I find it interesting that people are so quick to jump on something these days. For instance, I’ve been helping the folks at Broadband Mechanics put together a plugin to allow for structured blog content (creatively named Structured Blogging).
True to form, we get an entry on the MT forums about how the (Movable Type) platform is lagging in new features and if that doesn’t change, options will need to be reconsidered.
You see, one of my co-conspirators in this project put together a post about some of the issues they were having with the WordPress side of things, in particular whether this was to be considered a “fork” in the code (or not). My personal opinion, keeping in mind that I have no business pretending I’m familiar with WordPress, is that the project is a plugin, nothing more. But I digress.
In this post, it mentioned what I do (Movable Type Consulting), but it wasn’t completely clear that we were working on an MT version of the plugin.
Now I’ll admit to being a little peeved at the “supposed MT consultant” bit in the forum post, but I’m trying to be objective, so let’s look at this.
If an MT plugin wasn’t being developed, why in the world would they mention that I was a Movable Type Consultant? At that point, I think it would be more interesting, and certainly more useful, to advertise my services as a WordPress Consultant. After all, who wants to read about WordPress developments and then go hire an MT guy? That makes no sense at all.
But even beyond that – if you don’t like what MT offers, change it. While this is my business, I understand that there are other platforms and not all of them work for everyone. That’s fine, and I think it’s actually a good idea to encourage competition like that.
The great thing about MT is that plugins are super easy to write. Believe it or not, I wrote my first one just about two years ago. Now consulting for Movable Type makes up a huge part of my business. Could I do the same for WordPress, or any other software? Quite possibly. But that isn’t the point.
Too many people just like to sit back and point their fingers about what others are (or are not) doing. You don’t like it, get off your butt and change it. Don’t have the technical skill, but still want to do something? Hire someone to change it for you (did I mention that I do this for a living?). Don’t have the technical skill or any money? You can certainly ask for help, but you may or may not see the results as quickly. Perhaps you set up a group of people who can donate to the cause, and use that to pay a developer to provide what you need.
The point is that there are always ways to get what you want. Whining about what is (or isn’t) happening isn’t one of them. That doesn’t even work for our 8-year-old.