mine. How can you argue that you have better support when you’re looking at hundreds of dollars for licensing and updating, just for support? The WordPress community is aptly equiped and problems get solved.

Solution for WordPress: No harm done! I don’t know what this guy was thinking when he included that point. Want the best support? Come over to Movable Type. We’ll welcome you with open arms if you come with an open wallet!

The Real Way to Win

Just do things better. Simple as that. If you came out fixing everything this guy says is bad, what left can he say? All of his points pretty much fail with epic bad anyway. Also, getting back to the original point - the Macs can never win. Just saying

Also, sorry for the long rambling post. I’m not a huge fan of propaganda especially when it’s attacking something I use everyday personally and for clients.