Dvorak was assailed by Joi and Anil on his comparison of WP and MT. Anil, via Joi made some comments which I would like to write about. I had written up an extensive refute to all of the points that Anil makes in his email. However, I have decided to refrain from making that writeup public in order to pour some water on the wildfire and extend an olive branch. Before I cluck chicken, I would like to state for everyone, the reasons behind my predisposition.
- My awareness of the problems facing the competing groups in the blogging world was further raised by a very well meaning person. I would like to share some of the thoughts. There are enough blogs and bloggers for all of the groups to coexist happily. There IS enough room for everyone to thrive and be successful. Infighting among the ranks will make the medium weaker and will create strife among the developers and troops that rally for the groups. Strife (of the finger pointing nature) can only mean lost productivity and lost opportunities. Moreover, popularity of the beloved tools is waning while others gain ground with brave new features and sharp, cunning designs. The time we spend arguing about which is better, we are not spending on improvements to our products.
- I do not know whether this email was meant to be published, as a matter of fact, I am pretty sure it was not. Anil was defending his bread and butter and deserves a break. The tone in the email bothered me. Inflammatory in nature, this email would better have not been published.
- I propose a moratorium in this battle. WordPress has gained tremendous popularity in the recent past and continues to do so. MT is a great tool with a rich history in blogging and continues to be the tool of choice for many, many blogs. Bloggers, both famous and otherwise, will have to choose between the tools that are available to them. They will have made their decision based on their own likes and dislikes and will publish these thoughts. It is worth the pride swallowing to accept their views as unique and to give them the respect and the privacy they deserve in their choice.
- MT has a lot of features that make it unique and a great product for a lot of bloggers. WordPress on the other hand, also has a lot of unique features that are very palatable to a lot of bloggers. They are both used by experienced and novice bloggers alike. However, they come from very different business models and the copyrights of these products are one of the unique features that users consider in making their choice. They are different and each have their own strengths and weaknesses.
There are a lot of other battles in this world of blogging. This particular battle is caustic, causes unnecessary friction between a large number of people and is, in my opinion, quite unwelcome. The people involved are all very passionate and feelings can get hurt very easily. I just wish the blogging world would see things this way.
I didn’t know there was a battle. A lot of people use MT. A lot of people use WordPress. More people use Blogger or LiveJournal than both tools, combined.
Dvorak is a button pusher, but to be honest, that email did have a look like it was meant to be leaked.
Best bet for all not involved? Walk away. Create something nifty and new in the tools of our choice. Or write a poem. Or both.
I didn’t know that there was any friction regarding MT and WP. Though I do realize that there were many people who switched from MT to WP during the licensing debacle. I admit I was one of the people that switch. I never thought that MT was better than WP or vice-versa. I initially had not liked WP at all because I was so used to MT but WP grew on me. Now I cannot imagine using anything but WP. Like you mentioned, there are enough blogging tools out there for people. I don’t feel the need to say one is better than the other because people have different tastes and different needs.
that email did have a look like it was meant to be leaked.
I honestly don’t understand what that means. The opinions and words are mine, but all of us have a different (and perhaps more nuanced) tone in public than in private when discussing things we’re passionate about. I clarified points that I felt were inaccurate about MT because, well, that’s my job. I don’t think I said anything in regard to *any* other tool in there (TypePad excepted) so I’m not clear why you’d say “The tone in the email bothered me.”
Truth is, I think most rants against outsourcing are motivated more by xenophobia than by high-minded economic theory, and that’s what I was talking about in regard to Indians. Every other point there is just pretty much me disputing inaccurate statements about MT. I’m flattered if Shelley thinks I’m clever enough to write in a way that encourages people to publish private emails without my permission, but I’m old fashioned and expect that people understand those boundaries. John apparently feels differently. And then perhaps that explains my tone in the private email in the first place.
I’d dispute the notion that there’s any strife between tool makers. As far as I’m aware, literally every blog tool maker I’ve ever met gets along fine, despite what their users would think, and despite what some of them want. I would correct the assertion that “Moreover, popularity of the beloved tools is waning while others gain ground with brave new features and sharp, cunning designs.” There is not a single major blog tool which exists today whose market is doing anything but increasing quickly. To suggest otherwise is to disparage the rate of growth of the entire field.
Finally, I definitely agree with your best bets, Shelley. It’s not poetry, but I wrote my longest blog post ever yesterday, about a subject I’m passionate about, and that was pretty fun to do.
I’m not sure what the big deal is. As long as there are choices there will always be advocates for those various choices. People like to promote what they see as a “good thing” whether it’s blogging software or Presidential candidates. Considering that one of the big uses for blogs is to promote viewpoints and ideas on various topics I’m not sure why the discussion of which blog tool is better should somehow be excluded from the list of things one should talk about. Can some of the advocates be shrill and unfair in their commentary? Absolutely, but that tends to come with the territory. Most folks will be able to separate the wheat from the chaff in these debates and find the product, or candidate, that best fits their needs and concerns. Which I tend to think is a good thing.