zonageek

This morning, Mena challenged MT users to explain why the limits won’t work for them. She called us almost by name… those who talked about the new licenses and said they were willing to pay... that’s me… so I had to answer.

She asks us how are we using MT that is not covered in the licenses. Since this morning I’ve been trying to come up with my answer. SOmething beyond just saying that I have 10 blogs and 3 users. And here it is. How many users and blogs is not the problem. THAT IS NOT THE POINT!!! DAMN IT!!!

I don’t care if $20 gets me 2 users and 5 blogs, or if I have to pay $120 for 10 users. The problem is having limits at all.

Here is why: if I pay for MT I want to be able to use the tool as I see fit. With the current license, if I come up with an idea that needs 20 writers I have to consider if I am going to go over my limits, whatever they are. So I will have to keep those numbers in mind every time I want to do something new.

And I completelly understand the logic behind the limits. I understand the need for 6A to make money. I understand their concern with people hosting 100 friends under a cheap license. I get it all.

But what really pisses me off is that those limits only cause trouble to legal users. They, 6A, are inconveniencing users who pay, to protect themselves from those who don’t want to pay. I’ll be grateful if someone can explain me the logic in this.

My biggest concern right now is that I was waiting to see what was the reaction from SixApart over all the discussion. I wanted to see if they realized that the licensing terms would hurt the community. I wanted to see if they placed as much value in that community as I do. And the fact that their answer so far has been “we believe our licensing limits are right, prove us wrong” tells me that they don’t get it.

It’s not that they are evil, or greedy. It’s just that they are looking at a different problem. They are looking at their problem, not mine (and it’s their right to do so) so I can’t expect them to come up with a solution that pleases me.

And that is sad for me, very sad (and it’s my right to feel so).

So I’m looking at alternatives, and like Mark did, I’ll donate $100, what I would have paid for MT, to whatever open source project I end up using. And I don’t want to sound pretentious, but I’ll also donate lots of work and effort to that community, since 6A doesn’t seem interested in it.