The phrase may be hackneyed, but maybe that’s just because it comes in handy so often. I’ve often said that Austin has been spoiled by its own success.
I wonder if the same thing is happening to Blogger. Let’s be clear: I think Blogger is great. It makes it dead simple — and free — for everyone to start a blog, and in my book, that’s a Good Thing.
The problem is, everyone did, and Blogger has become overwhelmed. People find their archives are evaporating, they’re having trouble posting, etc. I made the switch to Moveable Type a while ago, not because of problems, but because (as I half-jokingly say) my life wasn’t complicated enough. Seriously: I wanted to play around with some of the numerous options that MT offers. A little while ago, Jenny encountered these problems, and so I set her up with a blog inside my own installation of MT. More recently, Dori encountered the same kinds of problems, so I helped her set up her own MT blog (I’m getting good at this). I suspect that the same story has been repeated hundreds of times.
Blogger’s excess of success may be Moveable Type’s success as well. I want Blogger to thrive (I also want it to generate RSS feeds for all its users). I don’t know what needs to happen to keep Blogger running smoothly. The fact that it is free is obviously one of its attractions. You can support it by buying a Blogger Pro subscription, or by buying a Pyrad. Perhaps they need to set up a tip-jar for taking voluntary $5 contributions or something.