<- Onward and Upward leaves many people out | Main | More on MT ->
May 14, 2004
Lessons Learned: Uproar of the MT Community
There are a few things to be learned by the pricing structure that was released yesterday by Six Apart.
First, know your user base.
Like I said yesterday, I completely understand the fact that 6A needs to make money, as do all companies, but it's important to understand your market. The pricing structure that they set up are clearly geared toward corporations, but it seems that they failed to understand that the people that work for those companies are the same people that they are upsetting with the news release - and upset people don't recommend the products that upset them.
Second, don't jump the gun.
Lots of people are spouting off in response to the message about the new prices, but they may be under false ideas. The version that was released yesterday was MT 3.0 Developer Edition - that last part was missed by most - Developer Edition. According to PC World:
"We'll still have a fully functional free version for personal use," adds Chief Executive Officer Mena Trott. A personal version that includes technical support from Six Apart costs $45.
The article is a tad confusing since it also list other pricing structures. I've been to the web site and there is no $45 version, but the article does say:
Six Apart plans to offer a general release of Movable Type within two months, when it will also announce winners of its add-on development contest.
Additionally the CEOs post says:
With the new licenses going in effect today we will continue our tradition of offering a fully functional free version, there will also be a large variety of paid licenses that come with the structured support that we never felt that we could give our donors enough of. We're bringing in a help ticket system for paid licensees as well a company maintained knowledge base.
It seems that the "Developer" release may be just that and a general release will come later...we'll see come July.
Next, integrity is still important.
I was rather please to find out that there is another outcry coming from the MT community. In her post, the CEO said:
We're big on honor at Six Apart. We haven't built in any nagware for license violations or phone home mechanisms. We trust our users' good judgment and intentions. We intend to use our good judgment in being flexible about enforcing these limits.
Many have taken this as an implication that while there are license agreements there will not be any policing of general users. Go ahead and violate, we'll let you know if you go to far. The good news: People are upset by this. The users do not want to violate the agreement, they'd rather pay. I don't think that's what they intended to say, but I'm glad to see that honesty is still out there somewhere.
Further, less is more.
When communicating to a group about your product, you need to assume that the group WILL NOT read what you've written, they'll skim it; write accordingly. I've reread the post - well, scanned again - that talks about the pricing structure. I've also read other people's thoughts and it's apparent that either the original post was changed or not read, I'm going to assume not read. In addition to the pricing/general release issue above, some have said that 6A should have taken some surveys of the community or asked for feedback from the community. In her post Mena says:
You'll see from the pricing chart that the cost of offered licenses vary based on the number of authors and weblogs people plan to have. Based on surveys and user feedback, we are fairly comfortable these licenses will meet the needs of over 85% percent of our current users.
Rather than writing 17 paragraphs about the new pricing, 6A would have been better off breaking that post into sections with sub-headings. That way people could find the information that they are looking for rather than having their assumptions fill in the blanks of their skimming efforts.
Finally, be clear about your intentions.
I've written this post with the assumption that there will be a general release version coming in July, but I'm still not clear if that will happen. The MovableType web site looks as though they are completely committed to everyone upgrading to 3.0D, but some of the posts don't appear to say that. The front page was redone in such a way that the the support forums and the general release download (2.661) are next to impossible to find for a new user. That's fine if the intention is for new users to start using the developer edition, but that doesn't seem to be the message that they're sending out. Their words say one thing, their web site implies another. All I know for sure is that I am not the only one that is confused.
I think that 6A could have benefited by working with a marketing firm for the release of this pricing structure and I think that the user community (especially those that have already made a change based on yesterdays announcement) could benefit by having some patience. Hopefully this post will help some learn from the mistakes in the MT world, I know it's reinforced some things that I've learned and will help me keep these ideas at the forefront when marketing anything to anyone.
Posted by Jesse at May 14, 2004 5:25 PM
Comments
Take a look at "theswitched!blog" - the blog for MT to WP crossovers. Feel free to register and add your own entries.
http://jared.virbeta.com/wp - theSwitched!Blog
Posted by: Jared Hudgins at May 14, 2004 11:31 PM
Comments are now closed for this entry.