Movable Type and WordPress January 25, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : wordpress, tools, Wiki , trackbackVictor Acquah wrote to me asking about blogging software. I can’t answer his request to recommend a blogging tool which has a robust wiki module incorporated into it. I use a combination of WordPress and MediaWiki but does anyone know of a good “Bliki” combination?
To explain why I migrated my own blog from Movable Type to WordPress a couple of years ago I said that my Movable Type blog was hosted for me by an organisation which now no longer exists, so a move to my own domain was a sensible step to take. At the time, MT was the best blogging software available, but it was overtaken by WordPress several years ago. What is the current situation though?
WordPress is getting ever more popular but there may be signs that the core code is getting slightly over ambitious, with successive new releases breaking established plugins and themes. People are sometimes frightened to upgrade.
And Movable Type 4 has been developed, released as Open Source with maybe some of the fancy features from Vox incorporated, but I don’t have direct experience of that.
If you were a new blogger with no baggage or archive to lug around, starting completely afresh what would be your choice of platform and why?
is an online professional who initiated DARnet 
Hi Andy, good question.
I moved away from MT about 4 years ago and have no idea what it is like to use these day. But I must confess I have been tempted to try it out again and probably will now you have mentioned it.
WP is my main work horse these days as I just love its simplicity, but I have also become frustrated with the latest versions breaking plugins and themes.
I’m also concerned that it is not as secure as it should be when you first install it. I learnt the hard way on the security issues last year when my hosting was suspended because someone or something was running background scripts - it turned out to be a slightly out of date WP site. It was only very small (a couple of pages), but it did enough damage to make me rethink my love of WP.
I’ll give MT a try on my next project and let you known what I think.
Hi Dave, thanks for sticking around by the way. One of the things I don’t get about security updates is that they are often claiming to be fixing a security hole which was introduced by the previous release, and that keeping bang up to date is the safest thing to do. That doesn’t make sense if by upgrading you run the risk of introducing new bugs and vulnerabilities. So I tend to wait and see for a while, or use Fantastico which always lags behind anyway.
I wonder if there’s a hosting service with a Cpanel that does Movable Type installation with Fantastico, the bluehost version offers for blogging “b2evolution”, “Nucleus” and WordPress. I’m thinking of trying Dreamhost next with their automatic mediawiki installation.
I’ll be looking forward to seeing your thoughts on Movable Type after the next project then.
HI Andy,
It’s good to see you throw out the question out here! I am leaning towards using movabletype at this point. I spent last night reading extensively about it. The new 4.1 version ( with its Universal template) seems to fit the bill - without the Wiki functionality. On Movabletype.org, they have a wiki nicely incorporated into the overall interface. I am looking to achieve something like that - a site with a few tabs like - Home, Blog, Wiki. I look forward to hearing what your readers think.
Any recommendations on hosts?
Great site you have!
Victor, I just remembered. There is of course a well known platform that has both blog and wiki modules and that’s Drupal. The wiki-like module is called “Book” or “Story” and has version control and diff, but that part was not as well developed as mediawiki and others last time I looked. Drupal is perhaps best at hosting communities with multiple blogs and forum in one place, but it can be configured in a lot of different ways.
For hosting, it may depend where you or your target audience is located. Over in the US is cheapest but if you’re elsewhere then storing your site with a local company may be desirable or not, for reasons of support, legal system and SEO. I don’t know about Ghana.
Andy - I am based here in the U.S - Virginia, ot be precise. How did you know about Ghana?
Anyways, I will check drupal out. Something about the nice clean interface of movable type appeals to me.
Victor
Andy, I’m always here
I have always been warned against using Fantastico for any installation. Doing a manual install of WP, MT or any other software should be well documented and relatively easy. For one, it also allows you to customise the database table prefix, which is the first step towards better security.
I’m also on the look out for a new/better host - perhaps you should throw open another question?
Hi Andy, I just started afresh with a blog on my own domain name (www.joitskehulsebosch.nl). I chose for Wordpress because people recommended it, because you can add fixed pages to your homepage/blog, and because you can customize the design pretty well. Others said the plug-ins are attractive too.
Hi there,
maybe I’m a bit late, but how about Plone as an alternative? It seems to have a wiki module and seems to be fairly flexible.
(No affiliation with Plone)
Mike