Patrick Beeson

I received many inquires about my decision to use, or rather continue to use, Movable Type (MT) when building this blog. And it's easy to see why, what with the many choices bloggers have for publishing systems these days.

I've been a MT user since designing, building and launching the blogging effort by The Roanoke Times/roanoke.com in 2005. I later built the predecessor to this site (huffyinthestreet) in MT when it hit version three-point-oh.

For the most part, MT (any version) is easy to install and configure, and features a templating arrangement that anyone can learn to manipulate. Plugins are also plentiful due to the large external developer audience.

But at times MT has unfortunately felt, how do you say, quaint. It didn't add fully dynamic publishing until version three, and didn't get any Ajax love -- not that you need Ajax love -- to the UI until the current version four.

Most of the design crowd have long migrated to PHP-built platforms like Wordpress or TextPattern. The trend lately seems to be rolling your own CMS using a programming framework such as Django or Ruby on Rails.

I made a valiant attempt at a Django-built blog for another site that I'll soon be launching in MT before deciding that I was spending a lot of time and money -- Django hosting isn't cheap right now -- recreating what existing blogging platforms already feature out of the box.

I also looked at Wordpress again after helping set my girlfriend's mom up with a blog to publicize her real estate effort.

Wordpress is a fine blogging platform. I used it for the first iteration of huffyinthestreet, and I wouldn't hesitate to use it again.

The open-source community produces many fantastic plugins and templates that ensure you will never be left wanting.

So why stick with MT?

When I heard MT was going to version four, and witnessed the massive list of improvements, I decided to install the then-beta software to try it out. I'm glad I did.

MT4 ups the ante for blogging CMS everywhere despite the comparisons saying otherwise. Every complaint I had from the previous version was addressed, except for the admin slowness that I eventually solved through FastCGI (this is essential with Dreamhost).

I don't use off-the-shelf templates for any sites I build so I can't comment on MT4's improvement in this area. The stock design provided when you first install the software is very clean however.

One of the best features of MT4 are the new core tag enhancements allowing for functionality that was previously only achievable using hacks and plugins.

You can now set variables in templates and use them in logic operations that can drastically reduce the number of templates needed for a given site. I haven't had time to even scratch the surface of what's possible yet.

MT4's dashboard is also completely redesigned, and now has features such as auto-saving, media manager and customized admin. And Ajax, yeah it's got that.

Also cool is the ability to accept different types of registration for comments, such as LiveJournal, Vox and OpenID in addition to Movable Type native. I hope this cuts down on spam, but if not there is always CAPTCHA (also an option by default).

Out of the box, MT4 answers many features put forth by the competition and adds a few of their own. I especially can't wait until the open source project lets folks tinker with the machinery driving this system.

I'll post reports of bugs or issues if I find any. But if you're thinking of making the jump, post a comment below and I'll be glad to offer more explanation of the system.