I’ve been a big fan of Ben and Mena Trott and their blogging software, Movable Type, for a long time. One of the reasons is that they had been doing a pretty good job of sharing their thoughts and ideas with their customers.

Their software company has quickly grown from a handful of employees to more than you could count on all fingers and toes. Their software is being used for free on many personal sites across the web, and for a small licensing fee on corporate sites, including the web pages of some very large businesses.

In a post titled It’s About Time, Mena Trott introduces changes to their software in its 3.0 release. She discusses changes to the license the software is released under. And she writes about changes to the company, and the development process.

I wonder if she and the rest of the Six Apart team expected the reaction they received.

There are some positive statements mixed in with many criticisms amongst the trackbacks on Mena’s post. I’m glad to see that they are keeping the bad with the good there. Their openness is what made me a fan in the first place.

Some of the criticism over at Metafilter in Movable Type RIP centers upon a lack of communication over the past year. Given the surprise that many are exhibiting, maybe that communication hasn’t been so great lately.

It will be interesting to see how the company reacts. I’m rooting for them. I hope they use those criticisms as a springboard to start a dialogue.